S2 EP 004 | Troy Sacco

Manny Matsakis

Hello, this is Manny Matsakis, and welcome to another episode of The Manny Matsakis Show. Let's create a football coaching life on your terms. You're passionate, you're focused, all you need to do is immerse yourself each week in an episode of the show. Take the time to find those ideas from our guests and apply them to keep improving. Compress time, learn from their experience to create that football coaching life on your terms. Make sure you act on those ideas. That is so important. Notice what's working and what doesn't as you head down your path now let's get on with the show.

Manny Matsakis

It's Season Two, Episode Four. My guest today is Troy Sacco, the Vice President of Global Sales at Fogo de Chao, arguably the premier Steakhouse in the world. Troy has spent more than two decades in sales and sales leadership, working with some of the largest entertainment and hospitality brands in the world, including Dave and Busters, Club Corp, American Golf, and PSP sports. Troy is a native of Verona, New York. He lives in Texas, with his wife Jessica and is the father of five children and he has three grandchildren.

Troy was a standout first-team all-conference performer at wide receiver for me at Emporia State University, he still holds the record at Emporia State for most receiving yards per game. His success was short-lived due to the adversity of having broken his leg twice, while at Emporia State. His resiliency and dedication as a player were second to none.

Oftentimes, as coaches we learn more from our players than we could ever teach them. Troy is an example of that for me. We have quite a bit to learn in today's analysis and application of a young man who battled adversity as a student-athlete to create an outstanding career after football.

Now, let's get on with the show.

Manny Matsakis

After that introduction, I have the one and only Troy Sacco! Troy a lot of guys out there that are fans and former players of Emporia State would not know who you are by that name. When you came to Emporia State and you played for me, your name was Maton. Troy was, as I had mentioned during the introduction, a fantastic receiver and so forth for us and has become a great success in the sales world. But explain why did you change your name and when you did it so everybody, so people out there know?

Troy Sacco

Yeah, for sure. Thanks, coach. When I was young, I was adopted by my mother's second husband. And shortly after that, I was sent to live with my grandparents. He was in the military, and so to keep all the military benefits, I had to stay legally adopted to him. And so, I went all the way through high school and even into college with the last name Maton. And as I got older, I was about 30 years old, my grandfather's health started to fail, and he asked me before he passed what I changed my name back. And it's one of those times in your life where you're like you realize the selfishness. Everybody who ever knew me knew me is Troy Maton. And I realized at that moment, that's not the most important thing. And so, I changed my name back to my birth name, which was Sacco at 30 years old.

It was not easy. I was in the middle of my career growth path and had to explain that to everybody and talk to everybody going back to people, even connecting with people on LinkedIn, they're like, well, who is Troy Sacco? Having to explain it all? Yeah, so that's, that's how I got the name and couldn't be happier about that decision. But every time I go back to Emporia everyone calls me Maton. And it doesn't matter how many times I explained it.

Manny Matsakis

You know, Troy, I first met you when I took over the head coaching position at Emporia State in Kansas, and it was interesting because you were not recruited by our staff. You were a holdover from Larry Kramer's staff. What were your thoughts? Here's a new coach to come in the program that was very young. I was one of the youngest head coaches in the country at the time. And what were your thoughts?

Troy Sacco

That's such a great question. Because initially, when I found out what the offense was about, I was excited. I thought, you know, Coach Kramer's offense basically revolved around the I-formation with Quincy Tillman. Right? He was great. And, yeah, I mean, I would come in as a freshman on third downs, catch a 15-yard comeback or post route and come off the field. And so, it was really great to have that opportunity to play in a Run and Shoot or Sting and Shoot offense.

What I quickly learned, though, is that you had no idea what I had done in the past, or what I could do. And so, I found out pretty quickly, I've got to prove myself all over again. That was the shock to me, it was like, why wouldn't I just step into the starting role? I didn't understand. Right? And, and it was hard for me at first, because I had to put my ego aside and say, this coaching staff has no idea who I am or what I do, and I had to change my whole philosophy on how I approached every practice. It wasn't easy. That's for sure.

Manny Matsakis

You know, Troy, as you say that, what was very interesting to me is I learned so much from having you on the team and what you ended up doing that I am so happy that I had a chance to learn from you. Moving forward, I think a lot of coaches out there get so caught up in ourselves, we think that, Oh, we're going to come in and do this, and we don't look at what is in the house, I thought, you come in, they had a different style of offense, there's no way they have any receivers, let me go out and get a whole bunch of dudes that I know fit my offense, even though they're going to be younger. After a little while, I learned. You played because you outperformed people and you produced. So, I think that was interesting for me as a young coach to go through. And I think many times when you're in the position of leadership, I think you got to check your ego at the door and just actually analyze what's really in front of you, and how you deal with it.

Manny Matsakis

So, you get there. And what is interesting to me is you had a lot of adversity at Emporia State. I mean, you broke your leg two times. And you're able to fight through that. How were you able to fight through that because you had some really good production going forward? And just so I can premise all this is, you know, you still hold the record at Emporia State for the most receiving yards per game in a season. You had over 121 yards per game. So, it's like you did that five games in a row, the top receiver in the conference at the time, and then bam, you break your leg. So, what was going through your mind at that point that you had to get taken care of?

Troy Sacco

Yeah, well, it's the third time I broke it. I broke my leg when I was 12 or 13. And, and so it for me it was very difficult for a couple of reasons. One, my grandparents had never seen me play collegiate football before. I'm the first person in my family to go to college. My grandfather was a mechanic. My grandmother was a homemaker. And so, my sophomore year they came out for Family Day. And I broke my leg on Family Day as a sophomore. And then you come back you battle back yet you know, a great junior year your offense did for me exactly what I had hoped it had. It allowed me, to do the things that I'm I was good at doing. And then my senior year. They came back out for Family Day, and I broke my leg again on Family Day. So tragic. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It was tough. And, you know when I broke it, I thought it was a sprained ankle. So, I continue to play two or three plays, running on it. And then I caught a pass from Jelovic across the middle of the post pattern, and I jumped for it when I landed to plan to cut back it snapped. And, you know, I couldn't run on it.

For me, it was It wasn't just the broken leg. It was just the process of, you know, the roller coaster ride of hey, I'm getting to fulfill my dream of doing what I'm doing. I'm in a perfect offense for me. And leading the entire conference and being third in the country. And, and then you know, why me? Right? The famous question, right? Why me? All the strength training, the lower body training, going from running, I got there running a 4.7 I just didn't drop footballs. That's why I was valuable. But by the time I left, I was running under a 4.5 and that was all through strength training and plyometric training all the stuff that you brought to Emporia that we didn't do any of that before. And so, it was more of a why me moment.

After that, Doc Baxter said, it's about six weeks and that put me after the end of the season and so I don't know if you remember this, but I came to you in the office and said, hey, if I can get back and be able to practice the last game, can I play in the game? And I remember the Thursday before the last game of the season. You said Alright, come on, you can run some one-on-one drills and just to see if I could move right and I was obviously hobbling. I didn't have what it took and so that last game you let me come out of the tunnel first and all that stuff and I didn't get to play but I did get to hold kicks on the extra points and so I got on the field my last game but it for me it was bittersweet because I really was like why did this happen to me? I don't understand it. You know the funny part is I didn't go out and party with those guys all the time and do all that. I did all the right stuff, and it's just goes to show you never know Right? Adversity finds its way in sometimes and you got to be able to battle it.

Manny Matsakis

And I remember and you wouldn't have known this, but we were in a staff meeting prior to the season and we're analyzing all the different guys and we had some great receivers. We got other guys that were fantastic. But you know we'd go through the list, and I remember going through this and your name kept coming up. I told our receiver coach at the time I said Larry Antonucci, he reminds me a lot of Wayne Chrebet who I'd coached out at Hofstra who ended up being all-pro with the Jets. I said his work ethic, his ability to come back. See Wayne's only issue was he had a lot of concussions you know; he didn't break any bones or anything like that that would limit him. He was a hell of a player also. But you know, it was prophetic. I mean, as the season was rolling along, here it goes Troy and you were our go-to guy these first five games and just amazing production and a great teammate. I mean, in the end, I would like to think that, when you did go down the guys really felt it was the next man up, but they really felt for you and, they didn't just throw you away.

Troy Sacco

No, not at all wasn't like that at all. It's funny. I'm sure you remember David Kaff? Offensive lineman. Great player. He and I were the only two players from the 93 class that finished in 98. We were the only two left and he lives right down the street from me and he's my chiropractor if you can believe that. Yeah, no, he's the type of guy that came and visited me at the house. All the guys came, it was great. It was bittersweet. It was really, tough to sit and watch the rest of the year.

Manny Matsakis

And I get it. But you know, it's funny. What was your edge competing at the college level? Because it was different than high school? Yeah. So, what was it like? What was in your heart, your secret weapon, something like, I can do something different, I can be somebody to get out on the field because obviously, you had a chip on your shoulder to prove yourself? So, what was your secret weapon?

Troy Sacco

I think at the end of the day, it all boiled down to not wanting to let my grandparents down. They wanted me to, stay home and work. I just had to get to work and do the things they wanted me to do. But when football gave me that opportunity, I didn't want to be in a position where I failed academically. But on the field, I didn't want to be a guy who just sat on the bench and played and wore a helmet.

So, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. I think the biggest thing if you boil it all down, is that I tried to do everything perfectly, run the perfect route, because I didn't have that breakaway speed that Vito had or any of these guys. So, if I didn't hit my fifth step on the post-corner, I didn't have the ability to make up the difference, right? So, I think the thing that I learned from you and studied from you more than anything is in the film rooms.

We used to run this backside play where we would fake the ISO to the right, and we run it out of trips left, and we'd fake the pop out, and then I'd come up the backside hash. I remember I caught a touchdown, a 50-yard touchdown, but I was off the hash by like three yards. And I remember that next Monday, you would come in and you said, hey, a great catch, but you got to get on the hash. And I'm thinking I just scored, well, you know, what do you do? You know, but it didn't matter. Because if the safety hadn't fallen getting over it would have been a pick. And it's because I didn't get all the way over to the hash - stuff like that stuck with me. And so, I think the secret to success, is that I had to be perfect because I didn't have all the other stuff that could make up the difference.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, that's that play was called 62 Switch. By the way. That's right, crazy how we remember these things? Yeah, you guys made that whole series, the Belly series, and the play-action off of it, you guys made it famous?

Troy Sacco

It's easy when you got eight guys in the box trying to stop Brian Shay. I mean, it's basically like taking candy.

Manny Matsakis

It was and you know, you think about all the things that you learned as a college student-athlete. What are the things that you learned, that really come to mind you've been able to bring forward to have such a successful career in sales? You're sitting here and you're the vice president of sales, you are in that top 1% in the industry doing this and extremely successful. So, what have you applied from being a student-athlete? We know about the adversity, but what has helped you the most?

Troy Sacco

The first thing is the most important thing, I'm finishing a book. The title of the book is You cannot motivate anybody; you can only inspire a motivated person. And I learned that by watching hundreds of teammates come through and try to play football. Having great coaches try to motivate people that couldn't be motivated. They didn't want to do the work; they didn't want to hit the weights at 5:30 in the morning. When the coach wasn't looking, they set the weights down. All these things that I witnessed. I didn't have the luxury of taking those breaks, right. So, I bring that over into my leadership style now where I don't spend time trying to motivate anybody if they if they're not motivated to do it, I move on.

We hire highly motivated people, former competitive athletes, former competitive people, whether it's musicians or dancers or whatever because they're motivated humans, right? The losing hurts more than winning feels good type thing. So that's the first thing. The second thing goes back to what we said earlier, which is I became acutely aware of how people will feel when they have something to contribute yet somebody from the outside may not see it and how hard that is to battle mentally every day. So now when I come into an organization, I've come in three times as a Vice President, and now as a Global Vice President, with talented people on the team. And it is a very conscious decision to do what you did for me, which is to give me the runway to learn the systems that I bring in a new sales leader and combine it with the talents that they have. And it's changed how I go about teaching and coaching and mentoring people because I went through that. I went through, hey, this isn't a salesperson that I brought in, I'm going to bring my own people in. So, I learned a lot.

And then the next thing is to work when others aren't working. You know, I was running stairs after weights in the morning, I was doing those things that others weren't. And so, I saw the payoff. From a leadership perspective, I always try to instill in my team that we have to do the things others don't to get the results others won't. And those are the three big ones.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, those are extremely valuable lessons that you've been able to bring forward. Obviously, I've helped you become very successful in the industry. Yeah, you know, when you look at your leadership style at FOGO if I would come in and talk to people that you lead, what would they say you are like? How do you feel they perceive you?

Troy Sacco

There's a phrase that I use all the time, and I think everyone that would speak of me as a leader would use, it's called compassionate intelligence. I'm very compassionate in my approach, but also smart enough and have enough awareness to understand where the BS lies, right. You know, being able to understand people's differences in their situations, while also not being taken advantage of is an incredibly useful skill as a leader, right. And so, you know, I would like to think if I stayed in football and stayed in coaching, I would coach that way as well with compassionate intelligence, the dig for the meal type approach to leadership? I think that's probably the most distinctive leadership style that people would say about me.

Manny Matsakis

I think it's vital. And I think in the end when I see so many coaches. You talk about a Dick Vermeil, because he was the coach prior to when I was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, and he would still be around the office. And, he had one way of doing it, and then I see others like, when I work with Mike Leach, Bill Snyder, or I think successful leaders. You tell me, if I'm basically on target here, they must be themselves. You can't be fake.

Troy Sacco

You see right through it? Yeah. 100%? Yeah. And we'll see right through that quickly. And the worst thing you can do is lose credibility with your words because then your actions don't matter. And you know that that's the thing that I think people will know and understand. Troy is going to come in, I would come to the table with compassion. But if you're not doing the right things, the compassionate part doesn't matter. And so that's a key component, a very good observation on your part, from a coaching perspective. People know, those fake approaches to coaching and leadership. And, that's when the team doesn't buy-in, right?

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, there's no question. I sense that and how do you feel someone's mindset can really be a positive effect on their success. How does that work for you?

Troy Sacco

Well, I can tell you that positive people, in general, are going to start the day in an advantageous position, just generally speaking. The way that I kind of look at it is the opposite way. It's that everyone should come to the table with a positive mindset. It's the people that have the negative mindset, right, that's the problem. I think, but it goes back to if you fill your team with motivated people, they don't have time to deal with those types of negative emotions, right? And so, by proxy, when you get rid of unmotivated people, you get rid of most of the headaches you'd have to deal with and you're dealing with positive mindset people that find ways to win.

You know, that's the key for you as a coach, and these are things that that I garnered playing for you. Is that the excuse no matter what, it doesn't matter. Ball is wet, nobody cares, catch the ball, you know, those are things that once you understand the expectation of the person that you're trying to get the results for, then all of a sudden, all the excuses go away and, it doesn't matter if the ball is wet, you're just going to catch it. And then once you start getting people on your team that also are emulating your words and your actions, then the people that have that type of negative connotation to life, they start feeling like the outsiders, and they move themselves out, you don't even need to move them out. Because they know, hey, I can't come to the huddle and talk that that noise about excuses because the quarterback, the running back, the receiver, the line, nobody's going to hear it. And it's like that in the sales world too in corporate America.

Manny Matsakis

How is that? I mean, what have you noticed the most in sales?

Troy Sacco

I think that it's about giving somebody goals that are attainable. And then giving them the easiest path to get there through your tools and resources. Somebody said this about me one time, and it sounds gratuitous. But I don't mean it that way. It's, you're going to ask me to climb Mount Everest, but you're going to give me the easiest path to get there. And by the way, the easiest path is about as hard as it gets, right. But if you're going to achieve great things, you can't just ask people to do things you're not willing to do. And so, in sales, and sales leadership, if somebody's working with you on trying to drive revenue, and they say to you, hey, here's the phone, you do it, if you don't immediately pick up that phone and show them how to do the things you're describing your credibility is lost. Right? And so that's the thing that I think makes the difference between winning and losing and sales.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, I think it's winning and losing it pretty much anything if you're not willing. Yeah, yeah, it's true. I mean, you got to do the little things, and they all stack up to what really matters, and that is everybody pulling the rope in the same direction. You know, and I really liked that about your philosophy moving forward. And, and you can see, success leaves clues.

Troy Sacco

And that's a great one! I'm gonna write that down. I'm gonna, I'll give you full credit. But that's gonna end up on my webinar this month, success leaves clues, that's a good one, as you'll see a little dash of Manny Matsakis next to it.

Manny Matsakis

I appreciate it. But you know, it's players like yourself, and I still call you a player. But you know, you always will be right. Yeah, you know, I learned more from my players, I believe, than I could ever teach them. I mean, you try to do your best in the profession, and you're grateful. You hope that it gets across but didn't get across to everybody. I am a whole lot better with high achieving players, people that want it and have the desire, I connect with them better than that guy who has got all this talent, but he's not willing to meet me somewhere in the middle.

Troy Sacco

100% Coach, I mean I don't want to speak for others. But I was not the most talented guy on that team. But I would like to think that if you threw me the ball, I was gonna find a way to come down with it. Right? And, you know, it's funny when I talk to people now, and I tell them I played college football and all those other things. Oh, did you play the slot? I'm like, No. Actually, I played the X. Yes. You know, because I was five-foot-nine. I'm like, there was me and Joe Williams. Remember Joe Williams? Yeah, oh, man. He could run for days, you know, big Gazelle. But, you know, those are the type of guys that that could do it. He had all the talent in the world and I think he was a freshman. I was a senior. So, I don't know what happened to him after me. But that's the kind of stuff that makes a difference is Yeah, and people want to win.

Manny Matsakis

Well, there's no question. And I don't know if you know, Joe's son plays for the Miami Hurricanes right now. So oh, wow. So yeah, you're right. I mean, it's all about production. In the end, it's about the production you have to produce once you're given the tools to get this done. I would say, you're in that top 10% of the players that I've coached or been around that understand personal development. And so, what do you do in your day to day in your routine to help you in regard to personal development?

Troy Sacco

So, I am a big feedback guy, right? What I look for is feedback. I have weekly 1 on 1s with our senior sales managers who are the most advanced and experienced salespeople we have. I'm constantly asking for feedback about what I could be doing better from the people that I interact with the most right? It's not the people you have, the cheerleaders on the side are going to tell you all the good things, right. So, these are the people I interact with the most. So that's one way.

The second way is I'm a big reader, I read a ton of books. There's a really great book called, Tools of the Titans, which is incredible. So, I read a lot and I get a lot of feedback from the people I interact with most. And what's great about what I said earlier about surrounding yourself with motivated people is that they are advocates for me and my leadership style. So as an advocate, you're going to get negative feedback because you don't fear the repercussions, you can speak honestly.

Learning those things from those people that I interact with every day is big. And I think the third thing, which is more on a personal note is I learn from my kids all the time, I have five kiddos. Three grandkids and I learn from them every day about how to be a better person, forget the leadership component, just be a better person. That's what I would attribute those to.

Manny Matsakis

Awesome. And I love that about you. I mean, it is something that I think keeps one grounded to keep improving and reading and so forth and applying what you've read because, you know, I noticed that reading in and of itself isn't enough. I always thought about it this way, all readers are not necessarily leaders, but every leader that I know is a reader. Yep, that's the difference. That's like if you want to take a shot at really moving up the ladder being in a leadership position is vitally important to you then reading is critical to your success. What I've noticed is the way people read. Some people sit there, and they'll read every line in the book and go through it, and then they'll be done reading it, and they don't remember what it is they read, right?

Troy Sacco

They can't retain any of it.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, one thing that I've noticed, in just trying to be open to things is there was a point where I was on a kick to read like a book a week, boom, boom, right? And then, I fell into that. So where am I on this deal? Why am I not absorbing it? But, and tell me if this works for you? Or if you ever thought about this, when I read, it's more how marked up the book is with ideas I get from? What I'm reading is about the application, right?

Troy Sacco

Yes, yes. 100%! It is so funny. Because if you look at any of the books that I've read, you see in the notes, it's on the page, how do I apply it? It's so funny that you said that. I wish I was in my office right now because I could show you some but it's on each page, how I apply it and, and I go back to those consistently, but I didn't do that before - like your point, I would read books, and think, Oh, well, I look smart on a plane reading a book, right? I'm reading this thing. And I'd get done with the plane ride back and forth from LA or wherever it was, and I would have read, half the book, and I couldn't retain a single piece of it. So yep, you know, 100% Yeah, you do that as well.

Manny Matsakis

It feels like I've been doing that forever? Yeah, I mean, for a while when it finally dawned on me. I think I had a recruits mother come in my office one time and I had volumes of books on a bookshelf. She asked, Why do you have so many books? Then after they left, I started thinking like, Okay, I looked at that book, what did I learn from it? And then I went back and started re-reading, and I journal a lot so that then I can say, what did I learn from this? So, if I have a daily practice, I can apply it to my football program per se or life in general. I think the application is key to improving.

I'm very intrigued by your steakhouse. You know, Fogo de Chao.

I know you have 55 restaurants all over the world. A lot all over the United States and various major cities and so forth. Yeah. And so, what is it like? What makes your steakhouse so amazing, so fantastic. What is it about the experience when they walk in the door? And I come in there and eat? Why is it so good? What's on the other side?

Troy Sacco

Yeah, well, it wasn't born in a boardroom. You know, we were founded 40 plus years ago in San Paulo, Brazil, by gauchos and people that practice the art of the churrasco cooking meat on the ground, in southern Brazil. And it was an incredible concept that originally George Bush Sr, came and visited Brazil and loved it so much that he got to bring this to the United States. Our first location was Addison Texas 24 years ago. And so, the idea and notion of hospitality and true southern Brazilian hospitality, in the form of a meal that you can eat can experience at a Fogo. We have 46 locations all over the US and when you go there, you feel like you're in southern Brazil, we have 16 different cuts of meat that come around the table. We have an international market table that when people think Fogo they think meat, but you can go there as a vegetarian and walk out just as full as you would a typical carnivore, right? Yeah, the meats were incredible. And when you go there, the notion is that it's all you can experience. It's not all you can eat, although, by name it is, it's all you can experience. You get 16 different cuts of meat and every time you come in, it just keeps coming until you choose to stop experiencing what we have to offer. So, it's really great. And I'm in charge of the private event division of the company. So, if you come and host a meeting and event football as an example of team dinners, or celebration dinners or coaches meetings, you know those types of things. That's what our salespeople sell, and that's who I ultimately work with.

Manny Matsakis

Oh, wow. So you can work with college football teams or football teams in general right?

Troy Sacco

Yeah, as a matter of fact, we hosted just I think the other day, the Army football team at our White Plains location, the teams love it, and the coaches love it. Because you can customize the menu to whatever dietary needs you need, if you want us only to bring the athletes chicken and market table, we can do that. Or we can have the full experience with all our options. So, we do that all the time with athletes and teams, they either come in, and they can experience in one of our private rooms. So, it's kind of private and the public's not bothering them. Or we can bring them off-site catering to the locker room after games or priority games. So, it's a really great experience for teams.

Manny Matsakis

Wow. Yeah. Holy smokes, why wouldn't every football team in the country want to do this? I mean if they're in one of your locations. I mean, it just sounds fantastic. If I'm a team coming in to play SMU or something, this is where I would go. I mean because you want to have that. And I like the idea of the victory meal. Because what is interesting is we did that when I was in Lubbock at Texas Tech. I've seen other places do this, where when you win the big game. Here's the victory meal. So, it's like some type of incentive. Love it.

Troy Sacco

Well, you know, it's great because there's something for everybody you know, and the 16 different cuts of meat are not just regular cuts of steak. They're filets and pork tenderloins and lamb chops and so it's things that you would normally go to a restaurant and pay 50 bucks and you get just lamb chops. You come to Fogo and for about the same price, you can experience all the different cuts of meat and, and flavors that you want. So, it's definitely advantageous for coaches and teams and we've experienced a lot of success with that. I think it's more about awareness really, that your teams don't think about going to a place like Fogo for a meal. But then you walk in, and you see a private room that seats 150 people you can fit the entire team, all the coaches, and everybody or, I don't have time to get there after the game. Can you come and all of a sudden, they walk in the locker room and there's a full spread ready to be eaten? Yes. Wow. That's It's a far cry from the Doritos and Gatorade I would eat on the bus ride home, you know? That's for sure.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, without a doubt. I love that. And now when you talk about the meat and everything I understand is prepared. Different than a typical steak house, right?

Troy Sacco

100% Yep. It's all on the on a rotisserie grill.

Manny Matsakis

And as far as the sourcing of all these, I mean, you're talking about a lot of different kinds of meat. Where do you get this meat?

Troy Sacco

Thats actually, a big differentiator. So, our wagyu as an example, our wagyu comes from the same ranch in Australia, no matter which Fogo location you go to. And it's been that way for 20 years. Our lamb chops come from New Zealand. So, the meats that are sourced from all over the world, some in the United States, obviously. But you know, we take great pride in making sure that the product and the quality is great. Here's something that's an interesting coach that most people don't know if you go into Fogo, that guy that comes around and carves the meat. They are the same individuals that got that meat, and they butcher it. They're the ones that cook it. And then they're the ones that bring it to your table and serve it. So, the accountability of an individual serving you lamb chops, that's the person that that butcher those lamb chops earlier that day. Wow. So, it's, there's no head chef in the back that says hey, if they don't like it, give them a free coke. Right? Like you're serving what you cooked. It's really, it's really great.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah. Wow, that is awesome. I love the way that the company works, the level of excellence that you're talking about is second to none and that industry. I mean, no doubt.

Troy Sacco

You know, we are right now outpacing anybody in our peer group. And, and there's a reason for that it starts at the leadership of Mary McGowan our CEO, and what we try to get accomplished, it's a true sense of when somebody comes here and it may be the only nice meal they have all year. And we wanted to make sure that when they leave there, they feel like that was the best time, energy, and effort they could spend with their family and friends and have the best experience.

Manny Matsakis

Well Troy, let me ask you this. I was wondering, you know, after your transition, I know you tried to get into the CFL and some other things out there. And with decades of success in the sales industry, how is it different than you expected or imagined getting into sales would be? I mean, you thought one thing then you come in how was it? How was it different?

Troy Sacco

Yeah, actually, I didn't even really intend to be in sales. I went to Emporia State for two reasons one to play football and it was one of the top five teacher colleges in the country, right. And so, I graduated to be a teacher. And so, when I didn't make it playing professional football, I went to Fort Worth and started to teach. I taught for a year. And then in the summertime, I took a job selling advertising inside the stadiums for the NFL and the NBA, and I almost made more money in one summer than I did a whole year teaching. And so, I thought, let me try it for a while and see how I can do and after a short period of time, what I found out was through a really great mentor of mine, he said, hey, you have a passion for teaching and coaching. You can do that in the sales world. You just need to change your trajectory, you have to start to learn about leadership and not just about driving revenue. And so that was a pivotal moment.

Manny Matsakis

Could you explain how that works? I mean, what is it? I mean, that's an interesting statement. Repeat that again.

Troy Sacco

So, you have to start to understand how to change the trajectory of your career to focus on sales leadership versus just driving revenue. And that's a big difference.

Manny Matsakis

What are you doing? What is the difference there?

Troy Sacco

Whatever I'm doing has to be repeatable, predictable, measurable, and traceable. And if it's not those things, then it's more of a revenue-generating type activity. And, that's what salespeople should do, they should generate revenue. And that's great. And they should. And there's a lot of tools and resources to help them do that. But as a sales leader, you must be able to take the skillset that you are doing, and then apply it to other people. And you can't do that effectively and sustain it if you don't have those four things. So, it has to be repeatable, predictable, measurable, and traceable. And I can't teach somebody how to go to a trade show, have my personality, get people to buy what I'm selling, and have it be replicable over a longer period of time, right? And so, much like sports, I got to go back to, if you don't do the right things all the time and the right systems and hit the right marks in the short-yardage and make the right cuts and do the right things. It doesn't always matter how talented you are. There are only a few Randy Moss guys is out there. Right? Yeah. So that's the difference between sales leadership and regular sales.

Manny Matsakis

Yeah, I love that. What a tremendous analogy that is. And I can see how that makes a difference. Because, you know, a lot of people in sales are teaching. This is probably why you have become so successful and because you understand that educating your prospective client is the key to success. So, if you can teach it and come across authentically, in a way that you can replicate it, what a difference that makes in your success.

Troy Sacco

100% of people buy from their teachers, and they buy what they trust. Right? So, it's 100% true. And I think coaches, I often think my wife asks me, Well, if you weren't selling, what would you be doing? And I would have loved to have been a coach. And, stop me if I'm wrong because this is the profession you've been in your whole life. But there's a lot of coaches out there that were good football players who were borderline great. But the reason they're great coaches is that they could repeat, predict, measure, and trace the things that that can make other people successful. And some of the best players are not the best coaches. Right? And there's a reason for that. And so, I think that's I learned that on the sales side in my life where if I want to be in sales leadership, I have to change what I focus on.

Manny Matsakis

So, I was wondering, why do people fail? Doing what you do? In sales. What makes them fail?

Troy Sacco

I would say the biggest thing that I see, I wouldn't say routinely because I don't see it as much as I did when I was early on in my sales leadership career, but it's complacency. The salesperson that stops being hungry for breaking their own sales records every year, every month, every quarter. Those are the ones that start to slide and so I think that that's the biggest if I had to boil it down to one word, it's complacency. They're happy with what they have. They're happy at the number they've posted so far. They know they've already hit their plan. Those are the things that I think build complacency and it will ruin you over time. You know, it's the famous multiplier rule, right? A small mistake, like this here, multiplied out over time gets bigger and bigger, right? And so, the complacency model is a very dangerous thing to play around with.

Manny Matsakis

That's great insight, Troy, it is very applicable to an athlete, football coach, anybody like that, because when you start getting comfortable where you're at, then all of a sudden, some team beats you, they should not be able to beat you. Because you've become complacent. I mean that yeah, I mean,

Troy Sacco

I remember and it wasn't a negative experience. For me, it was positive, but you know, playing against a Wayne State, they came in, I'll never forget this, they came in from Michigan, and, and we were up 48 to, I don't know what it was 40-10 or something like that. And we're still throwing the ball over the field. And we're going to do what we came here to do. We didn't embarrass anybody, but it's their job to stop us. Right. And I think that that's a mentality that has stuck with me throughout my career is we're going to do whatever I know how to do. And I want people around me that feel that same way. And that's why we're winning. If I must worry about, trying to motivate this individual to continue to, to get out of his complacency mode. I'm not doing what I need to do. Right? So, I think it applies.

Manny Matsakis

Without a doubt. Now, let me ask you here, as we close on this and think about all the success you've had in your career. What is it you're most grateful for?

Troy Sacco

I'm most grateful for? I think that's a hard question. I'm most grateful for somebody believing that I'm more capable than what they seem at first glance, that says more about the other person than it ever does about what's inside me because it's very easy to see the outside and say, well, this is what this person is, he's a five-foot-nine 180 pound receiver that runs a four-eight. And, and this is it. And what I'm thankful for is that to a large degree, somebody like yourself didn't give up on me, and allowed me to continue to fight and show what I had inside. That says more about the other person than it does about me. So, I think that it is allowing people to continue to give me the chance to see more than what they see on the outside because you can't measure what's inside you. You can't measure that.

Manny Matsakis

I appreciate that. You know, Troy, when it's all said and done, and we leave the planet and it's over. How do you want to be remembered?

Troy Sacco

I want to be remembered first as an incredible father. Somebody that never took his chances for granted. And somebody that lived his life with compassionate intelligence that showed compassion and pushed people at the same time. And I think at the end of the day, if it's going to go on a tombstone, this is one motivated mother effer, right? This is a guy who just says, go ahead and tell me I can't do it. Right? And I think that if you combine all those things together, I think I've done my job on this planet. Be a good father, motivate people and never sell myself short.

Manny Matsakis

I'd like to thank Troy for his insight today. So many times, we get caught up in the coaching and forget the main reason we do this is for the privilege to work with our players and members of the coaching staff. Remember, you can learn more from them than they can ever expect to learn from you. And most of all, enjoy this process.