Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas

Keith Baulsir sent a single image, a mockup of a company's name on a building, to someone who had told him no years before. No lengthy pitch. No follow-up sequence. Just the right idea at the right moment, delivered to someone he had never stopped believing in. That one follow-up turned into a tens of millions of dollars naming rights deal. That's what playing the long game actually looks like.

A 19-year sports sales veteran who helped launch the Vegas Golden Knights as one of their earliest employees, Keith has closed hundreds of millions in partnerships revenue across pro sports, college athletics, minor leagues, and even a nonprofit zoo. He's now building Clemson Ventures, a first of its kind in-house sports marketing group at one of the most storied programs in college athletics, in full startup mode all over again.

He opens up about the difference between spraying and praying versus the sniper approach, why internal follow up breaks down between sales and service teams in almost every organization, and the evolution from commission breath to an abundance mindset that took nearly two decades to fully develop. He also gets honest about the moments he gave up too early, the long game philosophy that has defined his career, and why visibility is the single most underrated form of accountability in any sales organization.

Whether you're a young seller grinding through entry level or a seasoned pro leading a team, this conversation will sharpen how you think about the follow-up game.

In this episode you will:

• Understand why your reputation is literally built by your repetition and what that means for how you show up daily
• Learn the shift from shotgun to sniper outreach - doing less but converting more
• Discover why most sellers quit before touchpoint 10 and what it takes to stay in it long enough to win
• Recognize how to close the loop on every deal - whether you win it or lose it, in a way that plants seeds for years down the road
• Apply Keith's long game framework to both startup environments and established organizations

🔔 Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow Keith

Keith's Book

Get more from Manny!

Get my book, The Follow Up Paradox!

Get my planner, That Follow Up Sales Planner!

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Book Manny to Speak

Shab Azma walked into a four-hour plant medicine journey feeling spiritually bankrupt, directionless, and gutted from losing her biggest client. She walked out with a business plan.

The founder of Arc Collective, a women led entertainment management company representing some of the most mission driven talent in the industry, Shab has spent 25 years in entertainment building relationships, managing careers, and quietly becoming one of the most connected people in the business. But it wasn't until she hit rock bottom, losing a client she had poured five years into, questioning everything about her purpose when the real work began.

She opens up about leaving a 10-year partnership that had made her feel transactional and hollow, building Arc from scratch during a pandemic with three women who took the leap alongside her, and the moment she sat across from one of the biggest management companies in the business and heard the words "I want to buy your company" four years in. She talks about almost saying yes. And why she didn't.

Whether you're an entrepreneur who can't stop doing everything yourself, a leader trying to reconcile who you've been with who you need to become, or someone standing at the edge of a decision that scares you, this conversation will remind you that the follow-through starts on the inside.

In this episode you will:

• Understand why the gap between a powerful experience and real execution requires community, support, and integration, not just inspiration
• Learn how to identify what only you can do and why everything else is costing you more than you think
• Discover what chasing really signals about where you are energetically and professionally
• Recognize the difference between following through on everything and following through on the right things
• Apply Shab's framework for using fear and ego as a barometer for every major decision you face

🔔 Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow Shab

Arc Collective

Get more from Manny!

Get my book, The Follow Up Paradox!

Get my planner, That Follow Up Sales Planner!

YouTube

Instagram

Book Manny to Speak

Ronn Nicolli sat in a nearly empty Wynn on Christmas night in 2005 no retail open, barely a soul on the casino floor and watched that same property become so packed 20 years later that his family stood in line 45 minutes for an ice cream cone. That contrast, he says, is the entire lesson of what brand integrity, follow-through, and knowing who you are can build over time.

The CMO and Chief Experience Officer of the Meruelo Group, overseeing the Sahara Las Vegas, Grand Sierra Resort, three radio stations, two Latin TV networks, and a portfolio of businesses that spans well beyond hospitality, Ronn has spent 25 years climbing from a college grad passing out flyers on the Las Vegas Strip to one of the most respected marketing executives in the city. But the real story isn't the title. It's every decision he made along the way to earn the right to be in the room.

He opens up about leaving Resort World after six years when he had planned on ten, the moment he realized staying too long in the wrong fit is just as damaging as quitting too early, and why his new role at the Meruelo Group was the only offer compelling enough to make him say yes. He also gets honest about envy, resentment, and the self-reflection it took to finally put those things down and what it felt like to feel alive in his career again.

Whether you're a marketer trying to get your ideas off the whiteboard, a leader figuring out how to build a culture people don't want to leave, or someone standing at a crossroads deciding if it's time to make a move, this conversation will hit different.

In this episode you will:

• Understand why the gap between a good marketer and a great one comes down to operationalizing ideas, not just having them
• Learn how to walk into any executive meeting having already anticipated the rebuttal
• Discover why "no" takes zero effort and what it costs you every time you take the easy way out
• Recognize the difference between people who aren't growing and people who are genuinely happy — and why mistaking one for the other is a leadership trap
• Apply Ronn's framework for knowing when a fit has run its course before it starts costing you everything

🔔 Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow Ronn

Meruelo Group

Sahara Las Vegas

Grand Sierra Resort

Get more from Manny!

Get my book, The Follow Up Paradox!

Get my planner, That Follow Up Sales Planner!

YouTube

Instagram

Book Manny to Speak

Dietmar walked into a company president's office unannounced, pitched himself on the spot, and walked out having been offered a bigger role than the one he applied for. That same boldness is what he says most sellers are missing, not in their pitch, but in their follow-up.

The Sales Director for North America at Trimble, where he leads 23 reps across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise, Dietmar has spent over 15 years climbing every level of the sales ladder from technical engineer to director. Along the way he's developed a follow-up philosophy rooted in one simple truth: if prospects aren't looking forward to hearing from you, you're doing it wrong.

He breaks down what he calls the 90% rule, the data-backed reality that after 30 days, 90% of SMB deals will never close and shares the exercise he runs with every seller on his team to calculate exactly how much a stalled opportunity is costing them in real dollars. Dietmar also opens up about the personal moments that shaped him most, from waiting too long to ask out the woman who became his wife, to the leadership lessons that nearly derailed his career before a VP pulled him into his office and told him his words now carry more weight than he realizes.

Whether you're a sales rep struggling to get callbacks, a manager trying to build a team that shows up when it matters, or a leader looking to earn the kind of trust that makes people go the extra mile, this conversation will change how you think about follow-up forever.

In this episode you will:

• Understand why email is not a communication tool and what to use it for instead
• Learn how to deliver so much value in your follow-up that prospects actually look forward to hearing from you
• Discover the Dear John letter strategy and when it's time to cut ties with a deal that isn't moving
• Recognize what it takes to become the right person at every stage of the sales ascension path
• Apply the "how much are you worth per hour" exercise to protect your most valuable asset — your time

🔔 Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get more from Manny!

Get my book, The Follow Up Paradox!

Get my planner, That Follow Up Sales Planner!

YouTube

Instagram

Book Manny to Speak

After a year and a half, Always on the Grow is back with a new focus.

Host Manny Vargas, That Follow-Up Guy, explains the pivot, the work that happened behind the scenes (the book, the planner, building the brand), and what the show is about now: the unseen disciplines that separate those who start from those who finish.

This isn't about motivation. It's about the follow-up behind the follow-through.

The relentless habits. The systems. The moments when everyone else quits and you keep going.

Starting next week, we're dropping 4 consecutive episodes featuring conversations with high-level entrepreneurs and leaders who don't just talk about growth, they live it.

Episode 1 drops Tuesday, February 24th at 5 AM EST.

Welcome back. Or just...welcome.

"You have the audacity to come knocking on my door, you better get off my property before I shoot you"

The words were not copied word to word from a Hollywood movie.

They're the actual words Joni Wolfswinkel had to face from a man in Texas because she knocked his house which was about to be auctioned.

Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE

Yes there had been times where Joni was carrying her baby to knock on pre-foreclosure doors.

"Doing the things that I wasn't comfortable doing, eventually you do more and more of that, it just becomes natural to you" is what Joni believes.

Her grit and perseverance eventually made her the CEO of Real Property Management Preferred and co-founder of Texas Turnkey Properties.

Today Joni and husband manage multiple companies, most of them systematized and run without much of their involvement.

Joni is a well sought after public speaker on women empowerment and personal growth.

As one of the top 100 women of influence in housing, she has dedicated her life to achieving success at all levels and sharing with other women how they too can succeed as wife, mom, and entrepreneur in the 21st century.

In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below

· What makes business a fun thing

· How to hire people to help in business

· Continue building the business when kids come along

· What point do you systematize your business

· Wave of Solopreneurship

· Power of virtual assistants—how do you develop them

Few Inspiring Quotes from the Episode:

· If you have no vision, then how do you expect to hire anybody and have that person drive that business forward

· It's important to have a date night with your kid

· What we do in our business, we do that in our family side of things too

· It was not talent, it was all about hard work

Joni Wolfswinkel's book on Amazon: The Choice Is Yours Balancing Success as Wife, Mom, and Entrepreneur

Book Recommended by Joni in the episode: The Family Board Meeting: You Have 18 Summers to Create Lasting Connection with Your Children

Book Recommended by Manny in the episode: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Follow Joni's social

https://www.facebook.com/jonimwolfswinkel

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/joniwolfswinkel/

https://www.youtube.com/@insidethewolfsden6439

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joni-wolfswinkel-a59081b2/

"Rebounds are happening at every moment of our life, if you choose"

Imagine being the team that goes all the way to the finals and then loses. Imagine a relationship you're in that goes on for 5 years and then fails. Imagine building a business for 10 years and then it crumbles.

What do you do?

Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE

The least thing you want to do is go swimming in it, making it a theme park that you're living in and having a good time around. Because that's where it starts to become a problem, you've lived in it too long.

You see "Life is full of adversity, life is nothing but adversity"

And when you see failure, when you face adversity; there's always a chance to reset and restart instead of crumbling, crushing and giving up.

In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below

· How do you rebound after an upset

· How NOT to process a failure

· How can you reset your life

Few Inspiring Quotes from the Episode:

· The idea is not so much in the failure itself, it's in the interpretation of the failure or the mistake

· We're never going to make a 100% of the shots, we're never going to get it right 100% of the time

· Life is good when you make it good, life is good when you want to overcome adversity

Follow Manny Vargas:

https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/

https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/

https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas

https://twitter.com/themannyvargas

www.tiktok.com/@thisismannyvargas

Manny's website:

https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/

"Commitment means you're committing to something and you're in it to win it, you're burning the boats".

I Manny Vargas, the moment I'm committed to doing podcasts, I knew I was ready to go on a 10, 15, 20 year run.

Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE

But what about the vanity metrics everyone is going after?

Big brand name, status, becoming famous, looking cool etc.

Am I getting them?

No.

Do I not like them? Of course I do.

I too got into podcasting just for those metrics?

But, what if I do not get the results as I wanted them to be?

Will my podcasting disappear?

It's never going to disappear. There was always going to be something that I would be doing and I'll never stop podcasting. I'll never stop wanting to having conversations with people.

Because 'Always on the Grow' is never going to go away in my heart.

In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below

· Hardest thing about staying consistent with podcasting

· Meaning of 'Consistency is not developmental, it's directional'

· Problem with 'Viewing things as hard' and how to overcome that view

Few Inspiring Quotes from the Episode:

· The hardest thing with staying consistent was figuring out how to stay enthusiastic about something that I would not see a return on

· The decision to grow your brand, podcast or YouTube channel was to accept that for a long time you're not going to see the quantitative results that you might want immediately

· When you decide you're going to commit to something and you're going to be consistent, you have to figure out what are you committing to, it's like a marriage

Follow Manny Vargas:

https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/

https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/

https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas

https://twitter.com/themannyvargas

www.tiktok.com/@thisismannyvargas

Manny's website:

https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/

There's different types of environments that you can get the opportunity to sell high ticket offers.

I've been selling high ticket offers for quite some time, probably about 7 years.

Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE

These different environments that I've sold were: Live Events, over the phone, and one to ones.

Interesting part — a lot of the hard work is not done by someone like me in this High ticket environment, but a lot of the work gets done by the speaker themselves when they're on stage.

I've sold products anywhere from $2,000 all the way up to $250,000.

Right now, my sweet spot is in between $10,000 and $50,000.

Back in the day, as an amateur I was so excited just to be in the game.

I was traveling around in large circuits in the country speaking and selling and I didn't care what I was selling.

Because I just wanted the reps and the experience, so I was willing to sell even if it was crap on the back.

Over the years, I've learned formulas from my mentors that I used in my conversations during sales.

In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below

· How does one sell a high ticker offer?

· ABC framework for selling

· POT framework for selling

Few Inspiring Quotes from the Episode:

There's different types of environments that you can get the opportunity to sell the high ticket offers

Lot of the hard work is not done by someone like me in this High ticket environment, but lot of work gets done by the speaker themselves when they're on stage

As a sales professional, your job is to make sure that they absolutely are in the place that they need to solve that problem that your business helps them with, in that MOMENT, with this OPPORTUNITY.

Follow Manny Vargas:

https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/

https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/

https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas

https://twitter.com/themannyvargas

www.tiktok.com/@thisismannyvargas

Manny's website:

https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/

Leadership, hiring and training, and other sorts of the intricacies of business are the building blocks of business.

Back in the day when I was running restaurants here in Las Vegas, I was doing a pretty good business.

At least, that's what I thought.

Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE

Till the day, I received a nasty email from one of my employees.

It's a resignation letter where she explained what a laziest and most self-involved person I was.

I was hiring employees, finding fault with every small thing, putting the blame on them for every mistake of mine — it was all a "big mess".

Now it was back in 2013, the year much before I decided to become sober.

I was defending myself and arguing for the status.

But now?

I agree that she was absolutely right.

Because, today I'm a man of humility, man of responsibility, man of leadership.

And there's a clear separation between my former self and my present self.

Yes, we have to create a contrast in our lives between who we used to be and who we are now.

In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below

· How to improve the relationship you have with yourself

· Why you need to create a contrast of your present self from your old self

· Couple of things that happened to me that reinvented me

Few Inspiring Quotes from the Episode:

We have to create a contrast in our lives between who we used to be and who we are now

Maybe you need to write yourself your own resignation letter so you can fire that person that you think that you are today in order to become somebody else much better down the road

I'm no longer going to tolerate that version of myself, I'm going to make the change now and that change is going to start with me beginning to do things differently or do different things

Follow Manny Vargas:

https://www.youtube.com/@thisismannyvargas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-vargas-86ba4449/

https://www.instagram.com/thisismannyvargas/

https://www.facebook.com/thisismannyvargas

https://twitter.com/themannyvargas

www.tiktok.com/@thisismannyvargas

Manny's website:

https://www.alwaysonthegrow.com/