Whisky and Suits - S01E05 - The Power of 1,000 No’s with Ronan Hanley

🥃 What can 1,000 no’s teach you about building a business? That was one of the big themes of this week’s episode of Whisky & Suits, where co-host Imran Khan and I sat down with Ronan Hanley, Managing Director of Surge Direct. Ronan’s story is a fascinating one. He arrived in Australia as a backpacker and started fundraising on the streets of Brisbane, working on commission and hearing rejection after rejection. Today, he leads one of Australia’s largest direct fundraising businesses, with a team signing up around 1,500 regular donors every week across a range of charities. But what really stood out to me wasn’t just the scale. It was Ronan’s philosophy around people, sales and doing business the right way. We talked about: 💬 Why sales is ultimately about having a genuine conversation 🎯 How to handle rejection and keep going 🤝 Why trust and respect are critical to building long-term relationships ❤️ The difference between selling and inspiring someone to give 👥 How to build and lead large teams across Australia and New Zealand 🤖 How technology and AI are changing the fundraising industry 💻 His ventures into digital fundraising and donor technology 🏢 His journey as a property investor and developer 💡 And why “do what you say, say what you do” is such an important business principle One line from Ronan really stuck with me: “One conversation at a time.” That’s essentially what his business has been built on. A fascinating conversation about sales, rejection, leadership, technology, philanthropy and entrepreneurship — with plenty of laughs and, of course, a good whisky along the way. 🥃 Watch the latest episode of Whisky & Suits on Ticker. #WhiskyAndSuits #TickerNews #RonanHanley #SurgeDirect #Business #Entrepreneurship #Sales #Leadership #Fundraising #Philanthropy #AI #Technology #Property #Investing