Do Hard Things Podcast

Gabe Lullo
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Business

Meet Gabe Lullo. Gabe Lullo is the CEO of Alleyoop, a sales development agency working with industry giants such as ZoomInfo, Salesloft, and Adobe. He has trained over 8,000 salespeople across diverse businesses and, during his tenure in Alleyoop, he has personally hired and managed more than 1,500 SDRs. With over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and executive recruitment, his strategies have significantly driven Alleyoop’s growth.

  1. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Chason Forehand

    5d ago

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Chason Forehand

    "We don't just flip eggs. We flip lives." - Chason Forehand, Founder of Transformation Kitchen Chason is a HR advocate with 45 years spanning culinary, human resources, and DEI.  He is someone who knows exactly what it feels like to need a sandwich and have no idea what comes next. Chason grew up as the oldest of six boys in an abusive home. By college, the guardrails were off. Straight-A student to academic probation in under a year. Drugs. An attempt on his own life. Incarceration. Then a chef found him. Ten years clean and sober, someone who cared as much about people as he did about food. He became a mentor, a sponsor, a friend. That changed everything. The hardest thing Chason ever did wasn't build a program. It was putting his hand up and asking for help. Now he makes it easier for others to do the same. Transformation Kitchen isn't job training. It's what he calls a forge. You come in, you transform, and you never age out. The metric isn't who completed the 12 weeks. It's where you are five years later. Still housed? Still employed? Still clean? Because if all you hand someone is a sandwich, you've handled today. Nothing else. "The most profitable companies are driven by purpose." Doing hard things isn't just a personal challenge. It's an organizational one.  It means paying people what they're actually worth.  It means building culture that outlasts any one quarter.  It means showing up for your community when there's no immediate ROI. For companies that want to get involved beyond writing checks: volunteer, join a board, post about an organization you believe in.  Your social circle is different from theirs. That difference has real value. Start there.

    35 min
  2. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Julee Gracey

    Jun 1

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Julee Gracey

    "People are just waiting for permission to go after their dreams. I never ask permission. If I want it, I go after it.” - Julee Gracey Former international model, People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful, NBC's Deal or No Deal, Top real estate agent, and now a business coach who helps entrepreneurs stop hiding and start showing up. She's been called human Red Bull and you'll understand why in about 30 seconds. Julee grew up on a farm, worked construction, and then flipped through magazines one day and noticed all the models were traveling the world.  So she became one. Not because she dreamed of runways, but because she wanted to see what was out there. After a decade in LA, she came home and went into real estate. Everyone told her it was a terrible idea.  She got quiet, went under the radar, and became the top agent in her office. Her first showing was a disaster. She couldn't unlock the door, couldn't answer a single client question, and got fired on the front porch.  She cried for a day, then walked up to the number one agent in the office and said: take 50% of everything I make. I just want to sit in your meetings and hear the words you use. Within months she was posting the biggest numbers on the board. She's never tackled anything since without a mentor. What she figured out that most people won't say out loud: burnout isn't from doing too much. It's from doing the wrong things. And most entrepreneurs struggle to talk about what they do because they were taught growing up to sit down, be quiet, don't brag.  Then they start a business and every one of those rules becomes the obstacle. Her fix: face the thing you're avoiding. That's exactly where your growth is. She wrote it all down in Highly Confident, now a number one Amazon bestseller. The core message: get clear on what you want, make better decisions, and stop waiting for permission. Nobody's coming with that slip.

    37 min
  3. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Larry Raskin

    May 27

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Larry Raskin

    "When you open your mouth, the world will discover who you really are." - Larry Raskin 38-year veteran in sales and marketing, former VP of Leadership Development, and the man I credit to teaching me how to communicate and build businesses. This one is personal. Larry didn't start in sales, he started in pro baseball.  An injury ended that, so he pivoted into the only world he knew: fitness.  Managing health clubs through the fitness boom, 10 to 10, six days a week. At some point the math became obvious. The harder he worked, the richer other people got. He was the engine with no equity. So he answered a newspaper ad, walked into a strip mall meeting that looked nothing like the six-figure promise in the listing, and almost left.  He stayed because he loved the concept, not the product. Business ownership with income that worked beyond his own effort. And he never looked back. Over the next 38 years became one of the most successful producers, sales trainers and leadership speakers in his company’s history.  Then the pandemic hit and Larry went from the top of the mountain back to zero. He didn't coast. He started over. At 43, heart blockages. More stents in 2005. Bypass surgery at 66. Back in the gym after every single one. "It isn't what happens to you. It's what happens in you that matters." Now at Zinzino, a science-backed preventative health company built around test-based, personalized nutrition, he's more fired up than he's been in decades. His philosophy hasn't changed in 38 years: your organization will never outgrow your personal development.  Treat it like a business or don't. Find the voices worth emulating. Repeat until it sticks.

    34 min
  4. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Scilla Andreen

    May 20

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Scilla Andreen

    "We are so much stronger than we are ever told we are." - Scilla Andreen  As an Emmy nominated costume designer, co-founder of IndieFlix, award-winning filmmaker, CEO of Impactful Networks, and Mother of six, Scilla knows what doing hard things is all about.  She lost her son to suicide, and her daughter to cancer on her birthday.  Three days after her son passed, she got on a plane to a conference on men's and boys' mental health. Not because she was okay, but because she had questions, and she refused to stop asking them. It's who she is. Long before any of that, a friend named Tina, the executive director of her foundation, kept asking her to make a film about mental health. She kept saying no… nobody wants to watch a movie about mental health. Then Tina passed by suicide. Scilla had no mental health background; she had grief, guilt and questions.  She did the only thing she knew… started filming anyone who would talk to her, from Harvard researchers to six-year-olds, with no script and no money.  That turned into her film, Angst. It sat for six months, then screened in 90 countries within 14 months. The insight that drove all of it: the power of a film isn't in the watching, it's in the conversation after.  When people feel safe enough to talk, they share what they've been carrying alone. The mission isn't therapy, it's education.  Mental health literacy is a population-level problem, and the solution looks more like CPR training than a clinical appointment. Everyone needs access. Human connection matters more than ever right now.

    43 min
  5. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Kade Hinkle

    May 18

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Kade Hinkle

    "You don't need to post something groundbreaking every time. Just post your story. People are going to like that because they can see themselves in you." - Kade Hinkle Kade’s a young SDR in the game and he's been on LinkedIn longer than most sales reps you know. Not because someone told him to. Because he watched a YouTube video at 16, figured out LinkedIn was where the jobs were, and started connecting with people before he ever graduated high school.  By the time he did, he had 2,000 connections and a job offer waiting in his inbox. He started in landscaping and now he's cold calling executives every afternoon and booking meetings from LinkedIn DMs in between, with over 12,000 followers. He's not doing anything magical. Prospecting in the morning. Emails around noon. Calls from 3 to 5.  Video messages when he remembers to push himself. Posts at the end of the day from whatever he wrote in his notes app. The difference is he started. At 16. While most people his age were doom-scrolling Instagram. The rejection question came up. How do you handle getting punched in the face all day as a brand new SDR? His answer was pretty simple: "I know it's not personal. So you just keep moving to the next one." No elaborate mental framework. No morning routine. Just the understanding that a no isn't about you, and the next call is waiting. Here's what stuck with us though. Kade wants to be an AE by 20. After that it gets blurry. Maybe leadership. Maybe his own business. He's not sure yet. But he knows one thing: he's not waiting until he has something impressive to say before he starts showing up.  He's posting the journey in real time, figuring it out in public, and letting people grow with him. In the age of AI, that's exactly what cuts through.

    23 min
  6. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Leo and Clarissa Martinez

    May 13

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Leo and Clarissa Martinez

    "You're only going to go as far as your identity takes you." - Leo Martinez Leo is the Co-founder of Martinez and Associates Consulting. 25 years in business with his wife Clarissa. A 21-year-old company that now runs 99% without them in it. He didn't learn that in a classroom. He learned it after spending seven years inside Patrick Bet David's inner circle, having 15 to 18 conversations a day, six days a week, with founders and CEOs running companies from $2 million to $12 billion. After all of that, the pattern was clear. But before we get there, here's what actually built the foundation. Leo is the dreamer. Big vision, moves fast, commits before he has all the answers. Clarissa is the one with 27 objections and 30 questions. She pumps the brakes. She asks what nobody wants to ask. Her words: "You need two people that are almost opposites coming together in order to balance each other out." That's not just their marriage. That's their entire operating model. Most entrepreneurs live in the "if it is to be, it's up to me" trap. All the pressure on their shoulders, nobody empowered to carry any of it. The business grows to a point, then stops. Not because the market ran out. Because the founder's identity did. Clarissa added what most people miss: founders think they're doing the right thing by pouring everything into the business. But while they're winning at work, they're quietly losing at home. You don't have to pick one. But you do have to be intentional about both. Their ops manager Diana has been with them 14 years. Not because of the salary. Because Leo and Clarissa invested in her life, not just her output. "You have to love them. If you love them, they will go through walls for you." That's not soft. That's the whole system.

    54 min
  7. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. John Zurowski

    May 12

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. John Zurowski

    "My success is actually when a client stops working with me." - John Zurowski   John is the Founder of JZ Sales Consulting with Twenty years of corporate sales leadership before going fractional. And that line is the most honest thing you'll hear from a consultant this year. His goal isn't to become indispensable. It's to build companies to the point where they can replace him with a full-time leader. He calls that the win. Most founders hitting a growth ceiling make the same move: rush to hire a senior sales leader. Big salary, fancy title, high expectations. And more often than not, it doesn't work. Not because the hire is wrong. Because the foundation isn't there yet. John sees it constantly. You sit down with a company's employees and ask a simple question: what does your company do and what problem does it solve? You'll get five different answers. Every time. If your own team can't align on that, no sales leader in the world is going to fix your pipeline. That's where John starts. Not with a CRM. Not with a headcount plan. With clarity. Get the team aligned on what you do and who you help. Build process that's designed to flex, not break. And when you're stuck, stop looking for a new tactic. Go back to the fundamentals. He put it simply: "When you're in a rut, it just takes one small win to get that wind in your sail again." Make the extra calls. Review your proposal with fresh eyes. Do the basic things well. The breakthrough rarely comes from doing something new. It comes from doing the right things consistently. John's also direct about AI: it's a productivity tool, not a replacement for genuine human conversations. People still buy from people. That hasn't changed, and the market fatigue with AI-driven outreach is only going to accelerate it. The sales leaders winning right now are the ones combining structure with hustle, and knowing the difference between a phase and a ceiling.

    28 min
  8. Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Pierce Brehm

    May 6

    Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Pierce Brehm

    "If it's not producing pipeline, it's not a partnership. It's a coffee club." - Pierce Brehm  Pierce is the Founder and CEO of Holland Lane Global Advisers. And if you've ever announced a new logo, signed an agreement, done a webinar, and wondered why none of it turned into revenue, this ones for you.  Most companies know partnerships should be part of their growth strategy and the data backs it up.  Deals close 53% more often when a partner is involved and close 46% faster.  A recommendation from a trusted source is up to 50 times more likely to result in a purchase than a cold outreach. So why do so many partnerships go nowhere? Pierce has a simple answer, there is no ideal partner profile, no activation plan, no shared revenue target, and no measurement.  Companies are treating partnerships like a branding exercise instead of a revenue channel. Pierce's framework starts at the foundation: define your ideal partner profile.  Who's selling to the same types of companies, the same personas, the same industries?  Who compliments you without competing? Get that right first. Everything else builds from it. Then comes consistency. Not a logo swap and a LinkedIn post. Consistent communication, proactive introductions, and a clear way to track what's actually converting. When you get it right, partnerships stop feeling slow and unpredictable. They become one of the most efficient growth channels in B2B. The companies winning right now aren't making more noise. They're building stronger relationships, on purpose, with a plan.

    29 min
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5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

Meet Gabe Lullo. Gabe Lullo is the CEO of Alleyoop, a sales development agency working with industry giants such as ZoomInfo, Salesloft, and Adobe. He has trained over 8,000 salespeople across diverse businesses and, during his tenure in Alleyoop, he has personally hired and managed more than 1,500 SDRs. With over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and executive recruitment, his strategies have significantly driven Alleyoop’s growth.

Information

  • Creator
    Gabe Lullo
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    82
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Gabe Lullo
  • Show Website
    Do Hard Things Podcast