What Alex Demczak’s new book ‘The Sale’ can teach about trust and integrity

Establishing trust is critical to your organization’s success. Today on Inside Automotive, we’re pleased to welcome Alex Demczak, former SEC quarterback for the Missouri Tigers, keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and trainer for the Jon Gordon Companies. Demczak also recently co-authored The Sale: The Number One Strategy to Build Trust and Create Success and today he joins us to discuss the valuable lessons readers will take away from his book.

Early in his career, Demczak worked in sales for about five years and started building a speaking business on the side. He saw Jon Gordon speak live at his alma mater, The University of Missouri, and the two formed a connection. Demczak started helping Gordon with sales and other tasks, leading to six years of mentorship and collaboration on a book. This past December, Demczak to a leap into full-time entrepreneurship and quit his comfortable job. 

I feel committed to this work. I feel like I’m being called to it. And so I went all in…I was kind of leaning on that comfortability of having that job. And so I wasn’t going all-in on what I really wanted to do, which is writing books and speaking,” says Demczak.

When Demczak and Gordon started conceptualizing their book together, they wanted to try and answer the question: How do we adequately build trust with all the distractions going on in the world? The book is all about integrity and trust, he adds. As the pair started to dig into case studies, they found that every industry deals with integrity issues. Their goal was to write the book in a way that tells a compelling story but also challenges a serious cultural issue. 

The book asks readers to tackle tough questions like How do I build trust? How do I live my life so that when I look back on my career, I know I did it the right way?

Many employees have been doing their jobs for several years, but during the COVID pandemic, some lost trust in their employers. That’s something for leaders who own companies to consider, says Demczak. It’s more important than ever to understand how you live in ways that either build trust or tear it down with the people you lead.

Warren Buffett has an estimated net worth of around $111 billion and has ownership stake in 65 separate companies. He says trust is like the air we breathe. When it’s present, no one even notices. But when it’s absent, you can’t help but notice. You might get that job interview. You might get that promotion, but your character sustains you for the long term.

Pick up your copy of The Sale: The Number One Strategy to Build Trust and Create Success on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Books-A-Million.

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