There are a few sides of me. 

VP of Sales for an organization called Skye & Co-Founder of SaaSBros. and have most recently launched a LinkedIn & Social Selling Cohort ran monthly.

You will see me pivot from one to the other with content, just stay with me! 

At Skye - my job is to evangelize our business and build community around learning, development and coaching. 

At SaaSBros - my job is to evangelize our business and build community around helping non-traditional talent break into tech sales.

For the Cohorts - my job is to empower people to use their voices and change their lives by coaching around linkedin and social sellling.

The stuff that matters is below :)

Father | Husband | Son | Brother 

Personal Mission Statement - 

To build, encourage, support and love my family and all others we encounter.

Show kindness
Show empathy
Show gratitude
Show grit
Show respect

And most importantly

Believe.

Darren McKee

Skye

Vice President of Sales & Strategic Partnerships

Vice President of Sales

SaaSBros.

Co-Founder

Wellthy

Enterprise Account Executive

BetterUp

OUR MISSION: UNLOCK GREATER POTENTIAL, PURPOSE, AND PASSION.

Since 2013 we have been pioneering growth for the whole person. We believe that well-being and peak performance go hand in hand. And that through custom support and strengthening mental fitness, you unleash personal and professional potential.

The BetterUp experience brings together world-class coaching, AI technology, and behavioral science experts to deliver change at scale — improving individual resilience, adaptability, and effectiveness. The results? People living more meaningful, vibrant lives with greater clarity, purpose, and passion.

Selling to CPO / Chief Learning Officer / VP of Human Resources & other Line of Business leaders
Global Sales - Enterprise

Insperity

Business Performance Advisor = Sales | I support organizations throughout the U.S. and primarily in the Carolinas. That support comes in many different forms, no client is the same!

May be a Benefits driver.
May be a Performance driver.
May be a Payroll driver.
May be a Compliance & Liability driver.

No matter the situation we have a team to take care of you!

2019 - 150% Quota - 1st Year

Account Executive

IST Management

Operations Manager North & South Carolina 

Responsibilities Include -
Recruit, train and manage a team of 42 in North and South Carolina in 11 locations
Handle responsibilities of mail/copy/office administration services  for corporate and legal accounts
Account Management/ Sales Process
Manage Budgets/ Sell Amendments
Recruit, train and motivate employees
Manage Budgets
Implementation of new accounts

Operations Manager - South East Accounts

Total Quality Logistics

National Sales Recruiter

IST Management Services

Recruit and Hire from Entry Level to Senior Level Management
Manage a team of Regional Recruiters in New York, Houston, Boston, Chicago, DC
Train on Full-Cycle Recruiting - Source through on-boarding
Implement new training procedures - SOP's
Monster/Indeed/Dice - Training
Face to Face interview training
Legal interview guidelines
Interview and train on Adobe Connect (Web Interviews)
Facilities Management Training

National Director of Recruiting

Recruiting Manager

Full-Cycle Recruiting
Train new Corporate Recruiters 
Implement applicant - tracking and new standard operating procedures
Coordinate hiring process for nationwide accounts- 40 Cities, 1200 employees
Screen and distribute candidates nationwide
Interview through Web Interface
Recruit through Talent Management System
Train on business card distribution and face to face interviews
Maintain our 30% growth by recruiting qualified and passionate candidates

Corporate Recruiter

Processing high volume insurance checks
Incoming and outgoing mail
Facilities management
Daily meetings with the client contact
International mailing operations

Assistant Manager

Litigation Assistance
QC Attorney Files
Velo/Coil Binding
High Volume Scanning/PDF
Copy Operator
Hospitality/Reception
Office Moves/Facilities

Service Specialist

Rotelli Pizza & Pasta

Where my career started, building relationships!

Pizza Guy

Hit the “Post” button a lot of days in a row - VP of Sales at Skye & Co-Founder of SaaSBros. // LinkedIn Sales [in]sider

There are a few sides of me. 

VP of Sales for an organization called Skye & have most recently launched a LinkedIn & Social Selling Cohort ran monthly.

As of March 2024, I’ve coached 84 individuals where I helped them build their brands and master social selling strategies. 

You will see me pivot from one to the other with content, just stay with me! 

At Skye - my job is to evangelize our business and build community around learning, development and coaching. 

For the Cohorts - my job is to empower people to use their voices and change their lives by coaching around LinkedIn and Social Selling.

The stuff that matters is below :)

Father | Husband | Son | Brother 

Personal Mission Statement - 

To build, encourage, support and love my family and all others we encounter.

Show kindness
Show empathy
Show gratitude
Show grit
Show respect

And most importantly

Believe.

For LinkedIn & Social Selling Trainings - You can reach me at darrenkmckee@gmail.com - refunds are not typically made as you are saving your spot and committing to the training prior to it starting. Once you check out via stripe, I will add you to your specific group and also send calendar invites your way within 1-5 busines days.

I am not loyal to a specific airline. 

I do take a couple flights every single month though.

On every flight I see kids. 

I often times will have mine. 

What happened with my daughter and this pilot with Southwest Airlines was pretty special. 

Something I don't see very often.

As we were walking in, her eyes turned toward the pilot who was sitting there. 

To be honest, it seemed like he was waiting to make my little girl's day. 

He said, "come on over here." with the biggest smile on his face. Not a quick look, it was a couple of minutes. 

As soon as we sat down, she told us that she wanted to learn how to fly a plane. 

Shortly after that, we had to deplane due to an issue. 4 hour delay.

She didn't care. She just kept asking if he was going to still be the pilot. 

After we got back on, her eyes lit up as they saw each other again!

And the day after we landed, they sent us 100 dollars each for our troubles with the layover. 

Job well done, Southwest Airlines.

As someone that works with organizational development teams to build coaching programs, I immediately dove into the "ONE Report" or in other words, their sustainability report and what I saw didn't surprise me one bit.

"In 2022, we launched several new development opportunities for Leaders, including an Initial Leadership Development Program to train new Leaders, a continuous development program for existing Leaders, and an immersive Leadership program to grow high-impact Leaders at the Manager/ Senior Manager Level. Each program focuses on Leadership competencies, DEI, business acumen, and other Leadership skills to develop dynamic and successful Leaders at Southwest."

I don't have a PhD in I/O but my gut tells me that these programs are a pretty strong reason for the experience my family had a couple weeks back.

Good work, Elizabeth Bryant from the people & culture side and Tony Roach from the customer experience side.

Months after I left a company I used to work for, I heard this 😳 

My buddy was interviewing with them and he asked a question about creating content on LinkedIn, just making sure they were good with it. You know? Just an extra double check.

“We are ok with it but we once had a guy that worked here that built his entire brand off of our company growth. His name was, Darren McKee.”

I heard the story a couple times from other candidates.

At first I was mad. 

Then I laughed.

I’m an entrepreneur at heart, of course I seek out momentum and ride it.

I’m just so glad I didn’t stop creating. 

And, now in a leadership position. Here is my stance. 

To anyone that works alongside me, please please please use me, my momentum, any company’s momentum I work at to benefit YOU and to help your current and future growth. 

My goal is to build a company and also build future leaders, not hold them back.

To see a message like this would mean the world to me.

“I used to work with this guy named Darren and his brand was huge, I rode the wave with him and eventually decided to go build something on my own. So grateful!”

That’s the leadership I try to live out.

Have you ever heard of the 120 day rule?

Probably not.

It is a rule that our family has.

Figured I would share it with all of you.

Any time I start a new job or new position, she gives me 120 days.

120 days to ⬇ 

To fully commit
To wake up really early and get after it
To stay up late working on projects and idea creation
To give me extra grace
To answer most calls that come in
To respond to texts at times I normally wouldn’t
To get in the weeds and understand the job, a lot of studying 
To get a fast start (fast starts are crucial in sales and new projects)

This 120 day rule really helped me during a recent side hustle launch.

However, this time I added to the rule.

Here are the additions ⬇ 

My rules for this -

To over communicate my schedule, Sunday night chats
To observe when the “rule” is too much and it needs to be broken
To build in a date night every 10 days
To carve out time into my schedule for daily kid activities 
To give her grace as she taking on a lot of extra during the season
To remember what matters most, it's not work, it's family 

Please feel free to steal this, use it and tweak it to make it work for you and your family.

P.S. - Remember the rule goes both ways, today we are off to the nursery to buy plants for 11 gardens that she is designing in chapel hill, pray for my back 🤣

A year ago, I signed a partnership to be an influencer for my favorite brand of all time. 

3 years before that, no one on this platform even knew I existed. Today, north of a million people per month are putting their eyes on little ole me's content. 

It felt like a dream moment, tbh.

Since that day, I have created organic content with Mizzen+Main every single month driving hundreds of thousands of eyes to their logo. 

They don't tell me what to do, they trust how I create. 

I get text messages every single month from people in my community talking about how much they love their clothes and that they found them through my content. 

All of this is cool but what is really cool is that Mizzen+Main took a chance on a creator on LinkedIn, they have always been ahead of the curve and this is why they continue to rise to the top of the fashion world. 

As I get deeply entrenched in this creator economy, one thing is on the forefront of my mind and it isn't B2B tech partnerships. 

It is lifestyle brands.
It is CPG.
It is SMB.

It is a very untapped market and I am here to keep sharing stories of why it is impactful and beneficial to both creator and company.

And to all of you that are thinking this type of stuff is impossible, remember little ole me. 

The college drop out.
The no niche creator. 
The against the grain. 

Now, go shop. 

Get a fifteen percent off with DARREN20

For years I was a (B+) employee. 

I wasn’t a problem but I also wasn’t top of leaderboards. 

If there were 20 sellers, I’d be number 4 or 5 consistently. 

Couldn’t ever find that podium though. 

Then, in 2021 I had a company invest in me.

They paid for me to have a coach. 

Suddenly, I found myself on the podium every single month I was at that company.

Here are things my coach worked with me on

1 - Boundaries with my team 

2 - We took email off my phone 

3 - We practiced for upcoming calls

4 - We focused on worst that can happens 

5 - We leaned into my strengths 

6 - We celebrated small wins in tough times 

7 - We worked on executive presence 

8 - We met every other Tuesday 

9 - We focused on present and deep future 

10 - We built person QBR’s on goals 

And by landing on that podium, I made the company an insane amount of money blowing my year 1 ramp quota out of the water. 

Because of a coach.

750K of ACV for $230 per paycheck.

ROI is huge. 

And now this is why I put coaching into the hands of B players like this guy pictured every single day.

✌️ 

FYI - If you are a learning / talent / od leader partnered with a external coaching firm, I’d love to talk. Especially if you are on an unlimited session model and don’t get to see the coaches your leaders are matching with or are being told you are too small of a business to get cs support!!

I still rock SaaSBros. even though some would say it was a “failed startup.”

If failed means, helping thousands break into tech sales then yes we failed. 

If failed means, hundreds of our hoodies and shirts sold around the globe then yes we failed. 

If failed means, putting our playbook into the hands of people in 40 countries then yes we failed.

If failed means, closing a business with only a couple thousand dollars in the account then yes we failed. 

If failed means, getting to found your first startup with your brother then yes we failed.

If faked means, still getting messages from people landing their dream jobs because of SB then yes we failed. 

I’m in Mexico this week and I put this on with pride. 

Oh and guess what? Someone here in another country recognized the logo 😳 

It’s been cool putting this logo in front of millions and millions of people!

Thanks to the logo that built me.

Sorry to burst people’s bubble here but this is what a day in the life looks like for some of us.

Yes this will be a run on sentence. Or 3.

Woke up late, crushed two cups of coffee and ate my 7 year olds left over sausage biscuit. Threw the 4 year old in the car and dropped her off at school, rushed to get to a meeting but had to dial in for the first 5 minutes via the phone. Forgot my charger in the car, ran out to get that but forgot my key in the office. Figured that out and ready to rock.

Knocked out some meetings and proposals at Industrious, yes I go to the office every day. I love it! 

Realized I booked my schedule back to back so grabbed some SunChips and a Kodiak Cakes bar. Yea I know, lunch of champions. 

Oh, I did eat an apple and some pistachios.

Quick 15 min walk outside then back to wrap up calls till 3:30, next 30 I drove home so I was close by when my 4:30 call ended. Don’t like ending calls at 5:00 from the office, learned that from my coach years ago.

Wife was at tennis with the kids so I grabbed a quick coke with a splash of whiskey and grilled a few burgers and dogs.

We ate in like 15 minutes then off to all pitch in to help my wife and her business, she’s in the plant and landscaping business. 

Started paying the kids a few bucks an hour to help and they love it and well, taxes. 

Home. Another snack for the kids, teeth brush and they are out like a light. Oh and filling up the water bottles, these kids are like dehydrated philosophers at the end of the night. 

A little Bravo TV and some National Basketball Association (NBA)  to close out the day. 

Sorry. No meal planning, ice baths or yoga.

Just not in the cards right now, this is our flow state!

Not sure I would have changed anything about this day 😜

The followers & connections here aren't really your friends.

They don't care about you, other than your content. 

I used to think this way. 

Then I started to build true friendships here and meet these "followers & connections" in real life.

Back then 👇 

"Why are you texting a LinkedIn person?" - my family

Now 👇 

"How is Bryan doing, need to get that trip scheduled to see him." - my family

Over the last few weeks, I have leaned on this guy more than most of the people in my life.

From a coach perspective.
From a friend perspective.
From a medical perspective.

B,
Grateful for you, brother.
D,

Some of you are sharing insanely good content but it is receiving very little engagement.

Listen, I recently shared the EXACT SAME post that I had shared 3 1/2 years ago and the results were wildly different. 

It isn't that your content isn't good, it's just that you haven't been here long enough to see what can truly happen. 

Keep going, I promise it will get better. 

He doesn’t care how much I get paid. 

He doesn’t care about my impressions.

He doesn’t care about my side hustle.

All he cares about is that I make time for him.

Over the last few months I’ve given him more of me and work a little less of me.

This was strategic.

For years it was the reverse, wasted years.

And guess what happened over the last few months?

Pay went up 
Impressions went up
Side hustle started thriving 

Funny what happens when you prioritize those that matter most to you!

For enterprise sellers - how to win large deals:

• Ian Koniak: To close big deals, you need 3 key ingredients
→ https://buff.ly/4abAyPI 

• Brandon Fluharty 🐝: The fastest path isn’t frantic activity, it’s thoughtful effort.
→ https://buff.ly/48ZlDa6

• Tanveer Mostafa: Difference between 5-figure discovery and 6-figure discovery. → https://buff.ly/48TZ72o

• Troy Munson: Large deals are a different animal.
→ https://buff.ly/4a3RdVg

• Nate Nasralla: Best analogy for complex selling
→ https://buff.ly/4adYX7e 

• Jen Allen-Knuth: Book group meetings with cross-functional, C-level leadership teams
→ https://buff.ly/3Idn8Xq

• Kat Shuchuk: I closed the biggest deal in comm history while on my ramp
→ https://buff.ly/4adYVME

• Jacob Karp: “You really understand our business.”
→ https://buff.ly/4ahf2ZT

• Monica Stewart: Close bigger deals, faster with enterprise buyers 
→ https://buff.ly/4cd4c91

• Jamal Reimer: How to sell transformation deals
→ https://buff.ly/48TnxJp

• 👩🏻‍🏫 Krysten Conner: Enterprise selling is a team sport.
→ https://buff.ly/4cg0lrx

• Florin Tatulea: If your sales cycles are longer than 4 weeks you should do this
→ https://buff.ly/4adYW3a

• Salman Mohiuddin: Hold yourself accountable
→ https://buff.ly/4a4OTNW

• Patrick Trümpi: We won 40% of the market in 1.5 years 
→ https://buff.ly/49ZIWSM 

• Brandon Clauser: People overcomplicate enterprise software sales. 
→ https://buff.ly/3TzZuLe 

• 🎺 Rory Sadler: The only difference with selling into enterprise is the longer sales cycles right? → https://buff.ly/3TE4Ftm 

• Frankie Vignone: Why multi-threading isn’t enough
→ https://buff.ly/3TzQVjw 

• David Lindner: The one skillset differentiator of an Enterprise AE vs SMB/Mid-Market? → https://buff.ly/3wYahWL 

• Fred Copestake: "We struggle to sell at C-Level... the team is great but can't crack this" 
→ https://buff.ly/4ctG8Po 

• Chet Lovegren 🩺 interviews Leslie Venetz on how to break into key accounts
→ https://buff.ly/4clwIVS 

• Ricky Pearl: There are four elements to "Enterprise selling"
→ https://buff.ly/43guwLr 

• Mike Fiascone: When you get to the POC stage 
→ https://buff.ly/3TkDOl1 

• Kyle Asay: I was working on a large deal when the customer asked 
→ https://buff.ly/3TARnhs 

• Chris Orlob: I talked to an enterprise seller who's closed $160,000,000 in SaaS. 
→ https://buff.ly/3TARqd8 

• Brian LaManna: 4 lessons from an opp that slipped into 2024
→ https://buff.ly/48Yzrln 

• Darren McKee: Summary of deals closed as of late. 
→ https://buff.ly/3TBGb4a 

• Gavin Kowalski: Lessons from 15 years in Enterprise and Global account sales 
→ https://buff.ly/4ai6D8Q

• 🎺 Ali Chrisp: 3 things you need to do to make MAPs worthwhile
→ https://buff.ly/4agSWGN 

P.S. Get the best resources for your sales career in my weekly newsletter - Join over 770 readers at harishalkic.com

I grew up in a small town

I barely graduated high school

I didn’t go to college

I worked at golf courses and pizza shops

I delivered mail and made copies

At 24 I got my “big break”

A recruiter job hiring mail and copy people where I was making 30K

10 years later?

A VP of Sales

And

Founder of my own side hustle startup that has yet to be named and doesn’t have a website but is currently at 15K monthly revenue with little to no overhead

In the coming weeks, I will name it

Might even launch a website, idk though

Content, DM's and Stripe Links have worked well up to this point 

Anyways, I don't write this to brag but to simply tell any of you that are in your pizza shop or mail room days, they are limited

Your time is around the corner

Flashback to my wife and I celebrating after that "big break"

Cool story, this was at The Optimist in Atlanta and we got to meet Tim Tebow that night! 

I don’t normally post after 5PM but I’m smiling ear to ear right now after having the privilege of speaking to 100+ leaders in the RDU startup ecosystem a few hours ago.

LinkedIn changed my life and I want that for others.

It’s that simple.

To those of you that came, thank you.

And to a couple close friends that showed up, I appreciate you. 

And yes I rocked Jordan’s and backwards hat, it’s a thing now!

Few profiles on here grab my attention, this one just completely captivated me.

Day 1 - Photography Intern
Day 192 - Community Manager
Day 527 - Production Assistant
Day 896 - Associate Producer
Day 1,241 - Creative Producer
Day 1,492 - Manager of New Business Development 
Day 2,008 - Head of Education (different firm)
Day 2,699 - Talent Manager (boomerang back)
Day 3,005 - VP, Core Relationships 

VaynerMedia / VaynerTalent / VaynerX

Well done Nick Dio & Gary Vaynerchuk

This is what it's all about and I love the details about this last role of building and cultivating relationships. 

Firms could learn from this.

No one will sign up.

You don't have the time.

Other people are more qualified.

People are going to make fun of you and laugh.

Yep. These are all things that I told myself before September of 2023.

I knew I wanted to launch my first LinkedIn & Social Selling Cohort but the negative self talk was running rampant in my mind.

All of those statements above, plus like 50 others.

Then, I started to surround myself with humans that would pour words of encouragement into my life.

I ran to people that understood where I was and had climbed out of the state that I was in.

They told me things like 👇

You will sell out your November Cohort, if you launch. Then you will do the same for months after that and it will grow.

You will make the time because this is what you enjoy.

Other people probably are more qualified but they aren't taking action.

People will laugh and make fun of you but that stripe account make you smile.

Guess what happened when I launched?

I sold out November - February and now May is full and June is getting there!

I started to carve out and make the time and it felt so dang good.

By taking action, I pushed forward through the imposter syndrome.

People laughed and snickered but that stripe account did lift my spirits a bit.

What a few months, proud of what we accomplished and stoked for what's to come!

Details -

Dates are finalized for June: ( 30 slots left )

June 3rd, 10th & 17th

8:00PM EST

Structure & Pattern Interrupts
Building referral partnerships
Positioning your message
Video & Audio outbound
Crafting your messaging
Research & Relevancy
Personal Branding
Social Selling
Building trust
The platform
Engagement
DM Strategy
Your profile
My insights
Your why
Hooks

P.S. - Curriculum is not in this order, it just looked better.

P.P.S. - For testimonials, look at my recommendations or past posts or just ask me. 

P.P.P.S. - Grateful for this platform and the community we have built. 

Have a great day ✌️

I recently made a change in the way I navigate first meetings with prospects

I changed because of data

1 HR = lowest conversion

25 Min = highest conversion

45 Min = middle of the two above 

By conversion here, I’m talking about getting to a 2nd meeting or demo

I then started to peel back the layers a bit, even talked to my founder about it a bit last week

I think shorter converts more because it’s respectful

I think shorter converts more because we get to the point quicker 

I think shorter concerts more because I can’t say dumb stuff 

I think shorter converts more because my buyer knows how the next call will be like 

I think shorter concerts more because I can’t feature dump

So, if you aren’t converting them if recommend setting your first meetings at 25 minutes vs 45 or an hour. 

Enjoy this clip 😉

Please please please stop spending 10K for someone to write your content for you or take over your profile to “maximize growth.”

This isn’t rocket science. 

“I’ve learned more in my 3 weeks with you than the year I spent with multiple consultants while spending 10X the amount.”

That was from a founder I coached in November.

People think it takes hours on hours to build a following here and to generate meaningful revenue.

It’s just not true. 

If you can carve our 30 min of focused time per day then you can do this.

The cool part about doing it this way is that you haven’t sold off your authentic voice.

Not to mention the hundreds of leads you are probably missing in your DM’s and reaction / content / profile view data 😉

There is a reason I’ve coached over 140 leaders since launching in September.

I make it simple.
I break it down.

I help you find relationships and revenue that you never knew existed. 

“Shhh, dad. Don’t tell everyone your secrets.”

It’s ok, I want everyone to thrive here.

It’s more fun doing it this way. 

Oh and if you are a leader of people, this people under your wing will take your lead and have an immense amount of psychological safety to create themselves which builds more revenue in many many ways!

My ceo joined a couple of my sales calls this week. 

In previous orgs, that would have freaked me out. 

Here, at Skye. She’s simply there to help. 

Something about feeling safe at work. 

Oh and your prospects can feel it to, trust me. 

They can feel the lack of psychological safety or the presence of it.

It’s up to you as a leader to determine how your team enjoys their time with you.

Sure, I don’t have that MBA or a 4 Year Degree but that doesn’t mean I don’t belong. 

Just a story and some tips for my fellow college drop outs ✌️

2 years ago I called 🏄‍♂️ Scott Leese and told him I was going to go all in on myself and quit my full time job. 

He was silent. Until he wasn’t. 

“You might could do it, maybe. But what I’d tell you to do is get some years under your belt and actually go lead a revenue team. Grow something to a million arr, hire some people, fail and win some. Then start thinking about doing the solo thing. Not yet bud. I care about you enough to not let you do this right now.”

I got off the call pretty bummed. He doesn’t know me really. He doesn’t understand my drive. He thinks I can't do it. 

Today. I’m so damn thankful for his words and it is why he has made such an impact in the tech sales world over the last 10+ years. 

I’m growing so much right now, doing exactly what he told me to do at Skye.

One day that time will come, but right now I am building and learning and having a lot of fun! 

✌️ 

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