James Buckley

James Buckley calls himself an HR risk, and he is not wrong. He comes from a background of addiction, first hard dope in Miami and then food. A doctor's warning that his heart was the size of a football and could rupture in eight seconds was the final push he needed. Two days later, he packed up his family and moved to Tennessee to reinvent himself, a process that included a terrible divorce he calls the worst in history.

His sales career started knocking on doors for ATT and pest control. Later, as an SDR, he was handed a laptop and a headset and basically told to figure it out. He did. Now he runs his own brand, Say What Sales, and talks about the real grind of the job, like being told no ninety nine times a day and feeling like you are running very quickly to nowhere. He says his past makes today’s uncomfortable sales situations, like a twenty thousand dollar deal, seem pretty manageable.

James has a very clear take on work relationships. He says the people you think of as creator friends or work colleagues are not actually your friends. There is a huge difference. He sees people get hurt when those relationships disappear after someone quits a job, and his advice is to not take it personally. As he puts it, those influencers and those signatures you got on deals are not going to be at your funeral.