Walk and Talk w/ Dan Watkins

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Dan has been thinking about how broken most job search strategies are right now, and he has a specific fix. The job market changed, but most candidates are still playing by the old rules.

Dan walks through the approach he sees work with the clients of his global recruiting firm: instead of job boards and passive networking, it's studying industries that fascinate you, narrowing down to 5 to 10 target companies that aren't necessarily even hiring, and then doing genuine outbound with personalized messages to the right people. He also walks through exactly what those messages look like, using a real example with names and specific angles for each person at the company.

If you're in a job search or thinking about your next move, this is the map.

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Dan is walking through step 3 of building a vertically aligned, integrated go-to-market team. This one's about the contact list: who builds it, who owns it, and why getting CEO alignment on your ICP is what makes the whole thing work.

Dan covers the exact math behind how many contacts each rep needs over a 3-month proving period, why it has to be marketing that picks the list and not sales, and how to run the cross-functional validation meeting that turns a draft list into one your sales team will actually trust and use.

If you've been in a company where marketing built the list and sales ignored it, this is the episode where that problem gets fixed.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan has been thinking about the friends that get forgotten when life gets full. Not because you don't care, but because there's always something more urgent on the calendar.

Dan talks through the different circles in his life and the specific habits he uses to stay connected to each of them. A high school group he's had monthly dinners with for decades.

A close friend he only sees once or twice a year but always picks up exactly where they left off. The annual guys trip that's been going 20 years, through kids, divorces, and schedules bouncing everywhere.

He also shares one small habit he started using with gaps in his calendar that costs almost nothing and pays off more than most things he used to fill that time with.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan is talking directly to reps today about how to think about career progression. Most salespeople focus on the wrong things when planning their next move, and it costs them more than they realize.

Dan breaks down the four levels of selling, from transactional roles all the way to global enterprise, including what deal sizes look like at each stage, what skills each one demands, and how the progression maps to management opportunities down the road. He also covers what happens when you take a step backwards and why staying too long at the wrong level quietly limits your future options.

If you're a rep trying to figure out your next move, this one's for you. And if you know someone earlier in their career who needs to hear it, send it their way.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan is walking through something he sees in almost every company he consults with. Most go-to-market teams aren't actually integrated, and it's costing founders and revenue leaders more than they realize.

This is part one of a five-part series on how to build a truly vertically aligned, integrated go-to-market team. Dan covers the first two steps: recognizing the problem, and how to pick the one to three verticals your entire team should rally around. He walks through a real example from a security company in the Mountain West to show how it works in practice.

If you're a founder, CEO, or revenue leader and your teams are running their own version of the strategy, this series is for you.

This podcast is brought to you by DataBased. Your partner in building revenue teams that actually perform.

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Dan's lived in California, Ireland, and Spain, traveled the world for work, and made friends across every kind of belief system. He has one rule for all of it: share openly, never proselytize. This episode is about why that rule has changed him more than almost anything else.

In this episode:

• The one filter Dan uses when deciding who to let into his life and his team
• What happened in Portugal when Russia invaded Ukraine — and how Dan handled it
• Why proselytizing at work slowly shrinks the team you're able to build
• How surrounding yourself with people who disagree without pushing has moved Dan toward the middle

Connect with Dan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-watkins/

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Most reps find a script, follow it to the letter, and wonder why it feels off. Dan's built a career on borrowing the best techniques from the best books — then making every single one his own. This episode is the step-by-step on how to do that.

In this episode:

• Why copying a script without personalizing it costs you the best part of the sale
• How to take any technique — discovery, objections, interviewing — and make it yours
• The herd theory concept that changed how Dan sells, and how he adapted it
• What happens when you get the other person using their own vocabulary

Connect with Dan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-watkins/

📄 How to think through location, comp, and in-office vs. remote for your GTM team

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Most founders pick a city for their office and assume the talent will follow. Dan just got off the phone with a client making exactly the wrong call — and breaks down why location, comp, and in-office expectations have to be designed together, not decided separately.

In this episode:

• Why hiring junior sales reps in-office in Tier 1 cities is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make
• The real comp premium you're paying the moment you hire in SF or NYC
• How to structure your go-to-market team by city tier to actually compete for talent
• Where Dan recommends building your revenue org instead

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Dan shares the loop that's quietly shaped his career over the last 12 years: ask someone you trust for one thing to work on, find a book on it, and go back to thank them. Simple in theory. Hard in practice when your ego is in the way.

In this episode:

• Why the best feedback comes when everyone's in a good mood — not at a review
• How Dan turned "you leave dead bodies everywhere" into a real lesson
• The book that changed how he thinks about people: The Anatomy of Peace
• Why thanking the person who gave you hard feedback is the whole point

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If you're walking into a meeting and leading with "the CEO said we need to do this" — you're not leading. Dan breaks down why quoting authority that isn't in the room is one of the fastest ways to lose your team's respect, and what to say instead.

In this episode:

• Why name-dropping your boss undermines your own authority
• How to take ownership of a message even when it came from above you
• The difference between inspiring your team and just enforcing someone else's rules
• What your team is actually thinking when you hide behind someone else's name