Darren McKee

My wife said I respond quicker to work emails than I do to her texts.

So she sends me this. 😂

Little humor for today!

I got called out for “liking” my own posts.

Of course I liked it, I wrote it.

Lexus trying to showcase that third row space but let me tell you a little about the current state of marketing.

This photo would have gone viral if you would have shown me how it fits 3 scooters, 4 bags of all different sizes, a kid mattress because one kid only sleeps on that, a clothes basket full of sheets, a Trader Joe’s freezer bag, a mini cooler and a dog.

Because no parent travels this way, like never.

Real talk, the TX Hybrid is pretty fire though.

Real life marketing is in.

Staged marketing is out.

✌️

“My BDR“ 🤮

Hey Account Executives. “A BDR is not YOURS“

You are partners

You are a team

You are equals

That is it.

Thanks for joining my tedtext.

#sales #tedtalk #BDR #SDR

It's been 2 years since I've shared a photo of my family on this platform.

Today that changes, as I've made a very strategic hire for our business.

Everyone kept telling me to hire an EA or a GM or a Chief of Staff. And while I could have looked for the perfect person, I already knew who it was.

And her title was going to be COO.

For 13 years, I've watched her navigate our little family's life.

For 13 years, she's been my ride or die.

For 13 years, I've brought every single decision to her before executing on anything.

Now that our kids are a bit older, it was time to fully bring her into the business that she was already "in."

What you don't know is that this has been happening for the last 60 days and our entire business has changed.

The way I scale.
Where I spend time.
Who I spend time with.
How I charge.
How I articulate my solution.
Where I put my focus.
How I show up.

And it's resulted in two of our best months to date.

Yea. We're building a family business.

Yea. She doesn't post here but her name is Kaitlyn McKee if ya are curious!

For those that know her personally, you know how big of a deal this is and how insanely talented she is.

Time for our next season of growth.

One of my clients wrote this in an all company slack channel, “Darren posts pictures of him fishing and gets 500 likes, I don’t get it.”

I responded, “Darren has posted 5000 times and has been consistent for 2,269 days in a row while also dropping 35K comments and sending 60K organic DMs. We different.”

So today. I’m sharing this picture of a 3D printed figure of me fishing that my client Brent Wright surprised me with yesterday.

Dude is an absolute wizard who makes prosthetics, drones and so many other insanely cool things. Blown away by the craftsmanship and love a nc based company.

Brent is different. Be different. We different.

I’m leaving Utah today, long day of travel ahead. Yesterday - for the first time in a few years, I decided to not make a post here and it felt really good tbh. I’ve always prided myself on being the person that shows up every day but over the last few months it just felt a wee bit forced. Posting things I didn’t really want to, repurposing content and overall just feeling like I was losing my desire to write and create.

So I paused.

Moving forward, I’m not really sure. Will share probably 80% of the days ahead but not if I don’t want to, sheesh that feels good to type.

Anyways, Utah LFG - you were so good to me as always. Forever grateful to this land and the people that live here, so much love.

Back to the travel, who knows how that will go today 😂

I’ve got idk like 8 hours of just hanging out in planes and airports and will answer any question that is dropped below on any of these topics:

Sales
Content
LinkedIn
Founder Life
Side Hustles
Coaching Offerings
Fishing
Hunting

Eh and whatever else you want to ask about!

I’m on a mission to slow down.

On Saturday morning, I grabbed the kids and headed to southern virginia (oak level - basset to be exact)

This is where my parents, grandparents and great grandparents were raised. It’s also where I was born until heading to Texas at 7 years old.

Yesterday at 2PM, my dad drove in and told me to get in the truck.

For the next 3 hours he showed me everything.

The furniture plant he worked at.

The furniture plant my grandfather worked at.

The furniture plant my great grandfather worked at.

The furniture plant every other human in my family worked at… (guess I messed this trend up 😂)

Then we headed out into the woods, dad wanted me to walk the same trails my great grandfather walked, pretty darn special tbh.

After that, I took my little one out to go bottle hunting - this is moonshne country so we found some epic stuff in some old barns, sure as hell beats YouTube.

Cell phone didn’t work.
Nothing flashy out there.
Got a 6 pack of beer for $5.97
Grabbed a sausage biscuit for $1.50
Every truck you passed waved
50% of the trucks stopped and talked to us

No idea why I’m writing this here but just doing it, kind of tired of all the scale automate and ai stuff.

So here’s a little journal entry 10/26/25

Where were you born?

Over the last 7 days I went a tad rogue here and didn’t think one time about formatting or hooks or structure or time of day I posted, I just wrote like a human and put thoughts and tips out into the world. Impressions and engagements up 96% this week, 800 followers gained, 822 saves of content, 922 of darrenmckee.co or 531social.com clicked, 12 hours of videos watched which resulted in a top 5 revenue week for me in 2025.

Please don’t believe the people that say this place is trending down, it’s not. But it 100% is trending down for those that look like others and have abandoned being a human.

Humans win.
Trust wins.

"Stop asking so many people for help, just go read your bible and spend some time alone. The answers will come."

"Stop stacking your days with meetings that don't matter, your calendar is owning you vs you owning it."

"Your Utah trip. Why are you cramming in so many things? Just go for walks and talk to Jesus a bit while looking at some things you don't normally see."

"I know you love the founder podcasts and music because you think that is what is going to help but you should probably read this little book today instead, proceeds to toss it to me."

Things my best friend told me this morning.

A day in the life of a founder who thinks they can do it all alone.

Opened the bible.
Cancelled 11 meeting for in November.
Moved meetings in Utah to be alone in the mountains.
Still listened to music and podcasts, working on that one.

Clarity gained. Decisions made. Feeling better. Shoulders relaxed.

Sales is the best. Walking through O’Hare in Chicago last week and out of the corner of my eye, there was an exec I used to deliver mail to back in 2015.

He was an svp of sales back then and now a ceo of a 200M company.

I knew what he’d been up because I always told myself I’d close him one day and have his name legit written in my notebook, so I turned around.

Mentioned my name and our history together, as well as what I do for a living now.

Related his role to another multi-million arr business I’m currently supporting around LinkedIn and social selling stuff and then left him at the pizza joint.

12 min later, sent a dm to him.
1 day later he sent his email to reach out.
I reached out same day.
Meeting booked today.

What’s that saying? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Keep your eyes open peeps.

Oh and don’t get me started on the guy next to me on the plane, that’s going to be a fun one also. 3B in revenue, currently thinking about social selling and linkedin. Yea that happened to.

Might just hang around airports every day to hit my number moving forward!

“I’m glad those two dudes met.”

I just imagine that is what god was saying when he looked down and saw us together yesterday at Parker’s family course, Pursell Farms.

I’ve done some cool stuff in my life, seen and experienced some truly awesome things but this is a 24 hour trip I won’t ever forget.

From the moment you pull into the farm, it’s a place of rest and feeling as if you are at home.

The longhorns grazing
The glimpses of the gospel sprinkled
The staff willing to serve
The branded Turtlebox Audio
The grass exactly how it should be
The room perfectly designed
The catfish tacos and whiskey from Keith
The stories woven into every turn you make
The chilled crisp apples on hole one
The tire swing still hanging from childhood

3000+ acres of pure Alabama bliss

Also helps that I played one of the best rounds of my life, putter was working.

To everyone at Pursell Farms, thank you for welcoming me the way you did.

More to come on how this partnership evolves into something special in the fall of this year.

Stay tuned.

Just a friendly reminder that you can burn out even if you love what you do for work.

While I wouldn’t say I truly entered the state of burn out, I got super super close here the last 2 months.

Go go go
Build build build
Scale scale scale
Innovate innovate innovate
Automate automate automate

Sun up to sun down, work related tasks.
Waking up checking emails.
Going to bed checking emails.
Podcasts about work.
Zero lunch breaks.
Family getting 60% of me.
Hobbies went to the wayside.
No breakfast sit down time.
Talking about work with friends.
Thinking about efficiency all the time.

Luckily, I caught myself.

Off to Utah to fish, do a little talk, breathe some fresh air and laugh with friends.

I needed a reset.
I needed a change of pace.
I needed time with Jesus.

P.S. - I know many people will say I’m dumb for sharing this type of stuff but it’s just reality and I want others to understand that this stuff is real.

8 days ago, I sent out 13 personalized messages to some top prospects via a LinkedIn DM - some video, some audio and a few just regular text outbound.

1. No response (but they viewed my profile)
2. No response
3. No response (but they viewed my profile)
4. No response
5. Meeting booked (responded Thursday)
6. Meeting booked (responded Tuesday)
7. No response
8. No response
9. No response (but they engaged with a post of mine Friday)
10. No response
11. No response
12. No response
13. Meeting booked (Responded same day)

When I was first starting out in sales, these types of posts used to make me so frustrated, lead magnet to learn more 🤢

Just save this, you don’t to hit me up to see the messages I send..

Now, I’m in the position to share these types of posts but I will NEVER share them without taking you behind the scenes and walking you through my process, step by step.

Step 1

Create content, 4 pillar framework (will put the visual down in the thread for you, steal it)

Step 2

Get "connected" with your prospect. Do this by engaging with their content, checking out their profile, being in the same threads as them, etc.

Step 3

Study your prospect and their business. Know A LOT. 10-K, Sustainability, Recent Hires, Current Vendors, etc. You should know so much that if you meet with them, they want to hire you.

Step 3

Send the message, video dm preferably

Relevance
Problem
Solution
CTA

"Mike. Appreciate the connect today. Next time I am in Park City I will reach out and we can do dinner, have a few good cro friends out that way. Maybe we can put together a group. Anyways, I’m 17 months post my VP of sales career and am full force on my own now, helping other revenue leaders simplify social selling and linkedin for their teams, it was 80% of our revenue at my last org - had to do the math when we exited the org to own of our largest competitors!

Quick audit and it looks like you have 17 AE's but only 1 of them has created content in the last 30 days and only 3 have left comments on their prospects content in the last 60 days. Big miss here, easy one to fix though. You have time next week for me to ring your cell?"

Step 4

Respond IMMEDIATELY when they do, they are active and you want to capitalize on that.

Step 5

Book the meeting, don't send your calendar link or anything like that and don't ask for their email address, you should know it. If you have to, just confirm what you have.

Step 6

Put that meeting in your Hubspot and pat yourself on the back. I’m still working on that part.

Conclusion:

Happy Prospecting. And yes, I do this stuff every single day.

Offerings: (darrenmckee.co)

1:1 Coaching
Team Training (in-person or virtual)
Cohort (December open now, half sold out)
Speaking (Booking for 2026 NOW)

Fun new one 😳

December 10K Cohort Sponsorship:

Team Training 60 Minutes
1:1 Coaching for CRO or Founder (45 min)
2 posts mentioning the sponsorship
1 spot in December cohort
1 531social.com license

“If you don’t engage with others, it won’t matter how good your content is.”

That’s the first thing I tell every single person that comes to me for help growing on this platform.

This is one of the few places where people don’t really care if you are a ceo, 3x founder or exec at a fortune 500.

So before I ever teach them how to create solid content, I tell them to do this.

(go ahead and save this so you can come back to it later)

- 5 comments to 1st degree connections (prospects and clients - not peers)

- 5 comments to 2nd degree connections (switching feed to recent helps)

- Responses to all comments on your content (respond with a question)

- 5 DMs (video if possible - profile view folks, prospects, engagement, etc)

- 3 connection requests (don't expect connections if you don't connect)

That takes about 20-34 minutes 👆

If they can’t do this, all the other stuff I’m teaching them in weeks 2-4 won’t matter.

Hope this helps someone today.

4 years ago I was told I’d never make it as an AE selling SaaS. Today I’m on a flight to go present to 60 SaaS Founders on how to sell in 2026.

3 years ago I was laughed out of a building in downtown Raleigh because I was talking about LinkedIn. In two weeks I’m presenting on LinkedIn in the exact building to that exact company.

2 years ago I was told no “real” company would hire me to coach their teams on social selling. Just signed a long term contract to support a vista backed 200M company, right on the heels of supporting a 200M blackrock backed company. And in talks with a 3B goldman backed company. And several other “real” companies in pipeline..

1 year ago I was told I’d be back selling because building a startup wasn’t really in my DNA and I wasn't cut out to be a founder. Well, I’m here and things are looking good so I hope that person puts their eyes on this post 😉

6 months ago I was told I wasn’t a “real” speaker. Over the next 365, I’m on stages all around the world, doing what? Teaching. You were right, I’m not a “speaker.” Kick rocks.

I don’t think about these statements often but they are simply fuel when I need to dig deep.

We cookin.
We built different.

Darrenmckee.co

There are 67 sales books in your office but your buyer is a head of procurement.

Your LinkedIn feed is filled with sales people but your buyer is a head of talent development.

The conference you are at is full of sales people but your buyer is a head of information technology.

See how this doesn’t make sense, do this instead 👇

Read what your buyers read.
Fill your feed with your buyers content.
Go to conferences to learn with your buyers.

The moment I stopped SURROUNDING myself with “sales stuff” was the moment I started to crush my number quarter after quarter.

My first post was 12 years 11 months and 21 days ago (4,738 days)

Today I just hit post number 4,813

It is hard to lose when you do one thing consistently for that long, 14 thousand hour rule type doing.

* have written every post myself
* if someone else could write it, don't write it
* use this place to get to in person stuff
* Daniel - thanks for the darrenmckee.co logo pullover, legit

I will be the first to say that, I am not an infographic human. It isn't that I don't like them, it's just that I don't learn via visuals. But, many of you do - so here is one that my good friend Vincent Pierri made for me. Because, well he is good at making them and I am not.

I recently shared a post about how I pushed over 450K people to view my profile since I started sharing content here, this is what I shared via text:

How to do it:

1 - Comment often on other's content because this puts your name in rooms you have never been in before. Not just little comments because you feel like you have to but deep and interesting thought filled engagement. And for the LOVE OF ALL THINGS LINKEDIN - please stop engaging solely with your 1st degree connections. Aim for 15 comments per day to new people.

2 - Create content from 4 pillars, you can't look the same daily. Make sure people know where you came from, what you do for work, what you do outside of work and who you hang out with

3 - Follow 5 people daily, many of you expect followers but never follow anyone.

4 - Connect with humans you actually want to engage with, it is wildly important to actually take a look at someone's profile before you add them into your sphere. Do they post? Do they engage? Can you learn from them? Do you have common connections? Are they kind? Do they add value to you? Can you add value to them?

5 - Recognize people when they actually visit your page. Closed my largest deal of the year with a CMO of a massive org by simply saying, "Mark! Thanks for stopping by, appreciate you." Went on to coach his entire revenue org out west.

6 - Don't be afraid to click the repost (don't add thoughts) when you see good content in your feed, I am tracking this data hard right now and my profile views deeply spike when I do this - gets you into another sphere of talented humans.

7 - DM's are everything. New connections, dm them. Old connections, dm them. Introduce people to people in DMs (did you know you can send group dms to folks? yea that is a game changer)

8 - Be sure your profile is complete. Headline easy to read, like 5th grade level. About section filled out. Featured section done. Banner photo complete. Recommendations down below. The list goes on but you have to have get your house in order here if you want people to come visit.

Ok.

That is enough now, go do some of this stuff and watch what happens over the next 15 months. Your mind will be blown by the opportunities that fall into your lap after 450 days of consistency!!

darrenmckee.co
531social.com

Yes. I coach people and teams all around the world on how to do this for themselves and their companies.

Couple options coming up to learn:

September LinkedIn & Social Selling Cohort - Launches on the 8th
Retained Coaching - 2 slots open for companies starting August 1st
1:1 Coaching - 3 slots open for 6 week engagements starting August 1st
In- Person/Virtual Team Coaching - Can weave these in whenever

Big thanks to the revenue team at Pendo.io for bringing me in to talk about all things LinkedIn and Social Selling.

This isn’t a want anymore, it’s a need.

Darrenmckee.co
531social.com

I am going to start sharing sales simple tips again, like level 1 stuff. When I was leading sales at my last company, we did this once a month (or anytime pipeline was looking low) and it always generated 10+ meetings.

2 hour power-hour (all company)

Everyone has a time block on their calendar and they all come to the call with 20 prospects to reach out to in their network or if they didn't have a network, we would supply them the people to reach out to.

"Reach out" meant:

1: Follow them on LinkedIn

2:Engage thoughtfully with their content

3: Create a piece of content, post something

4: Send connection request with no note attached

5: Send video or audio dms to everyone that accepted connection or a really good email that a human has written

6: If already connected, skip step 1 and 4 but do the rest

P.S. If your engineer or talent acquisition leader joins and they book a meeting that closes, pay them a part of the percentage that would go to an sdr or self sourced ae.

There ya go, easy stuff. When your pipeline is full, you can go on long walks like this one in the middle of the day and leadership doesn’t care. Just a quick reminder.

Should I do more of these level 1 posts?

Darrenmckee.co

This week, LinkedIn had me present to 350 of their Sales Navigator customers. Before the session, I was asked about my slides/deck for the training.

I responded, “I run without slides. This will be more of a teaching session with me actually showing folks how to do stuff instead of screenshots.”

This is my coaching philosophy, show don’t tell. They want to know you still have the sauce, that you actually still do this stuff day in and day out.

Visually walk someone through the process then pause and ask them to do it.

My goal is never to deliver slides that recap my session. My goal is always to have those attending learn 1-2 things that will transform their next month.

It’s different. It’s me.

A couple things:

Many of you asked last week if I could help get your reps up to speed with LinkedIn and Sales Nav, yes totally can. Below are a few ways.

1:1 Coaching
Group Cross-Company Coaching
In-Person Team Training
Virtual Team Training
SKO (discount if clear blue water is involved)

Most stuff is here darrenmckee.co

If you need testimonials, there are 100+ down on the bottom of my page here - have fun!

LinkedIn is an absolute gold mine for services based businesses. Landscaping, pressure washing, plumbers, pet care, pool care, hvac, barbers, chefs, etc.

Here is exactly how I would attach LinkedIn if I was the owner of one of these services based companies:

1 - Get your profile completed. Banner with your company name, contact and logo. Fix that subject line to say exactly what you do,

"I take care of the pets for busy Raleigh-Durham families, short visits as well as 1-2 week house visits"

"Your outdoor is your haven, here in Raleigh-Durham we help bring that to reality with the best landscape team in all the triangle - Landscaping, Lawn Care & Pressure Washing"

2 - Get connected to all of your past and current customers and have them leave recommendations at the bottom of your page and also encourage them to engage with your content.

3 - Start creating content about your trade, get detailed. These need to be walk-throughs (videos or pictures - before and after type stuff) of your jobs as well as teaching folks how to do said trade on their own. Remember to always teach vs tell.

4 - Get connected to future prospective customers. If you know typically do plumbing and hvac for 3000 square foot houses in a certain area of the state then you can parse down and find those specific humans. Use sales navigator to help. CXO or VP in Raleigh, NC who have posted content in the last 30 days.

5 - Start engaging with those folks content, like 4-8 minutes a day. A good KPI is 5 comments a day on your target customer's content. Once you start doing this, they will start seeing your content in their feed and that is where the magic happens.

6 - Get connected to the HR/Talent/Relocation teams at large/medium companies moving to town. They all need resources for their teams buying houses here in town. No different than companies having realtor packages but now they have services packages. Be early here!

7 - Targeted outbound. This is where most people stop but you can't. Once you get connected to those prospects or even your existing customers, make sure you are sending them DMs often when you are nearby or are working on a job that made you think of them. Can you imagine getting a video DM from a personal chef on LinkedIn talking about an event they just curated at a residence for a team offsite or an audio DM from a plumber introducing them to you because you just moved to town? Yea, guaranteed wins.

P.S. - Thank goodness I married a landscaper because this project has been an absolute beast, getting close. Just need that pesky fescue to sprout and finish out the rock edging. Time to go touch grass for 8 hours today.

Crush your day job for 7 years.

Build an insane network.

Create content for 3 years straight.

Start side business.

Create content for 4 more years.

Quit your w-2 job (if you want and only if you have matched w-2 pay + 30 % for 6 straight months)

Crush your new job that is yours.

Hire your best friend.

Look up in 2.5 years and have insane opportunities in front of you:

Sell your entire portfolio?

Start another company?

Get acquired by firm that needs your skill and brand awareness?

Keep building your dream?

Gonna be an insane next few months and years.

Glad I never stopped building, when people told me I was crazy.

I received the wildest comment on one of my posts a couple months ago. Someone I’d never met, offered to take me on a trip of a lifetime to Hawaii. Spearfishing, normal people fishing, diving for lobster, lava caves, and like an entire list of things that have been only bucket list for years.

At first I was like, “Nah. This ain’t real.”

But within hours, I was on the phone with the More Than Just Business Solutions team and it felt like we’d been friends for ages.

My wife was beside me listening to the call, she said, “YOU ARE GOING! I will hold down the house.”

6 random people I’ve never met in an Airbnb 13 hours away from home. This is what life is about tbh, taking these online relationships to real life to experience this amazing place we call earth.

The trip is in a few short weeks, and I will be sharing more while there but this is just a reminder that insane things start happening when you stack days, share content and build true community around you.

Ok now the real fun. Holding my breath for 3 minutes, I’m almost half way there. Time to do some apnea walks at the beach today!

Big thanks to Stephen M. and Paul Kiriakos for this inane opportunity of a lifetime.

#yestheyarepayingforthistripandyesiwilltellyoutocheckouttheircompany #sponsored

Talking about hobbies will book more first meetings than any work related post ever will, I can promise you that.

The bar for being a human has never been lower.

I love fishing. Anyone else?

The face that managers all around the world are making this morning. Thousands and thousands of people just sent that text that says:

“Hey. Have a few minutes to chat today?”

Followed by a phone call or zoom about how they are leaving and have accepted another offer.

For the last 90 days, your A players have been having calls with leaders that see their potential.

For the last 90 days, you have been asking about nothing but pipeline and haven’t sent one message of appreciation.

What did you expect?

Bout ta be a tough Q1 for a lot of folks.

Hope those ai agents can close the 3M delta you are about to have 😉

The bar for being a human has never been lower.

Molly from Tabs will be the marketing leader everyone is studying here in a few short years. Calling it.

Thinks different.
Built different.
Cares more.

This was 2012. Shirt was $2.99, pants were $5.99 - both from thrift stores. Tie was my dads. Shoes were from an old shoe shine shop. Sometimes people leave their shoes and they sell them cheap, Allen Edmonds for $39.00. Bag was from the clearance rack at J. Crew “factory”

I didn’t have much. But, I had all I needed to be the best mail room kid in NYC.

My pops used to tell me that it didn’t matter what I did, as long as I tried to be the 1% in that “thing” then people would recognize.

I had never been to NYC before, the largest building in my town was like 7 stories.

Couldn't afford to live in the city so we
decided to rent a 350 square foot 3rd story walk up in Bloomfield, NJ - I told people Montclair 😉

None of the windows really closed.

Washer was in the basement, was coin operated and rarely worked.

Bathroom was in the kitchen, yea odd - not sure about that.

Bedroom door wouldn't shut because the bed took up 80% of the room.

Heat came from the downstairs unit, floors got warm but never got above like 62 degrees.

Car was a 1997 Avalon with no muffler, loud as heck and not on purpose.

But, it is where we had our START.

It wasn't glamorous but it is what we had and for a kid without a degree, I went for it and simply tried to be the best.

My first 3 hours of work each day paid for my transit into the city, $28 for those hours.

Patterson 72 Line
Newark
Path
WTC
Walk

Here are some of the things I did that took me from living in that small tiny apartment to getting where I am today👇

1 - Never stop telling people hi, you are one head nod away from your entire life changing

2 - Study your craft like crazy, but also know everything about your client or icp (get in their world and out of yours)

3 - Surround yourself with people WAY WAY smarter than you

4 - Be willing to relocate early in your career, we moved 6 times in 8 years

5 - Always have 2 people willing to hire you by next Friday

6 - Start creating content NOW, it will change your life - do double what you think is necessary

7 - Get a coach (If you can’t afford it, find a mentor or ask your company to pay for it)

8 - Your partner is your superpower, choose wisely here

9 - Get really really good at something, 10,000 hours (I’m feeling this now and it’s insane what happens)

10 - Celebrate your wins often, kudos folder

11 - Have fun, love people and laugh daily

Pretty cool to write this as I’m on stage today in California talking about my life and career, sheesh a lot can change in 14 years.

My two companies:

531social.com (GTM Social Selling)
Darrenmckee.co (Coaching, Training, Speaking, Brand)

Oh and I did find a sponsor for this event this week, it’s ME.

I’m representing my dang self.

And my posts make way more revenue than when I post about others even if they pay me. Just sayin.

Go be great.

Time to speak then surf.

San Diego is cool.

In 2014, I was making copies for the executive team and delivering their mail up and down 17 floors.

Today, just booked travel to coach that same executive team.

That 12 year vision came together.

To be honest, I think this is all happening because of those early mornings and late evenings making 10 dollars an hour back in 2014.

Because I cared a lot about something most being just ignored:

Like being downstairs at 7:35 AM to catch the car keys of the managing director so he could just walk upstairs vs navigating parking for 15 minutes.

Like having personal Amazon packages put in the chief of staff’s trunk so she didn’t have to ever worry lugging them all down at the end of the day.

Like knowing lunch orders by memory for the entire leadership team so their EA’s could focus on bigger things.

Like remembering each staff member’s kids names and hobbies so we could have human talks vs work talks.

Like being fully aware that the board meeting is on Wednesdays at 10AM and being up front to greet each individual who walked in by name.

Like knowing everything about their product and introducing them to other execs and prospects that might could do business with them.

Long story short. Work really hard, care deeply and do your job and a lil bit of someone else’s.

If you do the above, you can’t lose and your 12 year trajectory will be something you had visualized in your wildest dreams!

For me, it was going from mailroom to boardroom and that vision has been realized.

Today, I’m in those boardrooms talking about the importance of LinkedIn and Social Selling. Not just for their sellers, but for their entire organizations as a whole.

Darrenmckee.co

To the folks at LinkedIn managing the feed, thank you.

I've posted here every single day (give or take a handful) since March 2020, and this is by far the most dialed in I've ever seen it. My feed is packed with customers, prospects, people I'm learning from, and people learning from me.

Truly having the most fun I've ever had on the platform. Sure, impressions may be down a tad but profile views, engagement, dms, and most importantly revenue and in person gatherings are way way way up.

I don't know exactly what changed, but whatever you've been doing the last 45 days or so, keep going. Hopefully that helps the dev team. And to the team cracking down on fake, baited, and non-human content, you're straight crushing it.

LinkedIn is in the bottom of the 2nd inning and organic social has never been better. I'm writing this because this week alone I've read countless posts complaining about this platform. But the reality is, you control your feed through your actions, and you decide what you put out.

So yea..

When one of the worlds largest clinical research firms pings you with a few days notice to come lead a social selling training for their revenue org, you say yes.

Thanks for having me in, Parexel.

4 weeks ago: Glass & Window Company
3 weeks ago: Logistics Company
2 weeks ago: Marketing Firm
1 week ago: Global Financial Institution
Today: Clinical Research Company

This isn’t a want anymore, it’s a need.
This isn’t a fad, it’s part of the playbook.

Darrenmckee.co

Today I walked into my old employer’s office, company called Insperity. Been gone 5 years and still their biggest fan. They didn’t ask me to post this but I’m doing it anyways.

Listen. Running a company is hard. The back office, the hr stuff, the crazy world of healthcare, the payroll - it’s all a zoo at times.

To be honest, as a founder - we just want to run our business and take care of our customers.

And yes, they will be my first call when we start to bring on employees at 531social.com which will be in a few short months.

Grateful for the time I spent there, truly a world class organization led by remarkable humans!

44B dollar skateboard deck. Might have to hang this gift from the Ramp team in my office vs letting my kids pull each other around the garage floor with a rope. Real talk though, congrats on the 750M raise. Insane.

I impulse purchased a boat from craigslist in 2020. Everyone told me not to do it, but those were desperate times..

Boats are expensive.
Boats always break.
You won’t use it after the first year.

All things I heard. Blah blah blah.

This thing has been a beast. Legit do nothing on it but change the oil, don’t even witnerize the thing.

6 years later. It just sat for 5 months, and the darn thing fired right up. With a tad of smoke. Same thing every year, it’s wonderful.

Like it just said, “let’s make some memories this summer.”

No chance they see this but shout out to Mercury Marine for building the Mercruiser 3.0 - straight up bullet proof.

Long story short, buy fun things even if people tell you not to 😂

Tactical content opens doors, personal content closes deals.

Alright. If you haven’t ever read my content but happen to see this, I’d stop and digest this one

I went from a 3K followers to 150K followers in 2,372 days.

From no one on my profile to 9K visitors a month.

From an AE to VP of Sales.

From VP of Sales to “profitable” Founder.

From a salary of 62K to creating generational wealth for my family.

And I didn’t all by doing this 👇

(Ok. This + working hard, caring about people, learning new skills and betting on myself)

But back to the point of this post.

I did this:

Created content that looked different every single day. About 120 variations of how my content lands in your feeds.

Created from a 4 pillar framework, which is what I teach in all my sessions. People have to know where you came from, exactly what you do for work and how you solve their pain, what you enjoy outside of work and who you hang around.

Only created content that I (myself) could write or publish. My photos, my words, my story, my experiences. If someone else could share it, don’t share it.

Do this and you can’t lose here.

Do what everyone else does, and you will lose here.

Darrenmckee.co (this is where I teach and coach thousands around the world)

90,000,000 impressions with zero dollars of ad spend. That is the power of this place when you commit for 5 years and 7 months. Those numbers above are how many times my content has been displayed on someone else’s feed.

Impressions aren’t everything but for me, they are a huge data point when I dive deep into tracking and tracing new relationships and revenue. Also dig engagement metrics and those are at 200K for the last 365, honestly more happy about that than the 90M.

It’s taken me a very long time.

I could have taken short cuts.

I could have implemented strategies that went against my beliefs.

But, I chose to put my head down, study and master the art of authentic storytelling.

And it feel super comforting laying down at night knowing that I did this my way and now I can help others do the same, “their way.”

Seeing my feed filled with people that have worked with me, yea that’s the good stuff.

Seeing those same people hire for their team because of recent growth, yea that’s the good stuff.

Seeing those same people raise seed - b rounds, yea that’s the good stuff.

Seeing those same people celebrate massive 6 figure contract wins, yea that’s the good stuff.

Seeing those same people transform their side business into their own personal ventures, yea that’s the good stuff.

Seeing those same people generate more eyeballs than their entire marketing department, yea that’s the good stuff.

Feeling like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

Transferring what I know to other people and helping them do it in 15 months vs 5 years and 7 months.

P.S. - December Cohort is getting close to 50% capacity which is insane to me considering we are still a month out. No, I am not doing one for November - taking some down time to comeback refreshed to end the year and start the new.

Well this wasn’t on my bingo card but I ain’t mad about it. Companies are starting to make my LinkedIn and social selling training part of their new hire/ramp onboarding.

And this is across sales, marketing, ops, finance, hr, prod an engineering. Not just revenue people.

I mean I get it, but seeing it happen is pretty darn cool.

Just got this back from a client I’ve been working with for a good while.

It’s a no brainer. I normally talk about revenue but just from these data points, the ROI makes too much sense to not invest in EGC (employee generated content) and Social Selling.

Darrenmckee.co

This isn’t a want anymore, it’s a strategic need.

Here is a quick tip that will help you close more deals, it truly is revolutionary. Get on a plane and present all proposals over 70K in ACV (Annual Contract Value) - stop sitting behind your laptop when all of your decision makers are in the same office in Minnesota watching you struggle to screen share your proposal slide.

The revolutionary thing is sarcasm fyi. Listen, I am coaching sales teams around the world right now and the data says that plane tickets = quota attaining reps.

To the CFO or CRO who are declining a $600 plane ticket, $350 hotel and $300 bill in food, stop doing that. It is the equivalent of one of your reps asking for you to get them a coach and you saying no - MAKES ZERO SENSE. If you need data, go look at your "closed won" deals over the last 7 years and back into ACV and "win stories" and you will see a direct correlation with "in-person time" and revenue.

P.S. - If you are a rep and get approval to go present that proposal, please for the love of all things sales, BOOK OTHER MEETINGS WHEN YOU ARE IN TOWN so that your report can say - "Presented 217K ARR deal to ABC Company, did lunch with a closed lost opp from last year and ended up having an in person meeting with Joe from Target. Oh and snuck into a little happy hour event with some industry folks and locked in 3 meetings for next week, well worth the $1250."

Around 466K people have viewed my LinkedIn profile since early 2022, you might want to save this post because I am going to tell you why this deeply matters and how to possibly achieve this yourself. And no, nothing is gated - you just get it here by reading.

When you get someone to your profile:

they can binge content (learn)
they can read recommendations (trust)
they can go to your website (tracking & revenue)
they can confirm authenticity (more trust)
they can see where you engage (new people to learn from)
they can see common connections (more trust)
they can read about you (curiosity)

How to do it:

1 - Comment often on other's content because this puts your name in rooms you have never been in before. Not just little comments because you feel like you have to but deep and interesting thought filled engagement. And for the LOVE OF ALL THINGS LINKEDIN - please stop engaging solely with your 1st degree connections. Aim for 15 comments per day to new people.

2 - Create content from 4 pillars, you can't look the same daily. The 4 pillars are here in this post via a visual (https://lnkd.in/ekkgGrgs)

3 - Follow 5 people daily, many of you expect followers but never follow anyone.

4 - Connect with humans you actually want to engage with, it is wildly important to actually take a look at someone's profile before you add them into your sphere. Do they post? Do they engage? Can you learn from them? Do you have common connections? Are they kind? Do they add value to you? Can you add value to them?

5 - Recognize people when they actually visit your page. Closed my largest deal of the year with a CMO of a massive org by simply saying, "Mark! Thanks for stopping by, appreciate you." Went on to coach his entire revenue org out west.

6 - Don't be afraid to click the repost (don't add thoughts) when you see good content in your feed, I am tracking this data hard right now and my profile views deeply spike when I do this - gets you into another sphere of talented humans.

7 - DM's are everything. New connections, dm them. Old connections, dm them. Introduce people to people in DMs (did you know you can send group dms to folks? yea that is a game changer)

8 - Be sure your profile is complete. Headline easy to read, like 5th grade level. About section filled out. Featured section done. Banner photo complete. Recommendations down below. The list goes on but you have to have get your house in order here if you want people to come visit.

Ok.

That is enough now, go do some of this stuff and watch what happens over the next 15 months. Your mind will be blown by the opportunities that fall into your lap after 450 days of consistency!!

darrenmckee.co
531social.com

If you engage someone’s content and/or send them a DM, guess what happens?

Your content appears in their feed and their content appears in your feed.

This stuff ain’t rocket science.

But it don’t work if you don’t work.

Everyone expecting without giving.

Bar is low. Real low.

It’s icy outside which means 32 games of mahjong in our house. I’ll be honest, I didn’t grow up in a “games” family but my wife did and when she started talking about tiles and racks and all this mahjong stuff.. I was a bit skeptical.

A few games later, I was hooked.

Then, I was on a call coaching an epic human and he mentioned his wife made “🀄️” tiles..

So. Of course, I had to get some.

They are elite and our family is obsessed.

dearmahjong.com

P.S. - Your entire LinkedIn presence doesn’t have to be about yourself, shout out some others every once in a while. Just sayin.

A few things I’m most proud of over the last couple of months:

Officially 3 months without email on my phone for my new company, desktop access only.

Committed to a 9AM-3PM schedule and have only had a couple days where I failed at this, huge difference and revenue hasn’t changed.

Officially signed up for a personal trainer, business was growing but so was my weight and that needed to change. 24 me will be back shortly.

Become comfortable saying no to things I don’t really value or care to do, even if that means losing money or upsetting people.

Spent way more time outside enjoying nature and picking up old hobbies with old and new friends.

But, to be honest - I don’t really like content like this because it seems unattainable for some. “Some” was me not that long ago.

And I’m going to keep it real, I couldn’t do all of these things above if I hadn’t put an insane amount of effort into my craft over the last 10+ years.

Your time to slow down is just around the corner, and my hope is that it doesn’t take you as long as it took me.

Early in my solo founder days, I was so scared to promote myself. Didn't talk about what I was good out, rarely mentioned my services and offerings. Sheesh that was such a miss on my part, listened to way too many outside voices instead of just listening to what Adam Grant taught me years ago. Here is what he said:

"I made something I am proud of. I hope it's valuable to you. I hope you get some joy out of it. If you don't put that out into the world, you are depriving people of benefiting from what you poured your heart into. And that to me, seems like a mistake."

Just the other day, someone asked me a question about the outcomes or roi of my coaching. I hesitated for like 11 seconds then I just leaned in hard and just started listing the things I want these folks to accomplish.

I said things like:

I want you all closing the biggest deals of your life, which allows you to do the wildest things with your family and friends

I want you taking everything I have learned in 6 years and using it to change your entire life in 15 months

I want you to have the ability to quit your job (if you want) because you fully leaned into YOUR story and YOUR passion which resulted in side income that overtook your w-2 pay

I want you to take this information back to your companies and teams and transfer the knowledge to them, just like I did for you - so that their lives can be changed and you get wild promotions and become the hero for your organization

I want you to push through any of your limiting beliefs about your story and impact because your story can change the world, whether you think it can or not

I want you to realize you are one post or comment of profile view or dm away from a life changing relationship, because it has happened to me so many times and I am no different than each of you

The list goes on and on and on.

And for me, what outcome do I want for darrenmckee.co and my family?

To see all of you accomplish these things above so I can keep moving toward my dreams. To keep stewarding this gift that I have worked so hard to acquire. That is it.

So... Go get really good at something and start telling people. You owe it to yourself and your future clients.

I love when I see people come back to LinkedIn after a hiatus and they try to hook you, write line-space and put their links in the comment section. All those ships sailed back in 2025. Just write like a human, no need to hook folks and no need write like a poet. Also, LinkedIn now gives us like multiple places to click our personal links ( darrenmckee.co & 531social.com ) and now gives us data on click through. You are safe. So much better these days, you really missed out on an epic year here. Maybe the best I have ever seen it. But only for the humans. The automation and agentic people focusing on impressions over revenue and true engagement got demolished, praise the lawd.

Banner on my profile is updated. It’s my favorite thing to do, if I’m being honest.

Why? Well, because that means I’m launching another month of my LinkedIn & Social Selling classes!

I still can’t believe this is my 24th month doing this, 23 cohorts sold out in a row.

1150 people have been through them.

The best part about all of this happening in that so many people told me social selling was a fad and that none of this stuff would last.

Well, lookie here. I’m still here.

And there has ever been a better moment in history for being human and social selling.

Bar is so low.

Time to kick it up a few notches!

About 6 months ago, an investor told my that AI would all but shutter my entire company.

No one will have to write content on their own.
Commenting will be a thing of the past, it will just happen with agents.
Outbound on LinkedIn, yea that won't be necessary anymore - systems do that already.

Well. Happy to report on something.

AI has absolutely exploded my business in the last 6 months.

Everyone is writing their own content (well those that are growing are)
Authentic and strategic human commenting is driving so much revenue and community
Outbound via video and audio and using 10 fingers to type, yea - unreal results (duh)

So. Yea. Cookin.

Off to build out these human linkedin and social selling practices for some of the largest companies in the world, see y'all on the other side.

Care + Math = Revenue