Live at Dig South: Wake Up And Win w/ Keynote Danelle Delgado

A multimillion dollar business can start with something as simple as a change of scenery. Recording live at Dig South in Charleston, we sit down with keynote speaker Danelle Delgado, CEO of the Alpha Group, to talk about why she came to Charleston years ago to sketch a business idea, and how that trip became the spark for a global training company focused on mindset, personal development, and employee growth.

Danelle breaks down her keynote theme, “Wake Up and Win,” and the core principle behind it: people do life and business with those who increase their odds of winning. We unpack what that actually looks like day to day, from repairing the cracks in your mental and emotional foundation to taking the small actions that build real confidence over time. Her “gap of crap” vs “gap of greatness” framing is a blunt, useful gut check for anyone who knows what they want but keeps stalling.

We also get practical about technology and the future of work. Danelle shares how she’s approaching AI as an accelerator, including a new partnership to build an AI app and agent that complements human training instead of replacing it. If you’re a founder, marketer, or young professional stepping into the workforce, you’ll leave with a clearer view of how to build trust, communicate value, and market yourself without slipping into hype or manipulation.

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How can Charleston businesses get noticed, found and chosen? The Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by Charleston AMA and recorded at Charleston Media Solutions, answers the marketing and media questions local business owners are asking. We explore media buying, advertising budgets, radio, digital marketing, storytelling and the customer journey, with practical strategies for growing your business in today’s attention economy. CharlestonMediaSolutions.com

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. From business and art to hospitality and tech, these movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast. My name is Mike Compton. We're live at Dig South right now. We've got Danelle here as our keynote speaker. We're lucky enough to have the keynote here. Thanks for stopping in. Absolutely. Amanda Bunting Coleman's here. Say hello, Amanda.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Hi everyone. Happy to be here on a Friday, June in Charleston.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Friday, I know. It's a beautiful.

Live From Dig South

SPEAKER_02 1:18

No. No, it was raining and 92 degrees when we landed. And I go, how do those two things happen at the same time?

SPEAKER_03 1:27

A lot. It happens a lot. It happens a lot. But this isn't your first time to Charleston.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

No, I was here about three years ago, stayed at one of the most beautiful hotels. I had to come back to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Which hotel?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

The Charleston Place.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Okay. What did you do three years ago at the Charleston Place?

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Uh, you know, I had a business idea, and I always try to say, when I go to build something new, I have to go to a place that's bigger than where I currently am. And somebody suggested Charleston and the beauty and the whatever. So you can only, your brain can only go as far as you can see. So I went there and it was unbelievable. I built and drew out an incredible business plan. Three years later I built it. It's a multi-million dollar business.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Stop it. Charleston inspired your business. What is the business?

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Yes. It's

Why Charleston Sparked A Business

SPEAKER_02 2:12

a training company for employees, entrepreneurs. It's really a mental personal development training company that now is in companies all around the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

So you're from Colorado. You you said, hey, I need to go somewhere else, almost like a poet type of thing. Like you need to go somewhere else for more inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to plan from the place where you grind in.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

That's so cool. I can see that. So you're the keynote speaker of Dig South this year. What was your topic? And you know, what did we miss? We weren't able to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

I can't believe you missed it. Well, you'll have to watch the replay.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

That's where everybody was.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

We're like, where is everybody right now?

SPEAKER_03 2:50

We're here setting up.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

All is great. No, uh, it was called Wake Up and Win, and I taught the seven steps to become the person that people do life and business with. And people do life and business with those who increase their odds of winning. So I showed them how to build all of the phases of who they are into a person people would ache to do business with.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yes, blues. Yeah. Well, we missed that one big time.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, we all those recorders. Checks. Or, you know, and then everybody else missed it too.

Wake Up And Win Keynote

SPEAKER_01 3:19

You're gonna come to Dig South next year and learn more about cool people like Danelle.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah. Oh my god. Incredible. That room was full of investors, uh technology experts, people like people pitching, people looking for people to invest in. Yes. That was an incredible room.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So you had a fun time.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Fun. So amazing. I was a little worried because I am a technological idiot, right? However, I told them, and it's the truth, that everybody in that room has built things that have made me able to do more business. Like I need them. So hopefully my skills help blend with theirs.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Everyone has different skill sets, and when we when we come together and work as a team, yeah, great things happen.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

For sure. I would be nothing without the technology behind my businesses.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

That's well, hence like Martech, hence FinTech, hence all of these companies, or you know, these different verticals kind of collaborating with tech one way or another. That's probably the most underrated thing that we can think of, right? And the question that just stands.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Right. Oh, and that's a good thing to bring up. So, what is your take on AI and how it's going to affect like your business? Or absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

We actually just partnered with the team who's here. Uh, they are building a new AI app and agent, along with the training that I just told you about that I built the last time I was here. And they're coming in as a partner to make sure I mean it's an accelerator of everything we do, right? We have to have the real life humans and the peoples, but we also have to use AI and the acceleration and truth that it really is. So we're bringing those two together through all of the people here at Digsel. And uh it's actually we're we're just getting ready to sign another deal for being here because of that partnership.

AI As A Real Business Accelerator

SPEAKER_02 5:02

So uh you can't accelerate without it. And if you think you can, we'll see you at the bottom.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Right. That's awesome to hear. Kind of crucial, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Kind of like Yeah, it's imperative. Like, imagine those people who said the internet was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Hey, we didn't pay you to say anything. We didn't even prompt her to say anything. She just showed up and sat down. I, you know, I was strange or we literally just met. So true, but then but that's how quickly sparks can fly, right? That's how quickly collaborations can so you have to put yourself out there, you have to build your network. What are the top three of the seven? And we'll finish that off.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Top three, the foundation of who you are, what you stand for. I think we all have cracks in our personal, mental, and emotional foundation that keep us from connecting with others. Uh, and we have to fix those. I told them, you know, I I say, here's where you are, here's where you want to be. And I asked everyone, you know, what's one thing you could do that every single day, if you did it a year from now, you would be closer to here. And they all had something. And I said, So you know what you want, you know how to go get it. Why haven't you done it yet? So I I talked about their foundational structure. I call it a gap of crap. Anything that's there is like Say that again, a gap of crap. Gap of crap. Uh it's it's love it.

Foundation Value And Self Marketing

SPEAKER_02 6:16

I doubt it.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

I'll remember that probably for the rest of my life. Right?

SPEAKER_02 6:19

And they'll say, well, you can either have that, or you can have a gap of greatness, and you can fix those things every single day. Every time you speak up, you believe in yourself a little bit more. Every time you do one pitch, you're gonna get better. So the gap's eliminated by action, right? And that's all people need to know. And so if they go to work on their foundation, they have something stronger to build on. So I kind of took them through their foundation, their value, and how they market themselves. If they get those three out of order, well then they're lying and manipulating on the internet instead of being their truth, and they'll attract bad customers. So I just kind of gave them a system that says this attracts your ideal clients through your ideal conversions, and you get to win with people doing what you have every single day. So my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

I like that winning with people.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, yeah, especially at a tech conference. Yeah, right. Good work. Nice to thanks, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

I loved it here. Deep South is doing something really cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Right, thank you. Well, thanks for your time. And and it the what you just said was gold, by the way. Like, you know, for for young people starting, we were just talking to Emily. It's her first day here, her first two hours right now. She's missing a lot of things. She's going into the workforce, right? And then she that's that's the type of things that everybody needs to hear, but especially the young people, I think.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

So yeah, for sure. I mean, I have kids, I have twins that are 18 and a 19-year-old, and I try to bring them around me and what we do as much. I'm like, there is more opportunity for a young kid right now than there has ever been in the history of time. Run. Well, be around it, build it. They can beat everyone. Yeah, they think better and faster with technology than we do. Uh, and if you need a team, call me. I want you on mine.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Speaking of your team, give me um, you know, your your full name, your what you do, your title, your your business, and how we can compact you.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, for sure. Denal Delgado, uh CEO of the Alpha Group, and we have a training company that develops every employee and every mental capacity they have. We really just help companies monetize by building their people.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Love it. And your dot com?

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yeah, danaldelgato.com.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Nice. And you're on the all the socials too, like LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Especially the socials. Yeah. Anyone who's looking for that, uh I'm a DM away. That's where we're at.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

We're all a DM away.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Alright, well, let's thank our sponsors. Uh, we're live at Dig South. We've got Trio

Where To Connect And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Solutions helping us out, Elliot T. Friedman helping us out. We uh have the Charleston American Marketing Association, obviously, Charleston Media Solutions, and I think that's it, is it? Uh the South Carolina Research Authority gets some love as our annual sponsor for the podcast, too. So shout out to them as well. All right, thanks y'all. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Bye. Thank you. Amazing. Short and sweet to pass it.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

We'll talk.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Nice to meet you too.