Finding Strength in Chaotic Scenarios with Bridget Winston

1 00:00:15,759 --> 00:00:19,120 SPEAKER_02: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of 2 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:20,160 Pillar Talk. 3 00:00:20,399 --> 00:00:24,239 This is where we build the foundations of sales leadership 4 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,920 success and try to create clarity in terms of what good 5 00:00:28,079 --> 00:00:31,839 looks like for current and aspiring sales leaders. 6 00:00:32,079 --> 00:00:36,320 Today on Pillar Talk, I am joined by Bridget Winston. 7 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:38,399 Thank you for being here, Bridget. 8 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,439 She brings, before I let her speak, she brings over 20 years 9 00:00:41,439 --> 00:00:44,399 of experience in scaling go-to-market organizations 10 00:00:44,399 --> 00:00:48,719 across marketing, sales, customer success, the entire 11 00:00:48,719 --> 00:00:50,159 customer lifecycle. 12 00:00:50,399 --> 00:00:54,159 She was most recently the Chief Revenue Officer at Chief. 13 00:00:54,479 --> 00:00:57,280 This is where she helped grow membership in that community 14 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:00,560 from 1,500 to over 20,000. 15 00:01:00,719 --> 00:01:03,600 Previously, beyond that, she was in many roles, including 16 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,840 Shutterstock, where she led global sales through a pivotal 17 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:09,359 transformation period. 18 00:01:09,599 --> 00:01:14,959 Bridget also advises CEOs, boards, investors on all things 19 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,719 go-to-market strategy, growth, and customer experience. 20 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,319 She's someone who blends ambition with reflection because 21 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:28,560 between roles, she recently walked 75 miles of the Camino de 22 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,879 Santiago, a sort of pilgrimage that offered lessons, and this 23 00:01:32,879 --> 00:01:38,000 is based on what I read, on slowing down presence, and 24 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,760 rediscovering purpose. 25 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:41,680 Bridget, welcome to Pillar Talk. 26 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000 SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm so glad to be here with you, Rick. 27 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:46,159 That is that's a lovely introduction. 28 00:01:46,239 --> 00:01:50,319 And what I will say to you is yes, it was meant to be a 29 00:01:50,319 --> 00:01:51,120 pilgrimage. 30 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:54,000 A lot of people use it for a very religious pilgrimage. 31 00:01:54,159 --> 00:01:58,640 I was going to very much, you know, kind of accomplish a goal 32 00:01:58,640 --> 00:01:59,519 that I had. 33 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,840 And it was it was really good though, because it ended up 34 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:08,719 being much more of a reflective meditative jaunt for myself. 35 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:09,680 So that was lovely. 36 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,319 SPEAKER_02: So I get excited when I see something interesting 37 00:02:12,319 --> 00:02:12,879 and different. 38 00:02:13,039 --> 00:02:15,599 And, you know, you just had a lot of responsibility in your 39 00:02:15,599 --> 00:02:19,199 last role, probably running around, handling huge amounts of 40 00:02:19,199 --> 00:02:22,560 initiatives, pressure, large scopes of organizational 41 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:24,560 development, uh, strategy. 42 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:29,039 And then you go from that to I'm gonna do something totally 43 00:02:29,039 --> 00:02:32,319 different, and I'm gonna go, you know, accomplish this, you know, 44 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:33,520 personal goal. 45 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:35,680 So I love to learn more about that. 46 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:40,000 Can you share a little bit about what inspired that trip and what 47 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:41,280 did you take away from it? 48 00:02:41,599 --> 00:02:42,560 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely. 49 00:02:42,719 --> 00:02:46,400 So uh, well, it was kind of a two-week adventure for me. 50 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:49,840 So the first week I actually went to Tuscany and did an 51 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:51,680 immersive cooking course. 52 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,080 Um, but it was pretty difficult. 53 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:58,159 It was not actually as meditative and as relaxing as I 54 00:02:58,159 --> 00:03:03,439 thought because we were cooking for five hours a day with an 55 00:03:03,439 --> 00:03:06,319 Italian chef who was very demanding. 56 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:10,960 So it was me and a bunch of 60 and 70-year-old retirees going 57 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,800 to this uh villa in Tuscany to do a cooking course. 58 00:03:14,879 --> 00:03:15,919 So that was fun. 59 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,599 But I the good news is I was fueled up, I was carved up so 60 00:03:19,599 --> 00:03:24,159 that I could go on the next week to uh the Commune de Santiago. 61 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:26,639 And both of these I chose to do do solo. 62 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:30,240 Uh I have a great, amazing husband, but I really kind of 63 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:32,319 wanted to do something for myself. 64 00:03:32,479 --> 00:03:35,840 I have, I'm 45 years old, so I felt like this was like that 65 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:39,680 moment of, you know, prove me to me a little bit, go and do 66 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:44,960 something uh that was a little, a little scary, a little, can I 67 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:45,280 do it? 68 00:03:45,439 --> 00:03:47,039 These were things I'd always wanted to do. 69 00:03:47,199 --> 00:03:50,400 And so it was a little bit of prove me to me, particularly the 70 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,840 Camino, because you know, you're strapping yourself into some day 71 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:54,240 pack. 72 00:03:54,319 --> 00:03:56,879 I had to have, you know, water for the whole day. 73 00:03:57,039 --> 00:03:59,919 You're walking four to six hours a day. 74 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:05,520 Um, and you know, going, I chose not to do the hostile route. 75 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,840 I did stay in hotels, so I had it a little bit more uh of the 76 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:10,400 high end. 77 00:04:10,479 --> 00:04:14,000 I wasn't doing the full pilgrimage, but it was a four, 78 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:20,160 five-day jaunt that um was four to six hours a day. 79 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:25,839 Uh, I think I walked at minimum 12 miles a day to 18 miles a 80 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:26,240 day. 81 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:31,439 Um, and I I'm pleased to say that it rained every single day, 82 00:04:31,759 --> 00:04:35,199 poured raining every single day, completely different than what I 83 00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:37,439 was expecting October in Spain to be like. 84 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,480 I was expecting it to be this like beautifully, you know, 85 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:41,839 wonderful moment. 86 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,079 And it was, I mean, it was it was torrential downpours the 87 00:04:46,079 --> 00:04:46,959 entire time. 88 00:04:47,199 --> 00:04:50,480 Uh, you're walking with other pilgrims who are doing this. 89 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:54,399 I did the Camino coastal route of Portugal. 90 00:04:54,639 --> 00:04:58,720 Um, and so you are walking this route with other people, 91 00:04:58,879 --> 00:05:01,680 sometimes seeing a lot of people, sometimes seeing few. 92 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,920 Uh, and you're walking through little small towns in Portugal 93 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:06,720 and Spain. 94 00:05:06,959 --> 00:05:10,959 And there were certain towns that I went to that didn't have 95 00:05:10,959 --> 00:05:12,720 any people and just cats. 96 00:05:12,959 --> 00:05:18,160 You're walking by chapels, you have to get your Camino passport 97 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:18,720 stamped. 98 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,519 Uh, so you have to stop every now and again to get your Camino 99 00:05:21,519 --> 00:05:23,680 passport stamped to prove that you did the walk. 100 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:25,279 You walk next to certain people. 101 00:05:25,439 --> 00:05:28,000 Some people really want to talk to you, some people are, you 102 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:29,680 know, kind of just walking in silence. 103 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:33,519 I watched one lady doing the rosary the whole way, which was 104 00:05:33,519 --> 00:05:34,639 really sweet to see. 105 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,160 But like the first couple of days, I will say, I was walking 106 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:39,120 and I was on a mission. 107 00:05:39,199 --> 00:05:42,240 I was like, get this thing done because the rain, I was wringing 108 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:45,279 out my socks three times, you know, I didn't stop for coffee, 109 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:46,560 I didn't stop for lunch. 110 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:47,920 I was just trying to get this done. 111 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,879 And that is probably pretty standard about the kind of 112 00:05:50,879 --> 00:05:51,360 person I am. 113 00:05:51,519 --> 00:05:53,680 I'm I was a Division I college athlete. 114 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,560 I was always like a person who likes to achieve a goal, 115 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:58,879 relentless kind of pursuit of things. 116 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:05,519 And but I will say by day three, I uh day three was the day that 117 00:06:05,519 --> 00:06:07,600 I was like, I don't feel like doing this. 118 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:11,680 I am like annoyed that I have to get up and go walk this thing. 119 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:15,199 Um, and so while it was enlightening and empowering, it 120 00:06:15,199 --> 00:06:19,680 was also really hard, both mentally and it grew to be hard 121 00:06:19,759 --> 00:06:22,160 physically, but like physically was less hard. 122 00:06:22,319 --> 00:06:25,439 It was mentally getting yourself to like do the thing. 123 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,879 And so I had to honestly do the thing that was opposite my 124 00:06:28,879 --> 00:06:30,240 normal tendency. 125 00:06:30,399 --> 00:06:32,879 I had to actually give myself like little goals. 126 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:37,680 And I had to like, you know, tease that hey, you can stop 127 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:41,759 within two hours and rest your feet and take a coffee break. 128 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,720 Um, you can talk to the people next to you. 129 00:06:44,959 --> 00:06:45,920 I wouldn't kill you. 130 00:06:46,079 --> 00:06:49,360 You know, this is not about this like relentless pursuit of like 131 00:06:49,519 --> 00:06:51,040 getting this thing done. 132 00:06:51,199 --> 00:06:53,839 It is meant to be really meditative. 133 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:58,800 And I will say it culminated in some really like interesting 134 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:00,879 discussions and and talks. 135 00:07:00,959 --> 00:07:05,199 And frankly, my blisters were better for it to stop a bit, but 136 00:07:05,199 --> 00:07:09,519 it culminated in the last day when I had two miles left to go. 137 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:14,800 And I am almost to Santiago, which is this beautiful church 138 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:15,920 in in Spain. 139 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,360 Uh, and they say it's where St. 140 00:07:17,439 --> 00:07:18,319 James is buried. 141 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:19,680 Who knows if this is true? 142 00:07:19,759 --> 00:07:25,600 But um, but I was two miles away from being done, and I come, I'm 143 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:32,160 on it in a forest, and I come upon a man playing the piano in 144 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:33,120 the forest. 145 00:07:33,439 --> 00:07:35,600 I mean, the most random thing. 146 00:07:35,839 --> 00:07:39,600 And I think what was most meaningful about this is my 147 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:45,279 father, uh, who's passed away 17 years ago, was a big musician, 148 00:07:45,519 --> 00:07:50,480 and our home was always filled with music and the piano in 149 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:50,959 particular. 150 00:07:51,199 --> 00:07:54,240 And so he used to play the piano, he used to play the piano 151 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:55,920 at mass and all of these things. 152 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,639 And I know that he would have been very proud of me for doing 153 00:08:00,639 --> 00:08:00,879 this. 154 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:05,920 And I came upon this man in the forest playing the piano, and I 155 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:10,800 stopped for 20 minutes and just cried because it was first off, 156 00:08:10,879 --> 00:08:13,600 he caught me at quite the time, two miles left to go. 157 00:08:13,759 --> 00:08:17,120 But also, it was just this like meaningful thing of being 158 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:21,040 present and remembering why you do things and remembering the 159 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,560 people who are really important in your lives, and um just 160 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:26,480 taking that moment to pause. 161 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:29,199 Um, and so it was just like one of the most meaningful things. 162 00:08:29,439 --> 00:08:31,040 I'll remember it for the rest of my life. 163 00:08:31,199 --> 00:08:34,960 Um, and it, you know, I passed countless cemeteries, right? 164 00:08:35,039 --> 00:08:37,840 And so I was already in this somewhat reflective mood of 165 00:08:37,919 --> 00:08:40,639 like, gosh, all of these people who came before us and who have 166 00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:44,639 lived here, but like to be there and to see in the middle of a 167 00:08:44,639 --> 00:08:48,720 forest a man playing the piano, um, it really made me feel like 168 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:51,360 my dad was there and present with me in some ways. 169 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:55,039 I don't know if I believe in all of that, but like it was it was 170 00:08:55,039 --> 00:08:59,840 just it was so poignant and and frankly just breathtaking to me, 171 00:08:59,919 --> 00:09:02,080 um, otherworldly in some ways. 172 00:09:02,399 --> 00:09:04,720 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you had written about that in your post 173 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,399 on LinkedIn, and that was certainly uh a moving and 174 00:09:08,399 --> 00:09:10,799 emotive uh aspect of that post. 175 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,639 You could feel as the reader um you know a bit of what you were 176 00:09:14,639 --> 00:09:15,200 feeling there. 177 00:09:15,279 --> 00:09:16,879 So very powerful stuff. 178 00:09:17,279 --> 00:09:20,879 What what was you know when you're between roles and you 179 00:09:20,879 --> 00:09:23,840 have the opportunity to go do something different, there are 180 00:09:23,919 --> 00:09:26,639 many options, and there's no one right answer. 181 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,440 What was the rationale behind these two journeys for you in 182 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:36,399 immersive cooking in Italy and you know, the hiking um you know 183 00:09:36,799 --> 00:09:39,120 across the Camino de Santiago? 184 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:45,759 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I think what was drawing me to do both 185 00:09:45,759 --> 00:09:50,080 of these is something a little bit more either in nature or 186 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:51,360 with my hands, right? 187 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,519 We sell SaaS and cloud, and I always think about I've got all 188 00:09:55,519 --> 00:09:58,480 of these relatives who live in Ireland, and whenever I go 189 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:02,000 there, I'm always explaining what my job is to them. 190 00:10:02,159 --> 00:10:05,679 And the a good portion of these people are teachers, they are 191 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:12,080 builders, they are people who um or chefs, and whenever I tell 192 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:15,279 them what I do, I mean I feel like I'm in some way selling 193 00:10:15,279 --> 00:10:16,399 vaporware, right? 194 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:20,639 That we are just selling this thing that is, you know, 195 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:26,799 fulfilling a um certainly a utility, and it it's important, 196 00:10:26,879 --> 00:10:30,320 and there are things that we are doing, but I feel like you lose 197 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:37,600 a little bit of the one-on-one connection with others, um, and 198 00:10:37,919 --> 00:10:43,600 the the meaning in life and like the visibility of seeing what 199 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:44,399 you create. 200 00:10:44,879 --> 00:10:49,679 Um, and so there was something in this around the cooking, 201 00:10:49,759 --> 00:10:53,039 although I think I I I may have come back a worse chef after 202 00:10:53,039 --> 00:10:53,200 that. 203 00:10:53,759 --> 00:10:55,039 unknown: I've got to be honest. 204 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,399 SPEAKER_00: Like I'm even thinking of like, what is my 205 00:10:58,399 --> 00:10:59,200 LinkedIn post? 206 00:10:59,279 --> 00:11:03,120 And I really think like the lesson I learned was this did 207 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:04,240 not teach me anything. 208 00:11:04,399 --> 00:11:06,879 It taught me just to like just enjoy it. 209 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,600 Like someone's gonna make something good and just eat it, 210 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:11,840 you know, like even if you're a terrible chef. 211 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:14,879 Um, so but it was it was one of those things. 212 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:18,240 And then the Camino was seriously like the feet on the 213 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:23,200 ground of just meditatively walking through towns that 214 00:11:23,279 --> 00:11:26,960 honestly I just watched old people, you know, harvesting 215 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:35,440 pumpkins and picking apples and you know uh walking amongst 216 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:36,320 their cats. 217 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:40,320 It was, it was just, and I I sit there and think, do these people 218 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,200 understand what I, you know, like are they gonna understand 219 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,519 the SaaS software solution I'm selling? 220 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,159 You know, it's probably never entered their mind. 221 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,000 But God, there were laughter. 222 00:11:50,159 --> 00:11:53,519 There was people who were, you know, you could hear kids, you 223 00:11:53,519 --> 00:11:58,000 could hear um, you know, you watch generations of people be 224 00:11:58,000 --> 00:11:58,639 all together. 225 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,879 And so there was just something very moving about like what 226 00:12:02,879 --> 00:12:05,360 really makes a difference in the world, you know, and it is 227 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:07,919 sometimes it's just the food and the connections that we have. 228 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:10,720 SPEAKER_02: In your post, you mentioned you you use this 229 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:15,200 phrase, a superpower overused becomes a weakness. 230 00:12:15,519 --> 00:12:16,000 SPEAKER_00: Yes. 231 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:18,080 SPEAKER_02: Um tell me a little bit about that. 232 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:19,840 That's an interesting quote. 233 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:24,639 SPEAKER_00: Well, it was born out of one of my favorite things 234 00:12:24,639 --> 00:12:25,519 is strengthfinders. 235 00:12:25,759 --> 00:12:28,559 Have you ever read uh or have you ever done Strength Finders 236 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:31,679 as a um as one of those personality tests or anything? 237 00:12:31,919 --> 00:12:33,759 I believe I did that once, yes. 238 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:38,559 Yeah, and so um, and it's also born out of, you know, whenever 239 00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:40,320 anyone's like, what's your biggest weakness? 240 00:12:40,399 --> 00:12:43,279 You know, what you usually what I always do is I always throw in 241 00:12:43,279 --> 00:12:45,039 a superpower for use becomes a reason. 242 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:46,000 Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. 243 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:47,039 Well, yeah, exactly. 244 00:12:47,279 --> 00:12:50,480 Like, I'm just such a hard worker, it's a workaholic. 245 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:57,440 Um, and so um, but I do think that generally speaking, um it 246 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,720 is the things we are best at that sometimes we over-rely upon 247 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:06,000 or over-index on that become the thing that probably is our 248 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:07,759 shadow side, if you will. 249 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,200 Um and so, and that's what I've seen. 250 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:16,159 Like my relentless pursuit, my driven, my ambitious, my, you 251 00:13:16,159 --> 00:13:20,879 know, probably, you know, sometimes command and control is 252 00:13:20,879 --> 00:13:25,039 the thing that prohibits me from being the leader I should be, 253 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:28,080 and to get even better at being a leader. 254 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:32,559 And so sometimes us doing the opposite, or at least being open 255 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:33,519 to doing the opposite. 256 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:36,559 Now, there's the other side of me that's also like embrace your 257 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,919 strengths because like one ounce of energy tied towards something 258 00:13:39,919 --> 00:13:43,120 you're already naturally good at is probably gonna deliver more 259 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:43,679 for you. 260 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,759 But wouldn't we all be better, more reflective people if at 261 00:13:47,759 --> 00:13:50,159 some point we also said, and what's my opposite? 262 00:13:50,399 --> 00:13:54,639 Or how do I supplement myself with either people on my team 263 00:13:54,639 --> 00:14:00,320 who think differently than I do, or um, or inviting debate, and 264 00:14:00,639 --> 00:14:02,639 you know, like argue this from the other side. 265 00:14:02,799 --> 00:14:06,159 I do that sometimes with my team when we're all in agreement, you 266 00:14:06,159 --> 00:14:06,399 know? 267 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:07,679 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah. 268 00:14:07,919 --> 00:14:11,600 Well, I I certainly think um this idea of doing something 269 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,559 completely different than your norm, when your norm is a lot of 270 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:18,320 Zoom calls and zeros and ones, which is the world we live in, 271 00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:21,679 and we're very lucky to be here, you know, trudging through the 272 00:14:21,679 --> 00:14:25,919 mud in sort of like spiritual, truly powerful, you know, 273 00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:29,440 historic areas, um, you know, definitely scratches that itch, 274 00:14:29,519 --> 00:14:30,000 doesn't it? 275 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:31,279 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely. 276 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:33,120 I mean, and there was just funny things. 277 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:37,120 I mean, the things that you just see on the way. 278 00:14:37,279 --> 00:14:40,720 I mean, the there was a chapel I passed that had like Mary 279 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:45,120 Magdalene laid out like she was a French, you know, you know, 280 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:46,639 French painting. 281 00:14:46,799 --> 00:14:47,679 It was so funny. 282 00:14:47,759 --> 00:14:50,080 I mean, there were just things that I would just snicker to 283 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:51,679 myself and just laugh. 284 00:14:51,759 --> 00:14:54,879 And I didn't use headphones the entire time, which I was like, 285 00:14:55,039 --> 00:14:56,799 all right, you are gonna be present, girl. 286 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,080 You are going to get through this, you're gonna talk to 287 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:02,720 people, you're gonna experience this, you're gonna hear the 288 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:04,639 roosters crowing. 289 00:15:04,799 --> 00:15:06,320 And they they woke up late. 290 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:08,399 They woke up late at least 9 a.m. 291 00:15:08,799 --> 00:15:11,919 I was like, there's no more Spanish rooster thing than 292 00:15:11,919 --> 00:15:14,399 waking up at 9 a.m., you know? 293 00:15:15,759 --> 00:15:17,919 SPEAKER_02: Well, Bridget, welcome back, and I know you're 294 00:15:17,919 --> 00:15:20,960 gonna be getting back into engaging all types of companies. 295 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:26,159 We're in a time of you know, uncertainty within the business 296 00:15:26,159 --> 00:15:28,720 landscape, especially in SaaS and tech. 297 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,080 Um, you're gonna walk into situations whether you're in 298 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:36,240 advisory capacity or full-time capacity or anything in between, 299 00:15:36,399 --> 00:15:39,919 and you're gonna see situations where organizations are 300 00:15:39,919 --> 00:15:41,360 struggling with growth. 301 00:15:41,519 --> 00:15:44,720 You're gonna see organizations struggling with the uncertainty 302 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:45,759 of where to go. 303 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,879 And one of the things you're gonna hear a lot about is we 304 00:15:48,879 --> 00:15:51,120 have the wrong talent in the organization. 305 00:15:51,279 --> 00:15:54,799 So when you approach a situation where an organization is 306 00:15:54,799 --> 00:15:58,639 struggling or not performing to goals, true or false, it's a 307 00:15:58,639 --> 00:15:59,200 talent issue. 308 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:01,279 Just replace the people and you're good. 309 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,799 SPEAKER_00: Oh, I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. 310 00:16:05,039 --> 00:16:09,200 So when interviewing for Chief Revenue Officer Jobs coming in, 311 00:16:09,519 --> 00:16:12,799 uh, and I always hear, especially if they're struggling 312 00:16:12,799 --> 00:16:16,879 with growth goals or uh they've done a lot of acquisitions and 313 00:16:16,879 --> 00:16:21,759 the culture and the team morale isn't there, um, you always hear 314 00:16:21,759 --> 00:16:24,240 when you ask, you know, any of the folks that you're 315 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:26,960 interviewing with, well, what's what's the what's the main 316 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:27,279 challenge? 317 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:29,600 And the number one thing you hear is talent. 318 00:16:29,759 --> 00:16:33,440 And what I would say is I'm going to dispel that myth right 319 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:34,399 now, Rick. 320 00:16:34,559 --> 00:16:40,240 Not fully, but at least start with first look inward, first 321 00:16:40,559 --> 00:16:44,639 look inward organization, uh, and investigate have you 322 00:16:44,639 --> 00:16:47,120 actually set the team up for success. 323 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:49,440 It's not that it's never the talent. 324 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,159 Um, so there's always talent improvements. 325 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,279 And uh in certain organizations that I've been in, there was 326 00:16:55,279 --> 00:16:57,759 definitely a time for us to address the talent. 327 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,440 But um in some of the organizations that I've seen, 328 00:17:01,759 --> 00:17:05,839 the first thing that I saw was that there was no plan for the 329 00:17:05,839 --> 00:17:06,160 plan. 330 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:09,519 Uh, and there were there were no operating rhythms that were 331 00:17:09,519 --> 00:17:13,359 actually ensuring that the team was going to be successful. 332 00:17:13,519 --> 00:17:15,519 So I always look at organizations and say, first 333 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:16,319 look inward. 334 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,000 How are you ensuring that this talent that you have is 335 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:20,720 successful? 336 00:17:21,039 --> 00:17:22,079 SPEAKER_02: So let's talk about that. 337 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:23,680 What does it mean to look inward? 338 00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:24,720 Yeah. 339 00:17:25,039 --> 00:17:27,680 SPEAKER_00: Well, um, I'll even use an example. 340 00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:29,839 Um, personal level looking inward, but that's the one. 341 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:30,559 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 342 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:31,839 Yeah, first look inward. 343 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,480 And then you're gonna go on a Camino de Santiago. 344 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:35,519 I hate to say it, Rick. 345 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:39,599 Then you'll go and maybe you'll go to this uh go to this villa 346 00:17:39,599 --> 00:17:40,640 in Tuscany. 347 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:45,759 Uh so yeah, so when you first look inward, uh, the biggest 348 00:17:45,759 --> 00:17:48,319 thing I always like to see is is there an operating rhythm? 349 00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:50,640 Is there a plan for the plan? 350 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,720 Um, so for example, um, I went into an organization, 351 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:59,119 Shutterstock, as an example, and what we found was that no one 352 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:01,039 was hitting their goals. 353 00:18:01,279 --> 00:18:06,000 Um the employee NPS score was a two out of 10. 354 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:11,680 Uh, you know, the attrition rate was 35% uh when I was joining. 355 00:18:11,759 --> 00:18:13,759 And so obviously something was going on. 356 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,880 And despite all of these acquisitions that Shutterstock 357 00:18:17,039 --> 00:18:21,599 had made, um, no one was selling any of the new products uh that 358 00:18:21,599 --> 00:18:22,000 they had. 359 00:18:22,079 --> 00:18:23,039 And so it was really interesting. 360 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,519 So therefore they weren't hitting their goals and growth 361 00:18:25,519 --> 00:18:27,200 had really stalled uh and slowed. 362 00:18:27,279 --> 00:18:31,119 And so what became really interesting to me was, and of 363 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,000 course, as I was interviewing, it was the talent's terrible. 364 00:18:34,079 --> 00:18:35,359 It's the talent, it's the talent. 365 00:18:35,519 --> 00:18:37,519 And it wasn't that the talent was terrible. 366 00:18:37,599 --> 00:18:40,160 I mean, a good portion of them had been there for eight years. 367 00:18:40,319 --> 00:18:44,160 They may needed to be retrained and retooled a little bit, of 368 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:44,640 course. 369 00:18:44,799 --> 00:18:49,359 Um, but the first thing that I saw was there was no plan for 370 00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:49,680 the plan. 371 00:18:49,759 --> 00:18:52,799 There was no rhyme or reason to why there were the number of 372 00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:56,000 sales reps that they had, sales and customer success reps that 373 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:56,480 they had. 374 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,039 Anyone that they had within the organization did not have any 375 00:19:01,039 --> 00:19:02,079 kind of segmentation. 376 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,680 So, like you could have one person who was managing an SMB 377 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,640 account, but they also in their list had a$1.1 million 378 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:09,759 organization. 379 00:19:09,839 --> 00:19:12,400 Um, they were in completely different industries, completely 380 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:13,359 different verticals. 381 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,480 Uh, the person who and so, and there was just a mishmash of 382 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:16,799 accounts. 383 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:20,000 So, one of the first things that I looked at was all right, if we 384 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,799 were no names and boxes, no people, uh, you know, at all, 385 00:19:25,039 --> 00:19:26,160 what do we look at? 386 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:27,920 Like, what should this organization look like? 387 00:19:28,079 --> 00:19:31,680 How would we organize this organization if we were thinking 388 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:35,200 about vertical expertise, if we were thinking about segmentation 389 00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:39,200 and the way that an SMB account needs to be serviced versus a 390 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:40,960 large enterprise customer? 391 00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:44,640 Um, you know, certain what was the sales cycle and velocity of 392 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,000 a sale for an SMB customer versus someone who needed a lot 393 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,880 more high attention and probably concierge-like support. 394 00:19:53,039 --> 00:19:56,640 And so we began to design the organizational structure to 395 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,319 support the multifaceted way we were going about doing business. 396 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,960 Then we started looking at, okay, we'd have these different 397 00:20:03,039 --> 00:20:04,559 eight different product types. 398 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:08,559 Um, how and which accounts are our biggest high potential 399 00:20:08,559 --> 00:20:10,880 accounts versus also high performing. 400 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,720 So, you know how there's the nine box that you do for talent 401 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,799 assessment, you know, is this high potential and high 402 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:17,359 performing? 403 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,039 You can do the same thing with accounts. 404 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,720 Um, and that's in fact how we how we looked at our customer 405 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,519 success modeling was high performance and high high 406 00:20:25,519 --> 00:20:26,319 potential. 407 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:30,720 Um, and started to assess, okay, what is the sales motion and the 408 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:31,920 support motion for those? 409 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,960 And then also what is the potential for those? 410 00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:39,119 So uh where can we actually, you know, expect to see all eight 411 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:42,720 all eight of our product lines being sold versus someone who's 412 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,400 literally just doing something very high velocity and a little 413 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:47,599 bit more transactional. 414 00:20:47,759 --> 00:20:50,079 And so then we started to look at our talent. 415 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,640 That's when we started looking at our talent and started to 416 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:54,720 assess where do we have some bright spots? 417 00:20:54,799 --> 00:20:58,480 Where do we have folks who are really killing it and can teach 418 00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:58,880 others? 419 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,000 So I didn't start by letting go of the team. 420 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:05,839 I started by looking at the team and saying, okay, where do we 421 00:21:05,839 --> 00:21:07,119 have really good performers? 422 00:21:07,279 --> 00:21:08,559 Where can they teach others? 423 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:12,799 And so we brought in challenger sales methodology into the 424 00:21:12,799 --> 00:21:16,799 organization because a lot of them, even themselves, needed to 425 00:21:16,799 --> 00:21:20,079 be challenged to think differently a little bit. 426 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:22,880 So we brought in challenger sales methodology to the 427 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:23,440 organization. 428 00:21:23,599 --> 00:21:26,799 And then there were certain folks that honestly we uh after 429 00:21:26,799 --> 00:21:30,960 doing different role plays and and um and listening to calls 430 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,480 and doing coaching, where we did have to part ways with them or 431 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:36,319 reallocate them to other parts of the business. 432 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:39,200 We had an entire support organization that was that was a 433 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,279 really good um fit for some of the people. 434 00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:45,039 And then some of the people just didn't like the new approach and 435 00:21:45,039 --> 00:21:47,440 so decided to self-select out. 436 00:21:47,599 --> 00:21:50,319 Um, but it was really interesting because it was um 437 00:21:50,319 --> 00:21:54,000 such a great way for us to, you know, kind of leverage the 438 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,480 existing talent to help us hire the new talent. 439 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:59,200 And they became people who we added on the panels. 440 00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:01,759 They became the people that we did recognition for. 441 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:06,160 And so every month we did fun videos and kept the change alive 442 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,799 by showcasing, look, see, there's success. 443 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,359 We have people who are having success doing this. 444 00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:13,680 And so we would give out awards every month. 445 00:22:13,839 --> 00:22:17,200 There were global awards, we would do fun videos where we 446 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:18,640 would show all of the different offices. 447 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,000 We had offices in Brazil, Mexico, you know, Germany, uh, 448 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:24,799 Italy, all over the world, um, Singapore. 449 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,240 And everyone would send in videos once a month of, you 450 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:32,000 know, kind of their spotlighted customer and also like just fun 451 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,480 things that they'd been doing, whether it was like a plank 452 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:35,519 contest or something. 453 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,079 So there were just ways that we were trying to keep the culture. 454 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,559 So in the end, we ended up with at least an employee MPS score 455 00:22:42,559 --> 00:22:44,000 of like seven out of 10. 456 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:49,839 The attrition had switched from a high 35% down to a 2% 457 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:51,599 attrition rate. 458 00:22:51,759 --> 00:22:56,079 And we had 67% of the team start to pay quota, so a little bit 459 00:22:56,079 --> 00:22:57,279 more of that best practice. 460 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:01,920 So um, because we'd organized appropriately and reassessed the 461 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,279 talent, but it was secondary, not the primary thing that we 462 00:23:05,279 --> 00:23:07,279 did was just come in and fire everybody. 463 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,720 SPEAKER_02: So let me play back to you the sequence of the 464 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:15,440 things that I heard and see how much of that can be a template 465 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:19,359 for you and others when they sort of enter an organization 466 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,039 and things aren't going the way you know we'd hoped uh they'd 467 00:23:23,039 --> 00:23:23,279 be. 468 00:23:23,599 --> 00:23:25,759 So one of the first things you mentioned was just like, well, 469 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,200 take a step back and put a clean slate against the business and 470 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,680 say, hey, if I was going to build a go-to-market motion for 471 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:34,960 this business as it is today, what would that look like rather 472 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,160 than how do I make the best use of whatever's going on here 473 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:38,559 today? 474 00:23:38,799 --> 00:23:41,519 And the example that you gave within that was segmentation. 475 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:44,640 So if I look at the types of deals that are being done by 476 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,920 this business, what is the where is their variety? 477 00:23:48,079 --> 00:23:51,039 So in a classic segmentation model, you have SMB, min-market, 478 00:23:51,279 --> 00:23:54,240 and enterprise, if I see that there's a very different sales 479 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,920 motion that's happening, and yet I'm asking the team to do one 480 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,640 minute sell to the Fortune 100 and the next minute sell to a 481 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,200 mom and pop, that there might be challenges associated with 482 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:03,599 scaling. 483 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,000 And so segmentation might be the first thing. 484 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:08,960 And then if we know we're going to segment, the second thing is 485 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,319 then around okay, what is the profile of talent that I would 486 00:24:12,319 --> 00:24:15,680 need for those types of roles, depending on how many of each 487 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:16,640 that I require? 488 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:20,000 Another thing that you mentioned was around looking at, if you 489 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,440 have a multi-product portfolio, looking at the product types 490 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,799 individually and saying, okay, which of these is both 491 00:24:26,799 --> 00:24:29,599 performing really well right now, and which of these has the 492 00:24:29,599 --> 00:24:32,640 potential to perform with some added investment, and then be 493 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:36,079 making decisions around, again, with the clean slate, how do you 494 00:24:36,079 --> 00:24:40,240 bring additional products outside of maybe the core to 495 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:40,559 market? 496 00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:43,680 And then maybe two other things that you mentioned within there. 497 00:24:43,839 --> 00:24:46,400 One, I heard a lot on communication of change. 498 00:24:46,559 --> 00:24:51,440 So communication of what's going on as you try to move an org, 499 00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:55,039 and then communication in its forms, whether they're videos 500 00:24:55,039 --> 00:24:58,240 and highlighting folks and making people feel a part of 501 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,839 that change, that alone, communication is probably a big 502 00:25:01,839 --> 00:25:02,960 driver of MPS. 503 00:25:03,039 --> 00:25:06,079 Like feeling like you're on the team and not just like people 504 00:25:06,079 --> 00:25:09,599 making decisions in the ivory tower alone is probably pretty 505 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:10,640 possible. 506 00:25:10,799 --> 00:25:11,119 SPEAKER_01: Yeah. 507 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,480 SPEAKER_02: And then to the extent you get that all going, 508 00:25:14,559 --> 00:25:17,440 okay, how do I institute a methodology to get consistent 509 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:17,920 execution? 510 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000 You selected the challenger sale. 511 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,240 And it's like, man, if you can just do these things that you're 512 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:24,960 gonna help. 513 00:25:25,039 --> 00:25:27,519 I mean, anybody would want to achieve the results of going 514 00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:31,920 from zero quota performance to two-thirds or from um 35% 515 00:25:32,319 --> 00:25:33,200 attrition to two. 516 00:25:33,519 --> 00:25:35,680 So uh that's just like what I'm hearing. 517 00:25:35,759 --> 00:25:40,319 I'm wondering how much of that is the sort of playbook, if you 518 00:25:40,319 --> 00:25:42,799 will, of entering other difficult situations. 519 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:43,920 SPEAKER_00: Well, I love that. 520 00:25:44,079 --> 00:25:45,519 Gosh, that was so well said. 521 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,039 The um the other thing I think that we did that I think is 522 00:25:49,039 --> 00:25:52,960 really relevant too was we outfitted the team with tools as 523 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:56,000 well so that they could sell a multi-product solution. 524 00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,319 Part of what happened was obviously like the uh the same, 525 00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:03,119 or I'm sorry, the challenger sales methodology was really 526 00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:04,799 helpful for sure. 527 00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:10,000 But also it was the mechanism for them to be able to sell new 528 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,440 products to their solution to their to their customers was one 529 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:15,680 of those things that they didn't know necessarily how to bring it 530 00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:16,160 up always. 531 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:19,359 And so we had outfitted them with sales loft at the time. 532 00:26:19,519 --> 00:26:22,799 Um, but now I think of all of the different AI tools that you 533 00:26:22,799 --> 00:26:28,160 could be leveraging to either um uncover who has the most 534 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:29,119 potential. 535 00:26:29,519 --> 00:26:32,480 Uh you know, not obviously you've got your performance 536 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,839 already with the revenue, uh, revenue that folks are doing, 537 00:26:36,079 --> 00:26:39,359 but you can look with any of these AI tools to start to go, 538 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,559 okay, who might be have the propensity to be able to use it? 539 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,880 And then obviously, then how do I do any outreach with marketing 540 00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:49,359 tools and all that? 541 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,480 And so we had used sales off at the time, but now I think that 542 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:56,319 there's all sorts of other ways to uncover intent uh and 543 00:26:56,319 --> 00:26:58,000 propensity to buy too. 544 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,119 The other thing I would say is in that performance and 545 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,960 potential uh on the performance side, one of the other elements 546 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,839 that was really interesting and required partnership with our 547 00:27:07,839 --> 00:27:12,240 finance team in particular was evaluating the LTV to CAC for 548 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:12,960 each of these. 549 00:27:13,039 --> 00:27:18,799 And so there were also segments that we decided to exit and say, 550 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,839 this is actually not a profitable segment for us to for 551 00:27:21,839 --> 00:27:25,359 us to sell to anymore because they don't stay with us, or 552 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,039 because the CAC is not worth it. 553 00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,599 Um so you could evaluate all of those elements. 554 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:32,079 And so when we started to look at, you know, all of the 555 00:27:32,079 --> 00:27:34,480 different segmentation, you started to almost see, okay, 556 00:27:34,559 --> 00:27:36,720 here's where we're going to organize, here's how we're going 557 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,799 to organize, here's how we're going to support it, and then 558 00:27:38,799 --> 00:27:40,720 here are ones that we're just going to exit. 559 00:27:40,799 --> 00:27:44,079 Um so it was a really interesting kind of RevOps 560 00:27:44,319 --> 00:27:47,839 finance product and sales marketing and customer success, 561 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,599 um, you know, kind of cross-functional initiative that 562 00:27:51,599 --> 00:27:54,799 made us stronger and got us growing again. 563 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:57,279 SPEAKER_02: Why do you think, in the example that you use, which 564 00:27:57,279 --> 00:27:59,359 is an excellent one with Shutterstock, why wasn't that 565 00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:00,640 happening already? 566 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:04,079 SPEAKER_00: I think they had just had so much chaos. 567 00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:08,400 There had been so much chaos in adding all of these companies. 568 00:28:08,559 --> 00:28:12,240 And they had been on a growing spree, you know, they had been 569 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,240 on an acquisition spree, frankly. 570 00:28:14,559 --> 00:28:16,880 And so they were bringing all of these people together. 571 00:28:17,039 --> 00:28:19,440 And so if you had been there for eight years, which as I 572 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,799 mentioned was the average tenure, you could just kind of 573 00:28:22,799 --> 00:28:25,359 keep doing your thing and not add all of these. 574 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:29,200 And then it it only, you know, it only became apparent once you 575 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:30,640 weren't hitting your number. 576 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,119 Why you weren't hitting your number was because you were 577 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:36,079 selling the thing you had eight years ago, as opposed to all of 578 00:28:36,079 --> 00:28:37,519 the new stuff that you had to sell. 579 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,480 SPEAKER_02: Did you come in after all those acquisitions? 580 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:41,039 SPEAKER_00: Yeah. 581 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,119 So I came in after all the acquisitions. 582 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:44,720 SPEAKER_02: What an interesting dimension. 583 00:28:44,799 --> 00:28:47,279 And I think we're starting to see consolidation and 584 00:28:47,279 --> 00:28:48,240 acquisitions happening. 585 00:28:48,559 --> 00:28:53,039 Acquisitions are um so difficult to execute because of all the 586 00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:54,400 examples that you just gave. 587 00:28:54,559 --> 00:28:57,680 It's like fun to get the deal done, but then making it work 588 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,079 afterwards is like way harder. 589 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,480 Oh, and so I mean, I had to multiple times over, it does 590 00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:08,720 just naturally create a high state of unsettledness, and 591 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:10,799 that's being you know optimistic. 592 00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:11,519 SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. 593 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,799 Well, and I've had to do that short held before that. 594 00:29:15,039 --> 00:29:18,799 We were a premises-based unified communication solution, and we 595 00:29:18,799 --> 00:29:20,480 bought a cloud company. 596 00:29:20,799 --> 00:29:23,039 Everything about us was different, right? 597 00:29:23,119 --> 00:29:26,720 Uh, it was monthly recurring revenue versus upfront CapEx 598 00:29:26,799 --> 00:29:30,319 investment, making all of your money through partners uh and 599 00:29:30,319 --> 00:29:33,359 through that upfront investment, in fact, selling against each 600 00:29:33,359 --> 00:29:34,720 other a lot of the times. 601 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,440 Um, and so it was really interesting to watch that 602 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:37,759 happen. 603 00:29:37,839 --> 00:29:40,640 And that was the first place that I became, frankly, uh it 604 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,079 was a VP of sales and customer success where I saw the impact 605 00:29:44,079 --> 00:29:48,079 across marketing, sales, onboarding, customer success, 606 00:29:48,319 --> 00:29:48,880 support. 607 00:29:49,039 --> 00:29:52,079 I saw the impact of selling to the wrong type of customer. 608 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:56,480 Um, we had an example of we used to sell to law firms as an 609 00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,359 example in our cloud solution. 610 00:29:59,519 --> 00:30:03,279 And you You would do so much work to market to them, to then 611 00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:06,319 go through the months of red lines with this law firm, right? 612 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,839 Then it would take months and months to onboard them. 613 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,920 Um, and then the second that you got them live and there was any 614 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,880 disruption in service at all, they churned. 615 00:30:17,039 --> 00:30:19,759 And so it turned into, it was actually very fascinating. 616 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,400 This was my entire career, had just been in sales. 617 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,119 And so here I am thinking, well, we did our thing right. 618 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,000 We got that, we got that deal closed, right? 619 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:29,839 Um, we got our commission. 620 00:30:30,079 --> 00:30:33,279 And it turned into this was the first time where I really went, 621 00:30:33,359 --> 00:30:36,960 oh my gosh, it's not about doing your thing right, it's about 622 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:37,920 doing the right thing. 623 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:43,599 And so we evolved and changed our entire 150-person team to 624 00:30:43,599 --> 00:30:47,839 where no longer was anyone able to sell to law firms or market 625 00:30:47,839 --> 00:30:52,000 to law firms or keep a law firm because we now went, who is the 626 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,920 longest, who's the LTV, who has the longest tenure, retention, 627 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:56,799 et cetera, with us? 628 00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,519 Who is the right ICP for us to be selling to? 629 00:30:59,759 --> 00:31:03,839 And so not only did we change who our ICP was and like all get 630 00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:06,559 aligned to it, but then I also changed the compensation model 631 00:31:06,559 --> 00:31:07,200 for everyone. 632 00:31:07,359 --> 00:31:10,319 So everyone had the compensation that they were entitled, you 633 00:31:10,319 --> 00:31:11,680 know, that they were responsible for. 634 00:31:11,839 --> 00:31:16,559 So sellers, it was new ARR for the support team, it was their, 635 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:21,039 you know, uh their uh first call resolution, uh, was their 636 00:31:21,039 --> 00:31:23,119 primary way of getting paid, right? 637 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:24,960 Either for their bonus or their commission. 638 00:31:25,119 --> 00:31:29,680 But 25% of everyone's variable compensation had a retention 639 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:30,559 element to it. 640 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:34,240 So that you were not just doing your thing right, but you were 641 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,480 doing the right thing holistically for the 642 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,440 organization to succeed, which was all about retention and 643 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:40,880 long-term value of the customers. 644 00:31:42,079 --> 00:31:44,640 SPEAKER_02: Bridget, you know, just in this conversation, it's 645 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,000 clear you've walked into some tumultuous situations. 646 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,599 Walk into acquisition-based tumult. 647 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,200 That's probably like on the degree of difficulty scale as 648 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:56,160 high as it gets. 649 00:31:56,319 --> 00:31:59,759 And if you can successfully navigate the change management 650 00:31:59,759 --> 00:32:04,480 or transformation in that context, imagine what you can do 651 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,119 when you don't have the one hand, the one arm tied behind 652 00:32:07,119 --> 00:32:10,400 your back in terms of doing that. 653 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:17,039 I wouldn't underestimate the um the skills that one acquires to 654 00:32:17,039 --> 00:32:20,880 be able to effectively um manage growth. 655 00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:25,359 Um, but if you think about coming into a situation in a you 656 00:32:25,359 --> 00:32:28,640 know more favorable starting point, so to speak, um, you 657 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,440 know, that the idea of accelerating growth might be 658 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,240 really compelling and exciting based on what because you've 659 00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:37,680 already seen the harder uh you know, sort of picture. 660 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,039 Another thing that kind of comes to mind for me is in order to 661 00:32:41,039 --> 00:32:45,920 effectively transform an organization in any way, I 662 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,680 imagine you you talked about this cross-functional dynamic 663 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,519 working with finance and working with RevOps and looking at LTB 664 00:32:53,519 --> 00:32:57,119 and cat to cat and making the tough decisions that you can't 665 00:32:57,119 --> 00:33:00,319 make on your own about what are we not going to do anymore? 666 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,559 Law firms, in your example, being the perfect thing. 667 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,279 We're able to close deals there, but it's not good business. 668 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:09,599 It takes a village, so to speak, to come to agreement that we 669 00:33:09,599 --> 00:33:10,640 can't do this anymore. 670 00:33:10,799 --> 00:33:14,400 Can you talk a little bit about um you know how you pursue now 671 00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,160 cross-functional relationships at the executive level and maybe 672 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,119 the learnings that have gotten you to your worldview today? 673 00:33:21,599 --> 00:33:27,759 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I'm a big, let's say, management book 674 00:33:27,759 --> 00:33:28,319 reader. 675 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:29,920 I love books on leadership. 676 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:36,000 So one of my favorite ones is uh shockingly, Stanley McChrystal, 677 00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,359 General Stanley McChrystal's book called Team of Teams, where 678 00:33:39,359 --> 00:33:43,519 he talks about how they were able to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq. 679 00:33:43,599 --> 00:33:50,960 And he uh he managed the joint operations special forces, and 680 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,519 it was all of these individual branches of the government, 681 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:53,920 right? 682 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,640 And so they were all in Iraq trying to, you know, kind of 683 00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:58,720 defeat this very nimble enemy. 684 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,240 And he found that this, you know, we're the US had the 685 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,119 strongest military in the world, and we're getting beat every day 686 00:34:05,119 --> 00:34:08,320 by a more nimble, flexible, you know, adversary. 687 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,159 And it was because of the things they were doing internally to 688 00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:13,679 make things harder. 689 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:19,440 So one branch of the military had like an informant and 690 00:34:19,599 --> 00:34:23,119 someone who was, you know, kind of their their go-to guy. 691 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,920 Another branch of the military was like targeting that person. 692 00:34:26,079 --> 00:34:29,840 So, you know, they it everything was misaligned. 693 00:34:30,079 --> 00:34:33,679 And so I think of that book a lot, and that's where I got that 694 00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:38,000 whole, you know, do the right thing versus doing your thing 695 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,119 right, um, because he basically changed it to where he said, now 696 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,480 we are a team of teams, we are doing missions together, we are 697 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,519 aligned on what our missions are, and the ultimate goal is 698 00:34:47,519 --> 00:34:51,840 the, is like, is the is to defeat al-Qaeda and Iraq. 699 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,880 Uh, in the same sense, I think of, you know, the ultimate goal 700 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,159 is the organization's goal, not just your sales goal or not just 701 00:34:58,159 --> 00:34:59,440 your product team's goal. 702 00:34:59,679 --> 00:35:03,119 The other thing I've read was Five Dysfunctions of a Team. 703 00:35:03,199 --> 00:35:04,960 That's one of my favorite books ever, too. 704 00:35:05,119 --> 00:35:08,079 And they always highlight that the team that you are on is your 705 00:35:08,079 --> 00:35:13,199 most senior team that you are on cross-functionally, not the team 706 00:35:13,199 --> 00:35:13,760 you lead. 707 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,920 And so, again, my team is not my sales or my customer success or 708 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:18,960 my marketing team. 709 00:35:19,199 --> 00:35:22,559 My team is me and my chief product officer, my chief 710 00:35:22,559 --> 00:35:23,519 financial officer. 711 00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,239 We are solving the CEO's problems, uh, not necessarily 712 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:32,239 just the problems of our team, um, or only answering that. 713 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,519 And so, and I think there's no better, you know, kind of 714 00:35:35,519 --> 00:35:39,519 definition of that than aligning on, let's say, an ideal customer 715 00:35:39,519 --> 00:35:40,159 profile. 716 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,760 That I would be, you know, that is like one of the perfect 717 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,480 examples of you think that maybe that's just a go-to-market 718 00:35:46,639 --> 00:35:47,280 challenge. 719 00:35:47,519 --> 00:35:48,559 Absolutely not. 720 00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:53,920 Your CFO, your chief product officer, your CEO, um, everyone 721 00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:58,000 within your organization needs to be aligned on who your ICP is 722 00:35:58,159 --> 00:36:01,440 and what that means if you are only selling to that or if you 723 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:03,119 are choosing to go beyond it. 724 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,199 Um, so even something like the ICP work that I think is 725 00:36:07,199 --> 00:36:10,239 probably the most important thing, allows you to know where 726 00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:15,199 are we, where are we targeting and and what are we willing to 727 00:36:15,199 --> 00:36:19,360 spend to get that customer and what are we doing, you know, to 728 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,079 service and support and keep that customer. 729 00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:25,599 Uh, and I think there there's there's no more kind of example 730 00:36:25,599 --> 00:36:29,760 of something where it aligns the entire executive team more than 731 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:30,880 something like ICP. 732 00:36:31,599 --> 00:36:33,360 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, that's a great example. 733 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,480 Um, you know, Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team. 734 00:36:36,559 --> 00:36:40,400 Um, I've heard a lot about this, that the idea that your team is 735 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,039 your peers and not the folks that roll up to you. 736 00:36:43,199 --> 00:36:46,239 And I think everybody nods and you know vigorously agrees, 737 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:46,960 yeah, sure. 738 00:36:47,119 --> 00:36:50,880 But the actual like application of that in the real world is 739 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,119 much tougher than it sounds. 740 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:58,559 It's very easy to live within your um your silo of 741 00:36:58,559 --> 00:36:59,519 responsibility. 742 00:36:59,679 --> 00:37:02,639 Uh, first of all, those folks report up to you, and so if you 743 00:37:02,639 --> 00:37:07,119 call, they answer, and you understand the deep context of 744 00:37:07,119 --> 00:37:09,760 the things that A, that they should be doing, B, the things 745 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,559 they are doing, and C the struggles or challenges or 746 00:37:12,559 --> 00:37:15,199 objectives or obstacles that they might be facing. 747 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,679 And so the inertia is pushing you at all times to work within 748 00:37:19,679 --> 00:37:20,400 that silo. 749 00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:20,960 Yeah. 750 00:37:21,119 --> 00:37:24,159 Like, for example, you might not be the head of engineering, you 751 00:37:24,159 --> 00:37:26,239 might not have any idea how to write code. 752 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,039 So, like, what are you gonna talk to the head of engineering 753 00:37:29,039 --> 00:37:29,280 about? 754 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,719 It's like you don't want to tell him about or her about the 755 00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,440 quality of the engineers because that's not your role. 756 00:37:35,519 --> 00:37:38,079 So you don't want to be coming across like you're infringing, 757 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:42,719 or the head of product, or finance, or whatever the area of 758 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:44,000 specialization is. 759 00:37:44,159 --> 00:37:47,760 So I think the idea that, like, hey, your first team is your 760 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:51,119 peers and not just like the folks that report up into your 761 00:37:51,119 --> 00:37:56,559 org is much harder to actually apply because all the inertia is 762 00:37:56,559 --> 00:38:00,079 also pushing them to focus on the things they need to do day 763 00:38:00,159 --> 00:38:01,519 to day and so on and so forth. 764 00:38:01,679 --> 00:38:06,480 So I think a challenge for leaders is a the recognition of 765 00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:09,519 what you described, but then B, how do I put that into practice? 766 00:38:09,599 --> 00:38:10,719 How have you done so? 767 00:38:11,039 --> 00:38:11,599 SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah. 768 00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:14,239 Well, it's aligned compensation, number one. 769 00:38:14,559 --> 00:38:18,079 So, you know, the salesperson in me dies hard because I think 770 00:38:18,079 --> 00:38:22,559 aligned compensation always is a way to reinforce the the goals 771 00:38:22,559 --> 00:38:23,199 that you have. 772 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:26,880 So, um, and I mean that company wide. 773 00:38:27,039 --> 00:38:31,519 Um, I think there's also um I think what is it, people have to 774 00:38:31,519 --> 00:38:33,679 hear something nine times before it actually sticks. 775 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,039 Um so I think it's also every single I think yeah, exactly. 776 00:38:37,199 --> 00:38:37,760 Yeah, yeah. 777 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:38,880 It was nine. 778 00:38:39,039 --> 00:38:39,840 I think it's nine. 779 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:40,400 I don't know. 780 00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:42,960 It's either seven or nine, and I can never remember. 781 00:38:43,119 --> 00:38:43,679 Yeah. 782 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,639 And I'm like, I clearly I need to hear it more often. 783 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:52,880 So the um, but I think at every uh, you know, all team meeting 784 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,840 that you hold, every organizational meeting that you 785 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,039 have, every time you kick off a meeting, as a reminder, our goal 786 00:38:59,039 --> 00:39:02,639 is that we are getting to this revenue target or retention rate 787 00:39:02,639 --> 00:39:06,800 should be this, or ICP is this, and we are looking at our ICP 788 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:07,679 penetration rate. 789 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:11,920 Like whatever that one thing is, and I always usually, if it can 790 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:13,360 be one thing, it's ideal. 791 00:39:13,519 --> 00:39:16,719 Uh, if it is one thing that you can find is the ruthless 792 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,440 priority of the organization that you are galvanizing the 793 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:23,039 team around, then it is it's the one thing that you are always 794 00:39:23,039 --> 00:39:23,599 talking about. 795 00:39:23,679 --> 00:39:26,159 It's the one thing you are paying them on, whether it's 796 00:39:26,159 --> 00:39:31,039 their bonuses for uh usually the non-commission carrying folks or 797 00:39:31,039 --> 00:39:33,760 the uh or the commission carrying folks having a 798 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:37,599 component of it to be uh to be um uh you know something that 799 00:39:37,599 --> 00:39:38,960 they are incentivized to. 800 00:39:39,119 --> 00:39:41,280 And then the third element I would say, so it's you know, 801 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,400 aligned compensation, number two would be the you know, 802 00:39:44,559 --> 00:39:46,320 relentless discussion about it. 803 00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,679 The third would be find some way to make it fun. 804 00:39:50,079 --> 00:39:52,480 Find some way to make it fun. 805 00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:56,480 Um, and that they care about it because I have done, I can't 806 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:58,880 even tell you the amount of embarrassing things that I've 807 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:01,760 done where like if we hit a certain goal, there's pie in the 808 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:02,000 face. 809 00:40:02,079 --> 00:40:06,000 If we hit a certain goal, I'm doing chapel roan karaoke, which 810 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:07,519 you don't have to ask me too much. 811 00:40:07,679 --> 00:40:09,440 I will, I will raise my hand to do. 812 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:14,400 But the there's so many things that are, you know, ways to like 813 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:18,880 make that fun, or you know, the whole company gets um, you know, 814 00:40:19,039 --> 00:40:21,199 I don't know, a what have we done? 815 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,400 We've done like yoga class together. 816 00:40:24,559 --> 00:40:28,880 Um, uh the entire company gets to have a half day off or 817 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:29,199 something. 818 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,920 You know, like there were there were things like that that we 819 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:34,239 would do, and there were always little small milestones. 820 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,159 And I've also heard this is what they do. 821 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:40,159 Um, that, you know, as you were in pursuit of a goal, you don't 822 00:40:40,159 --> 00:40:42,719 do milestones, you do inch pebbles. 823 00:40:44,159 --> 00:40:45,199 Love that term. 824 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,880 Um, I stole that from my favorite book, Switch, How to 825 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:50,159 Change When Change is Hard. 826 00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:52,079 That's another one of my books that I love. 827 00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:56,559 Um, and they basically are like, this is the this the way that 828 00:40:56,559 --> 00:41:01,599 you create success is to show that success can be uh can can 829 00:41:01,599 --> 00:41:02,079 happen. 830 00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:05,280 And so, for example, if you're showing a timeline, you never 831 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,119 show yourself at the beginning of this. 832 00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:09,199 You show yourself, see, we've already started. 833 00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,119 We're about 25% of the way there. 834 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,400 So you already show, look, success is is already begetting 835 00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:14,960 success. 836 00:41:15,199 --> 00:41:19,920 People would rather be in part way through a longer journey 837 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:21,920 than at the beginning of a shorter one. 838 00:41:22,079 --> 00:41:26,480 That is one of the invaluable lessons uh that Switch teaches 839 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:26,559 you. 840 00:41:26,639 --> 00:41:29,599 And so that's where these little inch pebbles of shrinking the 841 00:41:29,599 --> 00:41:32,159 change that you were trying to get to work. 842 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,920 And I will tell you, on that third day, on that Camino de 843 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:40,000 Santiago, when I did not want to do this, I was using inch 844 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,480 pebbles to motivate myself on this journey. 845 00:41:42,639 --> 00:41:46,079 I was doing, I was like, just get to that place so that you 846 00:41:46,079 --> 00:41:47,280 can have a coffee. 847 00:41:47,519 --> 00:41:50,079 Just get to that place so you can wring out your socks. 848 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:54,000 It was small little change, or and I was like, you know, giving 849 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:56,480 myself, uh giving myself little treats. 850 00:41:56,639 --> 00:41:58,719 Oh, then you can get your protein bar. 851 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:01,840 You know, I was doing little things to like motivate myself 852 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,920 because I couldn't talk to her, you know, I wasn't really 853 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:04,960 talking to anybody. 854 00:42:05,039 --> 00:42:08,239 Um, and so all of those things are, you know, all of these 855 00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:11,519 change management tactics that you use are things that you can 856 00:42:11,519 --> 00:42:13,119 use on yourself too. 857 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:14,079 SPEAKER_02: Totally. 858 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:16,000 Bridget, you're back here in New York. 859 00:42:16,159 --> 00:42:17,360 What's next for you? 860 00:42:17,679 --> 00:42:20,960 SPEAKER_00: Um I'll be uh the chief revenue officer at a 861 00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:22,559 company called Patient Now. 862 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:29,519 Uh it is the back-end practice management uh for med spas and 863 00:42:29,519 --> 00:42:34,079 aesthetic practices, uh, an amazing vertical SaaS company 864 00:42:34,079 --> 00:42:39,599 that is in the hyper-growth$20 billion uh market and growing at 865 00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:41,440 15% every year. 866 00:42:41,679 --> 00:42:47,920 So extremely great space and uh allows for Patient Now to be the 867 00:42:48,079 --> 00:42:48,880 market leader in that. 868 00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:49,920 So I'm excited for that. 869 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:51,360 SPEAKER_02: Fantastic, Bridget. 870 00:42:51,519 --> 00:42:53,920 I feel like we just got started here talking, but we have run 871 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:54,400 out of time. 872 00:42:54,639 --> 00:42:57,360 Best wishes, and I'm sure you're gonna do an amazing job in the 873 00:42:57,360 --> 00:42:57,679 new role. 874 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,880 It was fun talking about your personal experience and your 875 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,199 personal reasons, about your experience with revamping 876 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,880 process and incorporating talent into the bigger picture and how 877 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:12,400 you sort of cross-functionally bring the org along with you. 878 00:43:12,559 --> 00:43:13,679 Um, it's been awesome. 879 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,000 So, Bridget, thank you very much for joining. 880 00:43:16,159 --> 00:43:16,960 Where should people find you? 881 00:43:17,119 --> 00:43:18,079 LinkedIn the place to go? 882 00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:19,679 SPEAKER_00: Yes, LinkedIn is the place. 883 00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:20,960 My DMs are open. 884 00:43:21,039 --> 00:43:22,000 Feel free. 885 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:22,800 Awesome. 886 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:23,840 Thank you very much. 887 00:43:24,079 --> 00:43:25,199 Thank you so much, Rick. 888 00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:25,920 This was so fun. 889 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:35,920 SPEAKER_02: Reflecting on the conversation we just had with 890 00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:40,000 Bridget Winston, so many little tidbits of wisdom that were 891 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,400 shared, it's hard to sort of compile it down to three big 892 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,239 themes, but I'm gonna attempt to do that. 893 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,679 And the first thing that stands out to me, so much of this show, 894 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:54,239 is about tactics to help us be better sales leaders, better 895 00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:56,079 leaders, better professionals. 896 00:43:56,239 --> 00:44:00,000 And there's a whole nother side to us beyond our professional 897 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,400 selves that in our personal journeys outside of just work, 898 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:08,320 and Bridget's sharing her story and her personal journey between 899 00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,840 roles, taking a trip on the other side of the world, stories 900 00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,440 of adversity, stories of loss, stories of meaning, stories of 901 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:19,599 spirituality, it gives us an opportunity to reflect and think 902 00:44:19,599 --> 00:44:21,280 about what is our own journey? 903 00:44:21,519 --> 00:44:24,880 What is the meaning we are finding beyond the work that we 904 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:25,119 do? 905 00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:28,559 And when you hear another leader, a successful leader, 906 00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:32,239 share a story with some vulnerability in it, with some, 907 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,920 you know, unconventional or not, you know, not your typical trip 908 00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:39,840 that folks would take, it helps form thoughts about our own 909 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:44,000 search for meaning in our humanity beyond our ambition and 910 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:45,039 our professional careers. 911 00:44:45,119 --> 00:44:48,079 So thank you, Bridget, for that uh storytelling. 912 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,800 The second thing, the difficulty in when you have a company that 913 00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:54,239 grows through acquisition. 914 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:56,639 And I'm not saying just one acquisition, I'm talking 915 00:44:56,639 --> 00:44:57,760 multiple acquisitions. 916 00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:01,840 And Bridget told stories that reflect the challenges 917 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:05,039 associated with digesting and consuming and moving forward 918 00:45:05,039 --> 00:45:07,519 successfully when you've been in an acquisition-heavy 919 00:45:07,519 --> 00:45:08,159 environment. 920 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,599 She told stories of having to like take a step back and get to 921 00:45:11,599 --> 00:45:14,719 the fundamentals of how would we run this business if we were to 922 00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:19,119 start it today and having to do basic things that weren't being 923 00:45:19,119 --> 00:45:22,480 done in an environment that you know might be described as 924 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:23,280 chaotic. 925 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:26,719 Um, and so that you know, I want to tip my hat to all of the 926 00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:30,079 sales leaders out there that are leading businesses that have 927 00:45:30,079 --> 00:45:32,960 been acquisition heavy, and I want to acknowledge the 928 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:33,920 difficulty it is. 929 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:38,639 And now I kind of understand at a greater level why such a large 930 00:45:38,639 --> 00:45:43,519 percentage of deals that get done don't translate into the 931 00:45:43,519 --> 00:45:47,039 value creation that was sold as part of that acquisition effort. 932 00:45:47,119 --> 00:45:49,360 Now, if you have a leader like Bridget, you have a better 933 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,559 chance of being able to take a step back and then execute 934 00:45:52,559 --> 00:45:53,119 accordingly. 935 00:45:53,199 --> 00:45:56,880 But boy, her stories uh showed the difficulty in doing that. 936 00:45:56,960 --> 00:45:59,360 And so it's like almost operating with one arm tied 937 00:45:59,519 --> 00:46:00,079 behind your back. 938 00:46:00,159 --> 00:46:04,719 And so um, for me, it's like, okay, uh acquisitions sound fun, 939 00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:07,840 and when you see them happen on LinkedIn, people are celebrating 940 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,880 them, but the there is hard work that has to happen on the other 941 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:11,679 side of that. 942 00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:15,679 Um, the last reflection I have from the episode is when Bridget 943 00:46:15,679 --> 00:46:18,480 was talking about cross-functional leadership. 944 00:46:18,639 --> 00:46:20,639 And she made the point of making it fun. 945 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:22,639 And I think it's a super important point. 946 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:26,239 We all are trying to make the biggest impact we can on our 947 00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:28,239 organizations and develop the right relationships. 948 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,199 And it's difficult when we are in a large group of humans 949 00:46:31,199 --> 00:46:33,360 working together towards a common goal. 950 00:46:33,599 --> 00:46:37,440 And it is important that the journey doesn't just have to be 951 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:37,679 hard. 952 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:39,119 It can be hard and fun. 953 00:46:39,199 --> 00:46:42,320 And it can be fun to be in a challenging environment. 954 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,280 And I loved Bridget uh emphasizing the importance of 955 00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:45,440 that. 956 00:46:45,599 --> 00:46:49,280 I think we all need to be having fun along the way while we do 957 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:53,440 the hard work of being great leaders, of learning how to be 958 00:46:53,679 --> 00:46:57,519 positive impacts across the areas of responsibility that we 959 00:46:57,519 --> 00:46:58,239 are working through. 960 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:00,320 So thank you, Bridget, for a great discussion. 961 00:47:00,559 --> 00:47:01,760 Really appreciate it. 962 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:03,840 Thank you to Ari Smolin for producing. 963 00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:05,760 Thank you to Sons of Summer for the tunes. 964 00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:07,679 Thank you, listener, for being here today. 965 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,000 We will see you next time on Pillow Talks.