Episode 119: Develop a Winning Pitch: Lessons from a $100 Million Exit with Sarah Dusek
Sarah Dusek
For over 35 years, Neil Rogers has achieved sales success by applying simple, proven processes and procedures. These methods were developed through firsthand experience, beginning in his late teens and continuing into his mid-twenties, where he learned valuable lessons through perseverance and practical application.
It was these organizational systems, combined with common-sense techniques like the fundamental principle of “showing up,” that enabled him to overcome focus challenges and complete his college education. During this time, he worked in the hospitality industry as a bartender, an experience he credits with fostering his strong commitment to customer service.
As part of the Business Development section of the Positive Activity™ program, Neil incorporates these straightforward techniques, a deep dedication to serving customers, and a Positive Attitude to help businesses thrive.
Watch the episode here
In this episode of Prospecting On Purpose®, Sara Murray sits down with Sarah Dusek — entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author, conservationist, and co-founder of Under Canvas, the upscale outdoor hospitality company she grew to a value of over $100 million.
Sarah shares what she has learned about building a compelling pitch, communicating value, selling with authenticity, and understanding what the person on the other side of the table actually cares about. From raising capital and writing Thinking Bigger to launching Few & Far Luvhondo in South Africa, Sarah’s story is a powerful reminder that business can be both profitable and purposeful.
If you’ve ever struggled to sell yourself, pitch an idea, ask for an opportunity, or communicate your value with confidence, this conversation will help you think bigger and show up with more clarity, connection, and conviction.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
You’re listening to Prospecting On Purpose®, where we discuss all things prospecting, sales, business, and mindset. I’m your host, Sara Murray, a sales champion who’s here to show you that you can be a shark in business and still lead with intentionality and authenticity.
Tune in each week as we dive into methods to connect with clients, communicate with confidence, and close the deal.
Sarah Dusek is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author, and hotelier who believes that business can be a force for good.
In 2009, she founded Under Canvas, the leading upscale outdoor glamping company, which she sold in 2018 for over $100 million. She then launched Enygma Ventures, investing $10 million in women-led startups.
Her book, Thinking Bigger: A Pitch Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World, lays out the building blocks for scaling any business. It’s an incredible resource for anyone who is required to influence and sell, which is a majority of our listeners.
And today, as co-founder and CEO of Few & Far, Sarah is taking hospitality to new heights with the world’s first aerial safari at Few & Far Luvhondo in Africa, where extraordinary travel and a net positive impact on the planet can coexist.
I am thrilled to have her on the show. Our listeners are going to leave so inspired from this interview.
Sarah, welcome to Prospecting On Purpose®.
Sarah Dusek
Thank you so much. So nice to be here.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I’m so happy to have you. Every time we speak, I feel more inspired and more equipped to go tackle the world, so I’m excited to leave our listeners with that same energy.
Before we get into our questions, I’d love to learn a little bit more about your entrepreneurial journey because you’ve had quite the story.
Sarah Dusek
I have had quite the journey, and I didn’t start out my career as an entrepreneur. I consider myself an accidental entrepreneur because I started my working life working for NGOs.
Right out of college, I went to work for an aid agency in Africa. I went to Zimbabwe and then spent the next eight years working for various different agencies in the nonprofit world.
At the time, I would still consider myself a “save the world” person, and I was most definitely a “save the world” person in my early 20s. I used to think about capital as being this sort of dark side of the universe, like everything that’s wrong with the world is because we’re trying to make money.
Then we skip forward just a little bit in my lifetime, and I realized, well, there’s quite a lot wrong with aid agencies too, right? The way we move the world forward, drive change, and make things better doesn’t have to be through a nonprofit vehicle.
What I realized was that nonprofits were not really designed for problem-solving. The vehicle itself is not really designed for problem-solving. It is really designed for bandaging and propping up, if you like.
But the vehicle that really is designed for problem-solving is business. Every business that exists has a very specific problem they are trying to solve and a financially sustainable solution they are trying to create to solve that specific problem.
I realized that business could be an enormous vehicle for doing good in the world and for solving some of our biggest world systemic problems. Even when we take a micro problem within a bigger, larger problem, we can use business to solve it.
So, I am an accidental entrepreneur. I realized that if business could be a vehicle for driving change and moving the world forward, I needed to learn something about business.
I stepped into the business arena almost 20 years ago now. In fact, over 20 years ago. I have had a myriad of failures and successes along the way, and all of our endeavors have attempted to solve some problem that I personally care about.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I think that’s what really resonates with me about you — this concept that wealth and capital don’t have to be bad, and the fact that you can use business as the vehicle to solve problems.
When I think about politics, for example, I wish we could get some business people into political roles. They’re solving different problems, and I just think it’s such a refreshing take on something that I completely agree with you on. So I’m excited to get into it in a little bit more detail.
With all of your business ventures, you’ve had to go out and raise capital. You’ve had to go out and sell yourself.
With your background in nonprofit, obviously I don’t want to assume you don’t come from a sales background, but it doesn’t seem that was part of the mix at the beginning.
Sarah Dusek
It definitely wasn’t. I think culturally, too, I am originally British. I’m now a naturalized and proud American, but I am originally British, and culturally, this whole concept of selling yourself and selling anything was also slightly weird and uncomfortable.
I think Americans innately have a stronger culture around sales than us Europeans do. But one of the things I have learned along the way is that the best version of selling is a very authentic, very natural version.
I have learned in my own journey that there was absolutely no point trying to be something I am not. Actually, finding my way to getting comfortable with promoting the things that I care about and am passionate about, and the ways in which I’m trying to move the world forward and move my business forward, is the most natural extension of selling.
That’s what selling looks like to me. It just looks like me being my authentic self and caring.
The reality is, when you are super passionate about something and you really, really care about it, it’s hard not to sell it.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Right. It shines through. It’s not performative.
Sarah Dusek
It just is a natural extension of who you are. It’s not weird in any way because it’s just, “I love this. I love this, and I want you to love this. This is really great, and here’s what I’ve discovered about this. Here’s why I’m passionate about it.”
The reality is, so many of us are passionate about so many weird and wonderful things, right? We each have our things that make us light up and get us excited, and I think that’s where we find our sweet spots.
When we do business with people who are genuinely passionate, excited, and authentic about their passion, it feels real. It doesn’t feel fake. You want to buy from those people. You want to do business with those people.
It’s a natural phenomenon, and that, for me, has been one of my strongest learnings crossing over from a nonprofit world into a business world. You don’t have to be anything other than who you are to do a good job of giving other people things they actually want and need.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Everything you said was just spot on.
In my sales workshops, we really try to pull out our authentic selves because I’ve found that when I am my authentic self to others, it gives them permission to be their authentic selves with me.
Sarah Dusek
You can build on that.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Yeah, that’s where you find the connection.
I think a lot of times people just want to skip to the end, show the pitch, get the money, and show the product. But then you’re pulling from an empty bank account. You have to find those connection points.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, I think that’s exactly right.
The connection is really the magic that helps make a sale happen. You are so much more likely to have a sale if you have a point of connection that is maybe about something else. It doesn’t even have to be about the thing you’re trying to sell.
I have a wonderful friend who became a friend over this last year, and we bonded over something ridiculous like having hip trouble because we sit in an office all day long. I had discovered an amazing company that created these cushions to sit on that are really good for your hips.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Oh my gosh. You’re going to have to send me the link, and I’ll put it in the show notes.
Sarah Dusek
They’re amazing. We bonded over having 50-year-old woman hip pain, and now we do all sorts of stuff together on a variety of different levels.
That’s how you move your own business forward. It’s how you build your social network forward.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
It’s how you build relationships. It’s just being interested in other people and recognizing our connections are very valuable to us.
It’s so funny, too, because when I started my business, ChatGPT was not mainstream. I started it around this idea that I was going to help people learn how to build relationships, add value, and sell the business model. People didn’t want what I was selling at the beginning because they thought the relationship piece was a soft sale.
Sarah Dusek
Unnecessary.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Yeah, but now all of a sudden AI is everywhere, people are inundated, and whoever can get to the human connection first — that’s who’s going to win. Things are shifting.
I think what I really feel inspired by with you, too, is that you’re such a thought leader in a lot of these spaces because you built Under Canvas to a point where you could sell it for $100 million. I can’t even wrap my head around that number. Those are big dollars to talk about.
When you’re thinking about having no sales background, finding authentic connection points, pulling from your passion, and then being able to build what you’ve built and continue to build, that is fascinating.
I want to dive into the book a little bit more because the book was just so cool. There were so many really, really tactical pieces to it.
One of the things that stood out was that it’s about communicating your value, and there are a lot of different layers to that. When you’re thinking about building a compelling pitch or a compelling delivery, what do you think is the most critical element needed for that to be a successful recipe?
Sarah Dusek
One of the reasons I ended up writing my book, Thinking Bigger: A Pitch Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World, is because I’m a woman who wants to change the world.
One of the things I realized was that we often find a disconnect between what we want to sell and what people want to buy. You just mentioned it yourself.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Yeah, my example.
Sarah Dusek
Your example is a really, really good example. Nobody realized that they needed to improve their human interaction experience.
I wrote the book because when I transitioned away from working full-time as CEO of Under Canvas and transitioned to running our own small venture fund, I realized I was getting a lot of pitches. I was being pitched all the time.
It was new for me to be on the end of the incessant pitch cycle. What I realized was that most people did not understand the rules of the game. They didn’t understand what I was looking for as an investor.
Because I care, I started telling women, “If you just re-positioned this like this,” or we would work on the pitch together and realize, “You’re not quite thinking about the business in the right way for attracting investment.”
What I realized was there were hundreds of thousands of amazing businesses coming across my desk, but most of them were not positioning themselves in a way that was attractive to me, the investor. Largely, that was because they didn’t know the rules by which investors play.
There’s a rule book. There’s a common set of math, probabilities, and specific things that investors look for to even consider something that might be investable.
I ended up writing the book because I wanted to break down those barriers around understanding what the rules were. I firmly believe that if you know them, you can play by them, or you can break them. You can make your own rules, and then that’s up to you how you navigate the landscape.
I think one of the critical components is understanding your audience and understanding what they care about. It seems obvious and simple, right? But understanding what makes them tick, why they do what they do, why they buy the way they buy, why they invest the way they invest, and what metrics they’re looking for is so important.
If we can’t carve something up in a language that someone else can understand, it’s just going to get lost and dismissed.
It’s like going into a supermarket in Japan and saying, “I need to buy hot dogs.” There may not be American hot dogs in Japan. It’s just having a complete disconnect between “I’m trying to buy this thing from this place,” or “I’m trying to sell this thing to this place,” and there’s no market for it, or it’s not on the shelves.
We do that a lot when we’re trying to pitch ourselves and trying to find common understanding of what someone else needs and is looking for. It requires doing our homework upfront without just pitching what we want to sell.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Everything you just laid out, Sarah, is that you’re selling to the business model of the person you’re trying to sell to.
Sarah Dusek
Not your business model. Yes, exactly.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I totally agree with you. It’s one of the biggest offenders I see in the work that I do.
People don’t ask any questions. They maybe do some surface-level research, and then they go into their presentation and waste the hour or the allotted time slot product vomiting on someone when it’s not always relevant.
I think we don’t take the time to research, and we don’t take the time to ask. You literally wrote a rule book on it, so we’ll make sure to definitely include the link to the book in the chat. I have read it, and I got so much out of it.
I think the other thing I really liked about the book was this concept of confidence. There is a quote in the book saying, “If you aren’t comfortable betting on yourself, it would be very hard to convince someone else to bet on you.” I think that translates to any role in the workforce. Can you dive into that confidence piece a little bit more?
Sarah Dusek
Yeah. It came about because I was hearing lots of pitches from women in particular who were asking me to invest in their business but had no skin in the game.
It was like, “I want you to be my safety net. I want you to make it possible for me to take a leap of faith because you have underwritten it.” I was like, “Hmm, that’s not really how this works.”
You have to really believe in this thing. You have to have a ton of skin in the game. You have to be all in. You have to really believe in this thing in order to convince someone else that they might join you.
You’re all in, and then I’ll come and join you because you’re telling me the water’s great.
The hard part is if we don’t know the water’s great because we haven’t tasted it, we haven’t boiled it, we haven’t done anything to it, and we’re saying, “I think the water’s great. I want your money to come in so we can test if the water is not poisonous.”
I really need you to know the water is not poisonous. In fact, it’s crystal-clear, sparkling mountain water that is purer than pure, and you’ve been drinking it, your kids have been drinking it, your mother-in-law has been drinking it, your worst enemy has been drinking it, your best friend has been drinking it, and everybody loves it.
Then there’s a hope of getting someone else to the table — whether you’re selling something, pitching something, whether that’s for business or for investment, whatever it is. You have to be all in.
This comes back to authenticity. There’s “I’m all in,” and then there’s a whole other layer of “I’m so all in, I’ve got so much skin in this.” We’re so deep into this.
One of the interesting things for me has been coming back to the entrepreneurial table now and building another travel company. I still have to have skin back in the game.
I can’t rely on, “Oh, I had skin previously, and because I’ve had skin previously, now you should still trust me.” That doesn’t work either.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
That’s fascinating because you went from being the seller, bootstrapping your business, to then raising the funds. You were a venture capitalist on the reverse side receiving the pitches, and then you were back to being the person pitching.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, exactly.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
It’s so interesting, too. I want to double-click on this concept of betting on yourself, tasting the water, and having skin in the game.
I think where I see this come across as not confident, or maybe ill-placed confidence that translates to ego or arrogance, is when people don’t walk the talk.
Sarah Dusek
People can smell that from a mile away.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Exactly. That’s inauthentic.
I think the example you just shared is so spot on because people can tell, and again, people don’t want to work with people who are selling snake oil or are too afraid to taste the water.
I love that example.
One of the things I want to talk a little bit about is the pitch deck formula because I think this could translate to any type of presentation. No matter what, you have to be mindful of the person receiving your pitch or your presentation.
If someone is going to put together this deliverable, why is this so important to get it right?
Sarah Dusek
You only get one shot usually, right?
Your first impression is your shot, and it’s very rare that we get a second chance. It’s not impossible, obviously, but first impressions matter. How we show up the first time and how we present matters.
It would be unusual to get someone like me on the other side of the table saying, “You know what? If you did this to your pitch, it would be a whole lot better, and if we tweaked it and you worked on it like this...” That’s very unusual.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Come back in a month and do it again.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, exactly. Unheard of.
Your shot and your opportunity to show up is a one-time deal, and we have to think of it like that. We have to do everything we can to work on how we’re going to present, what we’re going to present, and the way we go about it.
I’ve definitely had numerous opportunities that have slipped through my fingers because I thought what I had was good enough, and it still missed the mark.
We can easily dismiss that as, “Well, we’re going to get plenty of no’s.” We are going to get plenty of no’s. That is the rule of life.
But I think there are ways to improve our chances. Being really prepared and thoughtful and having other people give input on your pitch and your work is really, really helpful.
I think one of the dangers of many of us working with AI right now is that we can use AI as our checker or our tester. AI has a really great habit of telling us what we want to hear.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
You’re doing great, Sarah.
Sarah Dusek
It is an amazing cheerleader. It loves to puff us up. I don’t know why it does this. I have some theories on that, but we won’t go into them right now.
I think we still need real people feedback, input, and advice before we push something out. We need to take that critique and criticism to heart and action it. Otherwise, we can live in our own bubble very easily, and we can live in our own AI bubble very easily, too.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
That’s such a great point.
Sarah Dusek
We create our own echo chamber.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
There are so many nuances.
One of my clients shared with me that he went to a doctor’s appointment recently. The doctor came in and had an assistant with him, and he said, “This is my scribe, and we’re going to use the note-taker.” My client asked, “Why do you need both a human and the note-taker?”
Sarah Dusek
Why both?
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
He said, “There are so many nuances that we miss.”
He gave an example. They might ask the patient, “Do you eat healthy?” The patient says yes, and his wife is behind him shaking her head no.
Sarah Dusek
I would know.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
All of the human nuances matter. Even if you’re practicing in front of your friends, you can see when they make a little grimace. You can see when they’re dozing off.
So I love that. We need to be able to practice and role play to prepare for the one shot that we get.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, absolutely.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
On the receiving end of pitches, how often did someone do any type of pre-work ahead of time, almost priming the pitch before the meeting happens? Do you find the pitch sometimes starts before the meeting happens?
Sarah Dusek
Yeah. You’re much more likely to get the meeting if the wheel is primed already.
In the venture capital space, we talk about this as the human bias issue problem. People who know people are more likely to get the business than people who don’t know people, right? That’s particularly true when it comes to capital investments and when you’ve got relationships.
Sadly, and I hate that this is reality, but it is reality, I have much more of a likelihood of getting in the room if someone else has made an introduction for me. If someone else has been the connector — and you and I were just talking about this before we pressed record — the possibilities of me making an advancement somehow are so much stronger if someone else is vouching for me than if I’m just pitching myself cold.
Those things are hard to find. Getting people to vouch for you, open doors for you, or make introductions for you is not transactional. It’s relational.
I think as women in particular, which is weird because women are so much more relational than men, we haven’t learned the business rule book, which is that relationships are so critical for us doing business with men and women — not just women and women, but men and women.
Being a voucher for someone else and allowing someone else to vouch for you, introduce you, and put you in rooms that you aren’t normally in is a very critical component of winning anything.
I think we’re going to see that this is even more true in the age of AI. I was listening to something the other day that was saying college graduates are now sending off 500 job applications, and AI is filtering 500 job applications.
The reality is, the ones that had some human connection somewhere in the chain are much more likely to make it through the filter than an AI tool scraping your resume to see whether you may have what it takes.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Or a filter to kick you out and disqualify you because they’re looking to disqualify.
Sarah Dusek
Looking to disqualify. Yeah.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Your point on the relationship piece is exactly what I call ABAV: Always Be Adding Value™.
If you’re always adding value to others and being a connector of others, there are so many ways to do this for free. That’s my little hill I’m going to die on. It takes no money to leave a positive review on a hotel or Sarah’s book. I left a wonderful review on her book because I loved it. It took me a minute. It didn’t take long.
There are so many ways to fill the bank account because a lot of times people pull from an empty bank, and that’s where you can actually hurt and damage the relationship.
It is a little bit of a delicate balance, and I struggle with this too sometimes, where I give and I give, and I should totally be okay to ask for the favor in return, but sometimes I hesitate.
I’ve been challenging myself a little bit more to start asking for things more proactively, and I’m getting wonderful responses.
Sarah Dusek
Well, of course you are because you have relationships.
You can’t do the asking when you have nothing in the bank, but that’s why you put things in the bank in the first place, right? I think sometimes that’s what we forget about the whole cycle.
We don’t do things because they’re transactional, but because we’re building relationships with people. We’re having genuine, real interactions with people, and we get to know people in various different ways.
It is like coins in the piggy bank. At some point in time, you’re going to remember, “Oh, this person would be perfect for this,” because you’re in a room and someone is looking for something. You’ll go into your Rolodex and say, “Well, I know the person for that.”
The reality is, you might be that for someone else. Being able to say to your network and the people in your orbit, “Do you know anyone who could help me do X?” — that’s really the value of networks and relationships.
I think for our college grads coming out of school, for our young people, understanding that our relationships are our value and understanding how we start putting pennies in the bank account is pretty critical for being able to make things happen.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I like that. It’s funny because we’re talking about not being transactional, but we’re using an analogy that is transactional.
What I like about this, because I have a lot of male clients and a lot of male podcast listeners, is that one of them called me in year one of my business and said, “In the past, I would have this wall up, and I wouldn’t even talk to someone unless they gave me a purchase order.”
He shifted the thinking after we chatted through it, and he said, “This woman was going on vacation, and I heard your voice in my head. I said, ‘Where are you going on vacation?’ For 20 minutes, we shot the bull about her trip. I got back to my office, and she had a project for me in my inbox. She wanted me to present to her team of 12.”
He said, “I couldn’t believe how easy it was.” But he told me he liked the language because then the time he was spending on this chitchat no longer felt like a waste of time.
Sarah Dusek
It feels like a waste of time.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Yes. I just want to clarify that. Sarah had brought this up before we hit record. It’s also just karma.
What I’ve found is that I’ve always been able to get to the decision-maker in any role I had because I realized whoever built that business had to go knock on doors themselves and had to get help themselves.
The top dog is actually the more approachable person than some of the gatekeepers or the people below him or her because they did the same thing. That has really helped shift the mindset.
Even meeting someone as established and just so well-known as you — you’re like a little celebrity to me in this industry - I knew I could reach out to you and you would say yes because I knew you’ve had to do it before.
Sarah Dusek
One hundred percent.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
What is really cool about shifting that confidence and having conversations like this is that I think it’s really going to change the game for people.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, and the reality is, what’s the worst that can happen if you make an ask? Someone can say no, and you go, “Okay.”
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Exactly. And I think the other piece is that if you make the ask and they say yes, you’ve got to jump on it fast.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah, absolutely. One hundred percent.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
There is just so much we could talk about, and I’m so enjoying this conversation.
If someone is listening and you wanted them to hear one thing from you today, walking away with one or two takeaways from what you’ve learned in your journey, what would you share?
Sarah Dusek
Oh, such a big question.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
No pressure.
Sarah Dusek
There are obviously so many different ways to answer that.
I think one of the things that has become very clear to me is that my values are very important to me. The things I care about are very important to me.
I have learned over the years that aligning myself with being true to that and true to who I am, and aligning myself to other people who care about things — they don’t even have to necessarily care about the same things I care about — is really important.
People who have values, people who are my people, matter.
I think we are all constantly trying to find our path. We’re constantly trying to navigate our way through complexity that we don’t even necessarily understand.
I have found that when I am true to who I am and I am not trying to just play a game, I am my best self and my happiest self. I’m leaning into finding my own pathways, understanding where the real-world pathways exist, realizing where I’m going to step on the path and where I’m going to forge a new path, and deciding who I’m going to take with me or who I’m going to ask to help go in that direction with me.
That has been one of the most guiding principles of my life: recognizing just how important my own values are, who I want to do business with, and who I don’t want to do business with.
That’s also what we call our North Star and our South Star. Our South Stars can be as valuable to us as our North Stars.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I love that.
Sarah Dusek
Our North Stars are our values, the things we care about. Our South Stars are all the things we don’t want, all the things we don’t like. We use them to guide us. We use them to help us find where our foot goes next.
I have a no-ahole policy now. I don’t want to do business with people who I consider to be aholes. I just don’t.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
A no-a**hole policy. I love it.
Sarah Dusek
I don’t want to waste my time. I have a finite amount of energy, a finite amount of resources, and a finite amount of time. I just don’t want to waste any of it.
Trying to figure out, “Are you my people or not my people?” pretty quickly has become a very clear guiding principle for me.
Sometimes that can be hard because you think, “Oh, that a**hole over there has all the resources that I want.” Then I have to go, “It’s just not worth it.”
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Yeah.
Sarah Dusek
That little nugget over there is not going to create any form of happiness or joy or desire in the work I’m doing.
While the end might justify the means, it’s not going to work out well. So let’s just be very clear about that from the beginning. We’re not aligned. We don’t see the world in quite the same way.
Okay, let’s use that as my South Star. Those kinds of things help guide me as to where to put my feet.
I think that’s the journey we’re all trying to do all the time — figure out our path, figure out where we land, how we take the next step, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there. Those two things have been very strong guiding principles for me.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I love that.
Values are a big part of my curriculum too because I have found that when you understand your values, you have a deeper connection with yourself. That then allows you to show up authentically, which then allows you to show up confidently.
I think the confidence piece is what people struggle with in sales, in selling internally, and in trying to get promotions.
Having you narrate it that clearly with the North Star and South Star analogy — I love the South Star because knowing what you don’t want can almost be an easier one.
Sarah Dusek
It’s easy.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
When something doesn’t align with my values, the answer is no.
We see this all the time. There might be clients, whether you’re in a B2B role or a B2C role, where it’s not there. Walk away.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah. You’re not my people. You’re not my clients. Let’s not waste time. Let’s not waste time and money on something that’s not a good fit.
Sometimes we want to make everything a fit. I’ve fallen into this camp. You feel like the opportunities are not as many as you would like, so you’re trying to make everything fit and everything work, and it doesn’t work.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Every yes you say yes to is a no to something else.
If you say no to something that’s not a fit, you might open the door for the good karma to come back because someone is going to do an intro for you because of all of your value added throughout your relationship.
I am so happy to hear some of what you’re saying because it means I’m on the right track.
Sarah Dusek
You’re on the right path.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
A lot of the episodes in the past of the show speak to the same thing. You’re just giving us action and reality for how we can really take these things you are sharing with us and build something meaningful, whether we work for someone else, whether we’re self-employed, or whether we’re raising capital.
These messages translate everywhere.
The book is called Thinking Bigger: A Pitch Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World.
Before we wrap, I want to ask Sarah about her Few & Far property if anyone is interested in traveling to Africa. I just listened to a webinar about it, and I learned so much. Tell us a little bit about the lodge and where people can visit and connect with you.
Sarah Dusek
Yeah. We are doing large-scale conservation work in Southern Africa, in South Africa, trying to preserve and protect 100,000 hectares of the Soutpansberg Mountains.
We’ve built an extraordinary little lodge called Few & Far Luvhondo. I’m sure Sara will put that in the links.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Of course.
Sarah Dusek
We are creating experiences for people to experience nature, experience the wilderness, and have an extraordinary time while helping preserve and protect an incredible ecosystem that will be lost if we don’t protect it.
That is the work I’m doing now on a day-to-day basis. We’re doing more travel. I love travel. We’re doing more hospitality, outdoor hospitality work, and large-scale conservation work at the same time.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
I love it. It’s on my list to visit in May 2027. I’ve got it on the calendar. I’m so excited to have a reason to go to Africa.
I am so inspired by you, as always. Thank you so much for being a guest on Prospecting On Purpose®. Where can people connect with you if they want to learn more or come visit the property?
Sarah Dusek
I have my own website, sarahhdusek.com, so you can connect with me directly there. You can also find Few & Far Luvhondo at fewandfarluvhondo.com.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Awesome. I’ll link everything in the show notes.
Sarah, thank you so much for lending your time and expertise to our audience.
Sarah Dusek
My pleasure.
Sara Murray - Prospecting On Purpose®
Thank you so much for listening to the Prospecting On Purpose® podcast. If you loved what you heard today, subscribe to the podcast and please rate and leave a review. For more info on me or if you’d like to work together, feel free to go to my website, saramurray.com. On social media, I’m usually hanging out @saramurraysales.
Thanks again for joining me, and I’ll see you next time.
Connect with Sarah Dusek
Sarah’s Website: https://sarahhdusek.com/
Few & Far Luvhondo: https://www.fewandfarluvhondo.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhdusek/
Book: Thinking Bigger: A Pitch Deck Formula for Women Who Want to Change the World
Connect with Sara Murray
https://www.saramurray.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saramurraysales
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saramurraysales/
