Episode 90: Justine Tourtellotte – Never Give Up

The right structure can be incredibly freeing. Having a well-defined strategy and reliable rules to refer back to gives Justine Tourtellotte the confidence to try new things and get out of her comfort zone.  

Now a Business Development Manager at Cynerio, Justine discusses the benefits of being in a competitive environment — you develop relationships that help you overcome challenges and lift you up when you begin to doubt yourself.  

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Justine discusses ways to build your network, why grit takes you farther than your resume, and ways to shift your mindset when things get tough.  

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Justine Tourtellotte

💡 What she does: Justine is a business development manager at Cynerio. 

💡 Company: Cynerio

💡 Noteworthy: Justine went to trade school for plumbing. As a 16-year-old girl, she started in the gym and did contract sales. Justine has experience in the auto industry, and now, she’s firmly entrenched as a tech sales professional.

💡 Where to find Justine: LinkedIn | Website

Key Insights

⚡ A place with structure helps a lot. Some companies are more structured than others, and people have different opinions about whether structure is beneficial or not. Some people think it limits what you can do, but Justine believes that structure helps. She discovered that at memoryBlue. “There’s a delineation between structure and micromanaging. I feel a lot of people may associate [structure] with being micromanaged or having it be too strict or too tight on rules, but that was completely not it. It was more so you can have a support team — you have a safety net, you have these people around you to be able to tell you how things are done. And it’s so structured in a good way that there’s no room for guessing — there’s no room to feel like you’re going to fumble because you have that support group, and you have that structure.”

⚡Competition is not always a bad thing. There are different views on competitiveness, but it is well-known that healthy competition is good. According to Justine, there can be positive types of competition, and it depends on the way the company structures it, which either makes it beneficial or detrimental. “Coming here [memoryBlue], the biggest difference for me was realizing that competition wasn’t a bad thing; it was motivation. Having those TVs with, ‘This person just booked someone, this person just accrued someone,’ was extremely motivating. And if anything, I never felt bad about it. I would always just look at them and be like, ‘I want to see my name on there next.’ So having that team, having that structure, and being able to compete with them transformed my thoughts about competition too because previously, tying it together, it was not necessarily a healthy environment.”

⚡ Never give up. Whatever business you do, you will encounter obstacles. But we often lack the will to overcome these obstacles, and so we give up easily. Justine points out that it is crucial to have support — someone you can turn to for help. However, it is equally important to be persistent and have the will to learn. “It’s important not to give up on yourself, even when you feel like the world is ending and all of these things are going wrong. You rely on your support group and your team, and be disgustingly transparent with everyone around you because if they don’t know how you’re feeling, then you’re just suffering in the corner, and nobody knows how to help you.”

Episode Highlights

What Does Justine Do At Cynerio?

“It was a lot of building out the talk tracks, creating certain messages, being a liaison between marketing, between the dev team and anyone that you needed to, to obtain resources so that you could essentially help yourself and the other SDRs. So it is a combo role, where I do SDR work and supplement the team. […]

I do want to move into a closing room. We have something like SMB, so I would like to move into that role. Either that, or if I don’t end up liking it, I did enjoy that kind of management position, but I would want to be entrenched in it. I wouldn’t want to combine that with SDR work because that’s a lot of hats to wear.”

Some Advice From a Tech Sales Professional

“You don’t need a piece of paper to dictate your worth or what you’re capable of, and you should never compare yourself to the people who do have those things because if you come from a background like mine, chances are you’re actually extremely strong, and you have the tools. Maybe nobody’s shown them to you yet, but they’re there.

And being in the right environment will definitely help people.

I would say for anyone who doesn’t know if they’re qualified to go into cyber because I’ve also found some stigma around making that hurdle, but there’s this figurative hurdle to making it into cyber. And that’s like a whole other ball field that people see. And that’s how I understood it because that’s how it was introduced to me. That doesn’t exist.

You’ve gotta be confident in yourself; you have to. And you have to understand that how far you’re willing to go is how far you really want to push yourself, and obstacles will come, and they will go. Nothing is permanent. Everything is ultimately within your control, and if you have the right group around you, you’ll be able to accomplish anything as long as you communicate it. “

Women in Tech Sales

“Everyone’s probably seen The Wolf of Wall Street; you just see this room full of guys, all that male energy, all crazy and so much work. And it’s not like that when you work with a lot of guys, actually. Honestly, it’s been an incredibly fun environment.

The people you meet in that technical role are actually brilliant — and being able to listen to them and have those conversations with them over time. The more you know, the less intimidating it is to meet new people like this. 

There’s no hurdle. Like I said before, why is there a hurdle? It’s imaginary. It doesn’t exist for you. Just go for it because where the opportunities are, you can’t limit yourself by getting intimidated by something, such as an office full of men. Change that narrative.”

Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Justine Tourtellotte: When you’re being rejected or when you’re encountering a situation where maybe you’re having a bad day, maybe you didn’t, you know, book anyone, maybe you just feel, like, crappy for not being able to get the job done, it’s not because of you necessarily, like, sometimes that’s just how sales is. It fluctuates. 

[00:00:53] Marc Gonyea: Justine Tourtellotte with us in the new office, not the office you’re familiar with, just down the street, across the building or parking lot. 

[00:01:02] Chris Corcoran: Welcome. Thank you. Justine, good seeing you again. 

[00:01:05] Justine Tourtellotte: Thank you. It’s good to see everybody. Exciting. 

[00:01:09] Marc Gonyea: We’ve got to catch up, but before we catch up on what you’re doing now, let’s let the audience and Chris and I, to a certain extent, right,

[00:01:16] we never worked directly, directly together, fill, what we’d like to do is have you kind of fill the audience in on, you know, who you are as person, which is talks a little about growing up, those sorts of things. 

[00:01:27] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. So, I started off in my hometown Webster. It’s a very small town. There’s absolutely nothing there. 

[00:01:34] Marc Gonyea: Where is it? What state?  

[00:01:35] Chris Corcoran: Mess. It’s on the Connecticut border for those who aren’t familiar with Webster. We have 

[00:01:40] Justine Tourtellotte: the longest lake name lake, Chaubunagungamaug, so that’s usually how people, uh. 

[00:01:48] Chris Corcoran: That’s how I lost my high school spelling 

[00:01:52] Justine Tourtellotte: So, it started off there.

[00:01:54] I ended up going to a trade school for plumbing, so I was in that trade school for four years. So, that was essentially 9th grade to 12th, and I graduated at 17.

[00:02:05] Marc Gonyea: You start working early. Why did you start working so early? 

[00:02:07] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah, so I started working really early because I come from a more impoverished background. I don’t want to label it as like, you know, dirt poor, but it was so much so that we didn’t really have the freedom or the amenities or the abilities to do a lot of the things that people, you know, my age were doing.

[00:02:26] So, instead of being able to have hobbies, like the part of, you know, different things, I would have to work. So, I started off actually in a gym because, you know, it’s a small town, everybody knows everybody, and they’re like, “Hey, do you think she can work the front desk?” So, I started off in a gym doing contract sales. 

[00:02:45] Chris Corcoran: First job?

[00:02:46] Wow. Yeah. At what age?

[00:02:48] Justine Tourtellotte: So, at that point, I was 16.

[00:02:50] Chris Corcoran: 16, but you had already two years under your belt as a plumber. Yeah. But you were going to school, but you were actually doing the work, right? 

[00:02:59] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. Yeah. So, building, restoration, commercial or residential. Yeah. 

[00:03:03] Chris Corcoran: That’s just hard, I mean. 

[00:03:05] Justine Tourtellotte: It’s fun.

[00:03:06] It’s actually a lot easier than people think it is. 

[00:03:08] Chris Corcoran: I guess you get good when you see people do it, and then you start doing yourself, but I do it whenever there’s a problem, or I try to, and I make it worse, and then I call a plumber. 

[00:03:18] Justine Tourtellotte: Typically, how it goes. 

[00:03:22] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. All right. So,

[00:03:24] work at, hardworking, growing up, right? Probably learned the value of hard work and money earlier than a lot of people.

[00:03:29] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh, absolutely. So, I actually have a total of nine, so between me and my siblings and I’m the youngest, but there’s a massive age gap within there. So, most of my siblings are twice my age, so I kind of got to see them go through everything before, which kind of allowed me to determine probably the best way to navigate my life at that time.

[00:03:52] So, you had to grow up pretty early, had to be responsible, start doing things for yourself. And I didn’t have a car, so I had to keep working to try to get that. That was my first objective because I wanted to go to college. 

[00:04:06] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. When the car, what would the car represent, like, freedom for you? 

[00:04:10] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. Absolutely. Independence? Independence, opportunities, freedom,

[00:04:14] just everything. 

[00:04:15] Chris Corcoran: So, how’d you get to work without a car? 

[00:04:17] Justine Tourtellotte: I would actually take the bus or the bike. So, for this particular job, the gym contract sales, I would bike to work, or I would walk. 

[00:04:25] Marc Gonyea: Okay, love it. So, that, that gym sales, that was your first sales gig? That was my first sales gig. And what did that, what’d you learn from that? Was that when you kind of figured out like, “Hey, maybe there’s something to this here.

[00:04:35] Maybe it’s not the trade school route?” 

[00:04:37] Justine Tourtellotte: That’s what I realized that I was actually decent at socializing because for a very long time, and I had crippling social anxiety, so it was one of those things that kind of forced me to actually have to see people every day. And then you get familiar with all these people, and you realize, you know, you become a staple of this gym, of this facility

[00:04:58] and over time, everyone just becomes friendly and. 

[00:05:02] Marc Gonyea: Then you were selling, too. 

[00:05:03] Justine Tourtellotte: Yes. So, you would try to get people to extend their contracts, to join classes, to do all of these other things. People would walk in that just want a free trial to get a free trial, you’d have to try to sell them on that afterwards.

[00:05:15] Marc Gonyea: Did you realize that was 

[00:05:16] sales? 

[00:05:17] Justine Tourtellotte: Not at the time. Honestly, it just felt like a proper exchange. I didn’t know to, you know, how to correlate that at the time. 

[00:05:25] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re doing that, you’re in trade school for plumbing, and you mentioned college couple minutes ago. Let’s talk about that a little bit. ‘Cause you and I talked about that prep too.

[00:05:34] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. So, nobody in my family thus far had attended college, so it was one of my aspirations to be the first person in my family to do so. Given we were very low on resources, I didn’t have a car, um, and also within being the first person, there can oftentimes be, like, a lack of confidence with your ability to do so,

[00:05:56] that was my ultimate goal. And it takes a lot to work up to, and that’s actually what brought me to my second job. So, it was a combination of working for my brother and the stage where Resort, where I was able to run, like, the online store, you know, like, date things, price things and ultimately sell them and make commission off of whatever I sell.

[00:06:17] So, I did that in a combination with working for, um, at the time Toyota, so that was my first, what I felt was a proper sales job. And going back to.

[00:06:28] Marc Gonyea: The job at Toyota? At dealer? 

[00:06:32] Justine Tourtellotte: And going back to how I started that, my brother actually used to work at the same exact store with the same exact GM 20 years prior, so. 

[00:06:42] Marc Gonyea: You have 

[00:06:42] a family of 9, double age duration, right?

[00:06:46] You might run into some of the same employers. This is all in Webster? 

[00:06:49] Justine Tourtellotte: So, this was actually in Auburn. Okay. So, for this job, I didn’t have a car at the time, so I would take the bus. 

[00:06:55] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:06:56] Marc Gonyea: All right. Well, tell Chris and I and audience about working at Toyota.

[00:07:00] Justine Tourtellotte: It was really interesting. It’s a hustle. It’s complicated. You have to, I think it’s one of those things where they just kind of thrust you into the workplace, and they do provide training, which is incredibly helpful, but there has to be that kind of intuition on how to navigate conversations and, you know, be able to present something which is favorable for a client,

[00:07:26] so. 

[00:07:27] Marc Gonyea: How long did you do that for?

[00:07:28] Justine Tourtellotte: I worked there not too long, actually, so I had just issue with one of the managers or rather vice versa, she had an issue with me. I ended up getting terminated from the company just all of a sudden, but by that time, I had just went through my training, and I formed a great relationship with the head of e-commerce for her chambers, shoutout Jacob Valla.

[00:07:52] And he was actually the one that kind of started my career in sales. So, he brought me to the next place.

[00:07:58] Marc Gonyea: I’m going too fast. Tell, tell, so when you were working at Toyota, selling, what skills did you learn to acquire or, you know, or what do you remember as lessons from that? 

[00:08:09] Justine Tourtellotte: Well, I remember, you know, obviously not to take things too seriously, whether it be rejection, whether it be how people feel about either you or the product, which honestly it’s mainly about the product,

[00:08:22] it’s never really about you and sales, so when you’re being rejected or when you’re encountering a situation where maybe you’re having a bad day, maybe you didn’t book anyone, maybe you just feel, like, crappy for not being able to get the job done, it’s not because of you necessarily, like, sometimes that’s just how sales is. It fluctuates.

[00:08:43] Marc Gonyea: Yup. Yup. And did you buy a car when you’re at Toyota? Finally, you’re working for a car dealer, gotta translate some of those checks in the car. 

[00:08:52] Justine Tourtellotte: So funny enough, my brother’s estate jewelry store that I worked for at the same time, one person came in random day, was just like, “Do you want this car? I look at the two for $500.”

[00:09:03] So, my brother buys it, and it’s just sitting on the lot there, and my bus driver would see it every day and he was also super sweet and would always be helping me, and he’s like, “You should get that car.” The bus driver? The bus driver. So, they’re trying to, so they’re trying to encourage me to buy the car, so I asked my brother ’cause he had intentions to sell it for obviously more.

[00:09:26] So, I ended up getting my brother to sell me the car. My bus driver actually helped me with kind of patching up the car also, which was incredible. This is the public bus driver? Yes. Yeah. Small-town stuff. So, that’s ultimately what got me my first car, and it was a Toyota. 

[00:09:46] Marc Gonyea: How long did you have that car for?

[00:09:47] I had that car for about three years. Then I give it to my dad when I was done with it. 

[00:09:54] Marc Gonyea: And then you bought the next one? 

[00:09:54] Justine Tourtellotte: Yup. 

[00:09:55] Marc Gonyea: Uh, all right, so, let’s give this some elevation, I guess, on the plane here. So, you’re working at Toyota, you stopped, you said, “College, I’m not doing college. I’m gonna get all the experience working,” like, how did that?

[00:10:06] Justine Tourtellotte: So, actually, after the Toyota gig, I was continuing to work at my brother’s store part-time, and there is actually, like, a little ice cream place in the back, so I decided to give it a try, put myself through some classes, I was able to get a personal loan for myself to start these classes and my initial intention was, like, an associate in business.

[00:10:32] So, just getting that baseline degree to feel like I can have that step to move up. So, I ended up just going to a few classes, realized after, you know, obtaining another job that I didn’t really need to finish my classes, so I, at that point, I just did some classes for fun, like, psychology, culture, cultural anthropology, philosophy and just stayed in things that intrigued me rather than things that I felt were a benchmark.

[00:10:59] Marc Gonyea: I mean, yeah. Chris and I probably have non-traditional use on undergrad, right? I mean, that must be for you, I guess, in terms of, you know, we obviously hire, hired you, um, and, like, the type of experiences you are going through, probably more valuable than many, many people’s undergraduate education experience. Yeah. 

[00:11:19] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.

[00:11:19] Go do four years at plumbing. 

[00:11:22] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Hawking Toyotas. Yeah. Yeah. Right? That’ll teach you some serious lessons, we think, in all sorts of ways, not just the job and everything, building relationships with people. So, you left Toyota, but I interrupted you, what about the e-commerce individual who kind of? 

[00:11:43] Justine Tourtellotte: Mr.

[00:11:44] Cabala? So, he was incredible. He realized early on in the training that I was very attentive. I was actually really good at the job. He ran my numbers after the training, I absorbed everything, and I clearly showed that I wanted to be there, so he kind of just called up and he’s like, “What happened?” walked me through this

[00:12:03] and ultimately, nothing made sense, so he told me on that day, “Okay, go to BMW Boston right now and meet me at the second floor. We’re going to find you, like, the next move.” So, I did that and that brought me to Nissan in Westborough, so. And then tell us about that. So, it’s a series of unfortunate events of, some would call it,

[00:12:26] so I, I think I just had some kind of, like, sticker on my head that says like, “Women, please do not like me” because I had another female manager at the time, and I came into this, guns blazing, I was ready to go ready to work and what had actually happened at that location is there was just a huge shut down for the, like, BDR department.

[00:12:47] So, everybody left except for one person. She was the new manager, and I ended up having to kind of train her a little bit too ’cause she was relatively new. So, this brought me to another event where there was a conflict, and he actually told me how to handle the conflict, it felt super boss, and then also told me, “Come back, we’re going to discuss the next move,” which then led me to Land Rover Jaguar, which ultimately brought me up to the Boston area.

[00:13:16] Marc Gonyea: And what were you selling, are you selling all along here or it’d be, so tell us what you were doing?

[00:13:20] Justine Tourtellotte: So, that job, I wasn’t old enough to sell the cars. You have to be 21 to sell cars, so I thought, yeah. So, at that time, when I left high school, I was 17, so when I was in that first year of college, I was 18. Yeah,

[00:13:36] 17 to 18. And so I couldn’t obviously sell cars. So, what they have you do is you call people who may have clicked something online, they show general interest, and you convince them, “Come in and test drive this card. You want this car.” And trying to do, like, the discussion why they’re looking, you know, how to make it look good for them.

[00:13:57] Marc Gonyea: Um. 

[00:13:57] Do you ever keep track of people who you booked, do they ever buy cars from like your inbound leads, I guess?

[00:14:03] Justine Tourtellotte: My favorite person and the only one that was notable was, um, Christian Bogner from Goldman Sachs. Complete sweetheart. I helped him find, it was a Discovery full-size for his kids, so he wanted a car for his kids.

[00:14:20] This is when I worked at a memoryBlue job. And just the experiences that you have in that industry are remarkably useful, especially if you’re in high-end car sales. You can even go from low-end to high-end, like, test out the waters, see if it’s something that works for you, but speaking to people on that level or VPs who are the CIO, CTOs, CEOs, every kind of C-suite that you can imagine, millionaires, billionaires,

[00:14:48] having that experience of speaking with them and being able to form those connections and those relationships, I feel like prepared me for speaking with people on that level, and of all places, the car industry was able to give you that. 

[00:15:02] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I believe it. I believe, when you go on outbound, which we’ll get to, so you went to Land Rover,

[00:15:07] how long were you doing that?

[00:15:08] Justine Tourtellotte: I was there for about three, three, and a half years before I decided to move on to tech sales. So, reason being, it was kind of a revolving door. So, everybody knows this, it’s kind of explosive industry, turnover for 6 months was like 18 people, so there is a sense of just instability and feeling like you can be expendable for any reason at any moment, which I demonstrated two examples of.

[00:16:30] Right. Um, I just wanted to see if there was a more structured stable environment and I did some research, and I found that tech sales was literally car sales. 

[00:16:41] Marc Gonyea: On Internet or what research? 

[00:16:43] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. So I, I went on, online, tried to look up what sales jobs there were that had the same skill sets and the same applications, and tech sales fall right into it.

[00:16:55] Except there is that, like, sticker on every single, you know, like, application of, “Have to have bachelors?” “Have to have, like, you know, experience prior?” And so when I started doing is, I would start applying to all these places, and I would challenge them with instead of my education being relevant, why not take my experience?

[00:17:15] Because I’ve been doing sales, right? It’s just in a different format. So, a car having to understand, you know, the technology and having to understand all of its capabilities and how it differs and it’s just packaged differently from technology, right? So, technology is a product, car is a product, so I figured, “Why not give it a try?”

[00:17:38] Chris Corcoran: Very good. And so, how did you end up coming here? 

[00:17:41] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I started off in Salary.com. Okay. I’ll show you.  

[00:17:45] Marc Gonyea: So, you go from Jaguar to Salary.com.

[00:17:47] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:17:49] Justine Tourtellotte: So, that was my techstep. Um, so I ended up at salary.com. I was there for a little bit, it was a pleasant experience, and I ended up leaving for my own differences, which is the start to kind of like my cereal,

[00:18:03] I’m going to call it my cereal pudding phase. So, I worked there for a little bit, didn’t like some internal politics just simply because I wanted to know fuss environment, which, spoiler alert, that doesn’t exist anywhere. 

[00:18:16] Chris Corcoran: Also, say I’m looking for that too. 

[00:18:21] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I worked there for a little while, was able to gain experience with in-tech sales

[00:18:26] and I was like, “You know what? I’m going to go give this a try somewhere else.” Clearly, I was able to be a self-starter. I was able to push myself into that field, learning what I, what I did, and have really notable interactions while I was with the company, so. 

[00:18:40] Chris Corcoran: What did they do? What were you doing? Compensation software. Compensation software.

[00:18:44] Okay. So, compensation software selling to, like, CFOs or HR? Okay. W, what were you doing for them? 

[00:18:52] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I was just calling people essentially with the. SDR. Yeah. Being an SDR, you know, outbound, some warm marketing lead and doing email phone communications. Yes. Yeah. 

[00:19:03] Chris Corcoran: And how different was that then from when you were selling cars?

[00:19:06] Justine Tourtellotte: I would say it was more comfortable and more stable, so much so. I got comfortable enough to want to leave the company simply because there was that element of, you know, I felt like I could, so. 

[00:19:20] Marc Gonyea: Well, this isn’t real quick, don’t forget. Let’s talk a little bit more about when you were selling these, trying to get the people to understand your life experience in comparison with the car experience.

[00:19:31] Can you go into that a little bit more? Because we have people who are working here, who, and people that have college degrees, so I think sometimes needs some perspective on that. Like, how did you go about that? 

[00:19:40] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. So, I would say once I found memoryBlue, so just, like, fast-forwarding a little bit, that was when I realized that you don’t need a college experience to be a part of this.

[00:19:52] Uh, in my opinion, memoryBlue was, like, school for sales, except you’re getting paid to do it. You’re getting paid to hone this incredible skillset that’s going to take you wherever you want it to, if you’re so motivated. But, prior to that, I mean, once I found sales in general, once I discovered that and I wasn’t able to pursue, you know, my school, ’cause it was either livelihood or take a pause and take more loans and go to school,

[00:20:19] it’s just, it was incredible, like, realizing that you had that freedom, you had that ability, and it wasn’t based on a piece of paper. 

[00:20:27] Marc Gonyea: Right.

[00:20:27] Chris Corcoran: So, you, you, saw that 

[00:20:29] being an SDR was a lot more comfortable and easier than selling cars or stable or predictive? Yep. And so you ended up leaving the first employment, and then we’ll talk about where you went from there. 

[00:20:40] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. So, after that, I moved on to a different position for a startup called Incentivio.

[00:20:46] You. Great company, great vision. They’re actually doing wonderfully right now. And I started off with them as, like, a business development manager, so. Oh, now a manager? Yeah, it was well, yes. So, it was entrusted for me to build the business development team and ultimately try to help them with sales process, things like that.

[00:21:06] Sure. Yeah. So, I ended up working for them for, I would say, about seven months, which continuing the, you know, the spontaneous…

[00:21:14] Marc Gonyea: And you’re just getting ready for memoryBlue? This is, um, we were just getting practical.

[00:21:17] Justine Tourtellotte: I just needed a reset. Right? So, I ended up taking a seven-month hiatus after realizing that the 8-to-8 environment wasn’t quite for me,

[00:21:27] um, ’cause, of course, building from the ground up in a startup is extremely, you know, intensive and strenuous. So, realize that wasn’t quite for me, needed something with a little more structure, took the seven-month hiatus, defragged my brain a little bit, and then found my memoryBlue. So, came into the office, loved the environment, loved the reviews online from the alumni, from people who are currently here, seeing, you know, trips and things that I haven’t been able to experience on my own simply handed to for merit,

[00:21:59] it was very enticing. But it’s funny, handed you for merit.

[00:22:01] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. I’ve heard that before. 

[00:22:06] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, that’s funny. So, how did, how, did you apply to us or did we find you, or how, did you remember any of that? 

[00:22:14] Justine Tourtellotte: I believe I applied. Okay. Very good. Came into the office, was interviewed by Jeremy Wood and Rob Gonsalves.

[00:22:20] Chris Corcoran: Okay, good. And then, so how, how is this role different than the prior to? 

[00:22:26] Justine Tourtellotte: So, Geez, a lot more structure. It has a lot more structure.

[00:22:31] Oh yeah. Culture was amazing, coming into it and, you know, snacks, that was great. 

[00:22:38] Chris Corcoran: So, let’s talk about the structure. So, this was much more structured versus not a lot of structure. Is the structure help, or does it okay, it does, but some people think is, it can, like, it provide, you know, it limits what you can do. 

[00:22:55] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I think it can, I mean, there’s, like, a delineation between structured and micromanage, which I feel like a lot of people may associate that with being micromanaged or having it be too strict or too tight on rules,

[00:23:08] but that was completely not it. It was more so you have a support team, you have a safety net, you have these people around you to be able to tell you how things are done, and it’s so structured in a good way that there’s no room for guessing, there’s no room to feel like you’re going to fumble because you have that support group and you have that structure,

[00:23:29] you have training, um, the structured hours also help with people like me who need discipline. So yeah, it was, it was refreshing, actually. 

[00:23:40] Chris Corcoran: Very interesting. 

[00:23:41] Marc Gonyea: So, you did an interview with Rob, the interview with Jeremy.

[00:23:43] Marc Gonyea: Do you remember…? 

[00:23:45] Chris Corcoran: When did you first know, or could you tell it was looking to be much, a much more structured environment than, than the previous two roles?

[00:23:51] Justine Tourtellotte: Right. When I came in, and I saw this clock on the wall with a timer. 

[00:23:56] Chris Corcoran: You got a countdown timer? Yes. Yeah. So, it’s funny, for the listeners, we’re in Boston, and we’re at their new office, and Mark and I got here yesterday, and Jeremy, who runs the office, I said, “Jeremy, I had to talk, talk to you about a couple of things, and they’re 

[00:24:12] Chris Corcoran: not, and they’re not gonna be good.”

[00:24:13] He’s like, “I figured as much.” And I said, “Jeremy, what’s wrong with that clock?” He’s like, “It’s not plugged in.” And I’m like, “Yeah, what kind of signal does that transmit?” Right? Then it comes full circle, and you’re saying, you knew just from when you showed up 

[00:24:28] for an interview, you saw a clock 

[00:24:30] and you knew that that was, “Hey, this place is a little bit different.

[00:24:33] It’s going to be structured.” 

[00:24:36] Justine Tourtellotte: I saw that and also the scoreboard with the green and red triangles. So, it was like a positive or negative indicator, and that’s, like, right in your face, right? So, I figured it was a very results-oriented environment, um, and I actually appreciated that because I felt like it was something that I really needed to get me out of this cycle, just because I would get bored.

[00:25:02] Clearly, I needed something to, like, give me a swift kick in the pants and say like, “You can’t do that. You need structure. You need just a baseline.” There’s nothing wrong with that either. No, absolutely not. That’s 

[00:25:13] Marc Gonyea: the thing. That’s what people need. And you made it because you’re a manager now. You made, it’s fine, it’s a nuance between giving you structure and micromanaging you.

[00:25:25] And usually, I don’t all the time they’ll get upset, people use the people who complained of it as being micromanaged or fall on structure. Precisely. Right. Correct. Right. We all have. So, keep going. So, you, you, you started structure, who do you remember working with? Like. 

[00:25:47] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh, the whole team. It was amazing. Boston OGs.

[00:25:51] We had Brian Carrie, Robbins, all of us who are still here, Amy Moore, Danielle, yeah. And a million other people. My memory is so bad, I’m so sorry, guys, but just everyone on my original team, it was incredible. There was just a really light-hearted kind of flow to the office, just energy, and you would go in, and these people would eventually become your friends more than your colleagues.

[00:26:19] So, it was great to see everybody in the morning, you got to, you know, have some fun, make jokes and always have that, those familiar faces with you that are grinding the same amount as you, so that you never felt alone in anything. 

[00:26:32] Chris Corcoran: It, so was that different than the other, the prior two places? Oh, absolutely. And hey, in what way?

[00:26:38] Justine Tourtellotte: So, there’s within sales, like, competitiveness, so having competition, but I think it’s in the way that the company structures it, that either makes it to your benefit or to your detriment. So, coming here, the biggest difference for me was realizing that the competition wasn’t a bad thing, it was motivation.

[00:27:02] Like, having those TVs with this person just, you know, booked someone, this person just accrued someone, that was extremely motivating. And if anything, I never felt bad about it. I would always just look at them and be like, “I want to see my name on there next.” So, having that team, having that structure, and, you know, being able to compete with them kind of transformed my thoughts about competition too, because previously, tying it together, it was not necessarily a healthy environment.

[00:27:31] It would be almost, like, condescension or you’d feel self-conscious about your work or, and that kind of didn’t exist. And what’s funny is I literally just thought of this. It didn’t exist while I was here. 

[00:27:45] Marc Gonyea: Wow. That’s good. Wow. And so what I’m looking for, I’m curious about it, you bring in some pretty cool life experience, uh, sales and non-sales

[00:27:55] what, what did you learn, if anything, being on the phones here, the app Motion and LinkedIn, the emails that you maybe would pick up on the, you hadn’t picked up on prior? 

[00:28:06] Justine Tourtellotte: I would say LinkedIn outreach for sure is overlooked for a lot of people. I feel like they underestimate the value and the importance of a strong LinkedIn presence and also by building your network.

[00:28:18] So, that was one thing. And then also realizing how much of the stuff that I really liked, like, psychology, was tied into your basic kind of structure for the sheet music, that was. What do you mean? So, asking them certain questions or, you know, throwing their last three words back at them, mirroring, um, learning, um, I already knew this, but the intonation tying that in was all part of training too

[00:28:46] and it just, it was incredibly mentally stimulating in comparison to feeling like you’re just a cog in the machine at another place, rambling off the same script without those nuances. 

[00:28:57] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Okay. So, you started January of 2020. Yeah, probably. Right before COVID. What was that like to, because we’re talking too about weaning you off of you are in a little quit, quitting, right?

[00:29:10] So, like, I can feel like that’s a good time to quit for some, maybe some people were scared for their jobs, but other times, maybe not, so. Yeah. So, you were in the office, and then you had to go home and work, right? What was that like? Was it not, no big deal? 

[00:29:22] Justine Tourtellotte: Well, for my easily bored brain, that was actually a pattern break and that was

[00:29:27] kind of refreshing. Like, that was nice. So, yeah. So, having just the pattern break of not coming to the office every single day, having that one week on one week off for two weeks on two weeks off, whatever it was, it was refreshing. You have the ability to work from home, you have the ability to work from the office,

[00:29:46] you could choose sometimes, and I ultimately think that was the initial thing that kept me from getting bored. 

[00:29:55] Marc Gonyea: That’s great. And then you ended up, I’m assuming that you’re coming back at some point when you were doing this, and you’re seeing people, you know, get promoted internally or get hired by a client or maybe, uh, go rising stars,

[00:30:08] what did you think you wanted to do next? 

[00:30:11] Justine Tourtellotte: I was torn because at the time, um, I was also talking about the Tommy Gassman, shoutout Tommy, and they’re just, yeah, there are a few options that were up in the air as to what you could choose and also the beauty of being here, given, you know, it’s kind of like that startup environment, is you don’t have to stay as an SDR.

[00:30:34] You don’t have to stay in that environment and continue to do the same work if that’s not what you choose to do. You can push yourself into, you know, a different, different space. If it doesn’t work out, guess what? You can go back, or you can try it all again, in a different position. So, yeah. 

[00:30:51] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re here doing your thing,

[00:30:53] at least one top strip, right? So, hence you’re successful. Talk to us about how you phrase it, maybe your mind got bored, but you thought about moving, slipping into, I would consider it a bad habit at that point, but, like, some of it is finding yourself. Someone said I think if you had left, it would’ve been a bad move, right, but you didn’t.

[00:31:11] Oh yeah. You didn’t leave. Let’s talk about that process. 

[00:31:15] Justine Tourtellotte: Yes. So, eventually, I mean, everybody knows when you’ve come here, sometimes you can get put onto a random campaign. Sometimes something can happen with your clients where they can’t continue, and you have to break that relationship, and it’s uncomfortable, and it’s, it can be messy for you mentally because if you’re like me, a creature of habit for the most part and something like that shakes everything up, now you’re like, “Oh, I have to learn something completely brand new all over again

[00:31:43] but somehow maintain the level of work that I was doing before.” Production. Right? Yes. So, that, for me, it really shook up my mind. I ended up getting put on my first technical client, which was an interesting experience for me because I mean, not only do you have the, this or you’re just rental because your previous client had to leave.

[00:32:05] So, you already had that, um, that sucked. And then now you have to join a technical prospect, and it’s the first time actually, you know, being a part of, I would say something where you really, really have to, like, learn your stuff, or so you think if you’re like me and also an overthinker, so you feel like you have to learn everything A to Z about the subject and it can be overwhelming.

[00:32:28] So, going into that client, it was, it was interesting in that sense where I was extremely uncomfortable, and I had to try to fight through that, and I will be completely honest, which is why we say before, like, I’ve been there too. Sometimes you just don’t do good at something. Sometimes it’s just not your niche or not what you’re comfortable with

[00:32:51] and honestly, it’s a mindset at the end of the day. You have to really do some, like, rewiring and undo some of those things in your brain, like me, who was a serial quitter, um, we’re accustomed to before. So, being with the company, everybody knows, you know, about the agreement for training. That, of course, was a proponent to me staying, but also having the people on my team like Rob, he was absolutely incredible.

[00:33:18] So, I would always go to him whenever I needed help, whenever I felt like I was at my wit’s end. The poor man had to endure me trying to quit, like, six times actually back to the fire me to reiterate that. 

[00:33:30] Marc Gonyea: Wow. Yeah. And so you run a client, and you say technical cyber, right? 

[00:33:35] Justine Tourtellotte: Yes. So, it was like Cisco wrapped in intellectual properties.

[00:33:39] So. 

[00:33:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, it was fairly technical, just let people know ’cause before you were on Morris Tech Professional Services, right? Yeah. 

[00:33:47] Justine Tourtellotte: So, or it was very, you know, very intuitive. It was AI, like machine learning for call centers, and essentially would help third-world call centers be able to say what we say, we’re at it

[00:34:00] usually, for every word that we use, it would take them, say, like, three to four, if that makes sense. So, what this would do is it would create decision trees and, like, thought branches for these people to kind of sift through, to make that process easier and cut time on the phones. So, it was a brilliant idea,

[00:34:18] very easy to understand, very easy to just kind of, yeah. Okay. 

[00:34:24] Marc Gonyea: So, but you got move to something new, and I remember you telling me that you would, you’d have, you know yeah, emotional it’s emotional process and Rob kind of kept you on course. And you kept yourself on course, but he helped keep you on course.

[00:34:38] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. Absolutely. Right? Which is his role. Yes. So, I mean, he was great in a sense that if I ever was having just a horrible time and I was just giving up on myself and really not being into it, he would never be, you know, condescending, he would never be rude about it, he would never, he would always be trying to help you get into your best spot, like, get to where it makes you happy.

[00:35:02] Like, “If this sucks for you, you know, suck it up. That’s life. Sometimes you really have to be able to get through something in order to get to the next step. And within that, you ended up getting this whole new tool belt that you wouldn’t have had previously if you just gave up and quit.” Yeah. 

[00:35:20] Marc Gonyea: So, how else did you get through it?

[00:35:23] Justine Tourtellotte: I would say it was realizing at that point, you know, that I had that pattern and realizing that it was really not a good thing. Because before, it was based on a sense of comfort, based on a sense of, you know, “Sales is sales, you could do it anywhere. I’m just going to go ahead and quit because who else is gonna? You know, it’s, it’s something that was in your control.

[00:35:43] You can do it.”

[00:35:45] Marc Gonyea: And. You were retraining your mind, you know? And where you learned ahead to do this SDR job, the way we want you to do it, but then you were kind of retraining your mind on that a view life. That’s what the job teaches everyone, not just you. 

[00:35:57] Justine Tourtellotte: Absolutely. And I think that coming from a background of, like, being impoverished, being very used to certain circumstances, being kind of comfortable in that position because your whole family has learned to be comfortable in that position for so long,

[00:36:12] I wasn’t really afraid to be in a position where I was going back to that because I knew how to navigate it. I knew how to be okay with it. And that was not okay. And I feel like a lot of people with cyclical poverty, like, if you’re witnessing your parents, your siblings, your family go through this, and you’re seeing all of the hacks and all the ways to get through it comfortably,

[00:36:34] you’re holding yourself from moving forward, you’re holding yourself from growing. And what I realized from being within this company and having to really push and really get uncomfortable and find a new way of thinking, it ultimately kind of broke that out of my mindset, and I was like, “Wait, this is cyclical poverty.”

[00:36:56] And it’s something that, like, it was a new concept to me, so I wanted to learn more and more and more about it. So, for me, it was a pattern break coming here. It was a breaking of cycles, multiple cycles, um, financially. Generational. Yeah, generational, completely. And it’s learned behavior, and your background doesn’t dictate ultimately what you’re capable of, even though you may feel that it is 

[00:37:23] Marc Gonyea: that way.

[00:37:23] Yeah. ‘Cause you, you earned the top strip. Was it a handle? What did she say? “Hand out on merit?” 

[00:37:29] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, they’re heating up by merit.

[00:37:30] Marc Gonyea: I hit it up on merit. A lot of people don’t go on those trips. Right. So, all right. So, you’re working it, you’re doing your thing, you’re contributing to this culture and Boston offices as, as great had, and still has a great, a great culture.

[00:37:45] What did you kind of decide you want to do next? And how did you get there? 

[00:37:49] Justine Tourtellotte: Honestly, I was just, I mean, if anyone knows a song “Like Jesus Take the Wheel” moment, I really had no clue what I wanted to do, which I also realized is totally fine.

[00:38:00] So, I didn’t have to have a plan. I didn’t have to have, you know, expectations on what I went to do next, and the beautiful part of this is being an over-thinker, not being able to make some decisions very easily, you guys have the 15-month timeline where you will serve me an entree of companies that are interested in my resume, that you also helped build and make all pretty.

[00:38:23] So, that for me, I was just like, “I’m gonna wait. I’m gonna wait for it. And if I don’t see anything that I like, if I decide that maybe I don’t want to be an SDR, maybe I’ll talk to Gassman. Maybe I’ll talk to someone else about different routes in the company.” But to be candid, I did not know until I started getting these offers from the companies at 15 months.

[00:38:41] Marc Gonyea: I mean, that’s how it’s, that’s how it’s supposed to work. That’s how it’s supposed to work. 

[00:38:45] Chris Corcoran: Right? Yeah. 

[00:38:46] Marc Gonyea: And we want to keep people on the path. 

[00:38:49] Chris Corcoran: How did it feel to not quit? 

[00:38:51] Justine Tourtellotte: It was actually really relieving. Yeah. It kind of gave me this new mindset, and it felt like a breath of fresh air, like, when I hit that point, and I made it over that hump, and I was like, “You know what? What will be, will be, I’m just going to continue, like, pushing continue and see where this brings me.” Because what brought me to the company initially was that prospect of, you know, a promising future, promising opportunities being available to you afterwards

[00:39:20] and I realized, you know, after the fact, when I had this amazing job offer at the company that I’m at now, it’s, it’s really important not to give up on yourself, even when you feel like the world is ending and all of these things are going wrong, you rely on your support group, rely on your team and also be disgustingly transparent with everyone around you

[00:39:46] because if they don’t know how you’re feeling, then you’re just kind of like suffering in the corner, and nobody knows how to help you, so. 

[00:39:52] Marc Gonyea: All right. So, how’d you way up here for this, that, actually I’m going to pass over that, is very candid conversation we’re having, and it has, you have a lot of perspective, which I think also goes, it goes back to all sorts of things, but, like, that’s what we try and do we try and get people to stick and then we believe, we truly believe that if you stick, you’re going to have, you’re gonna be in a much better place leaving here than you were when

[00:40:13] you came in. 

[00:40:14] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh, absolutely. And, like, for a note for anyone on here who either comes from any of those backgrounds or has those experiences, whether it be here at another company if you’re uncomfortable and you’re just generally unhappy. I mean, how long is your life, and how long have you been unhappy in this position?

[00:40:36] So, ultimately, it’s going to help you get to a better place, whether you can see it or not in the moment, but you just have to communicate with people and help people and help you because you’re not alone in it and you’re not the only person who probably wants to just give up. So, stick with it. The company gives amazing opportunities, and that’s exactly what I experienced.

[00:40:57] Marc Gonyea: Oh, thank you for that. And that rings true. I mean, this is why we did this podcast, right? Because you can take much better than Chris than I can because it’s your first-hand experience and someone that will resonate with someone, I can guarantee you that. All right. So, how did you evaluate these options?

[00:41:12] How did you evaluate these options? You kind of had these options to go do other things, like, what did you end up choosing, and why did you choose that? Because you, there’s a lot of things you could have chosen.

[00:41:22] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I mean, coming from the background that I did, the first thing I looked at was money, of course. Very money-motivated, very driven by that.

[00:41:31] I got a very handsome offer from this company in particular, but within that, the same way that I approached choosing to be a plumber in school, I just wanted to choose the most practical one, the one that had the least amount of competitors, wasn’t an oversaturated market and had opportunity for growth.

[00:41:51] So, the entire offer was just incredibly attractive. The company was new. There was a handful of competitors that company had so much room for growth within it as well and it was intellectually stimulating. So, it’s completely a new market too, like healthcare.

[00:42:10] Marc Gonyea: You can say the name of the company if you want. Yeah. Cynerio. Cynerio. And they were your client or they, they weren’t your 

[00:42:16] Justine Tourtellotte: client?

[00:42:17] They found me through the Rising Stars Program. Okay. But yeah, it was just an incredible experience, being able to find something like that. And they’re in an Israeli-based company. Um, they also have an office in the states, but we’re a fully remote company, and everything about just the opportunity was incredibly, it was stupid not to jump on it.

[00:42:39] Right? What do they do? So for hospitals and healthcare systems, it’s medical device security specifically, but we also handle IT and OT. Okay. 

[00:42:49] Marc Gonyea: Cyber, cyber, but advanced very, just to kind of a niche, a niche, but, like, a very prevalent one. Like, you first started there, this is a medical device security specialist.

[00:43:00] Yeah. As I said, people’s pacemakers don’t get hacked, that sort of thing?

[00:43:03] Justine Tourtellotte: So, it’s like bedside monitors, x-rays, MRIs, things like that, IV pumps. 

[00:43:11] Marc Gonyea: It sounds sophisticated. But when people are here, they don’t want to be on those types of campaigns a lot of times.

[00:43:15] Justine Tourtellotte: Because it’s daunting, it’s daunting. But also, another note is when you’re looking at these companies with highly technical products or offerings, it’s okay to be daunted.

[00:43:29] It’s okay to feel like you’re a little bit slow picking it up. It took me like six months to even kind of understand what the heck I was saying for this company. So, for me, I ended up finding another lesson within that, which is like, the more you learn, the less expendable you are. And coming from that fear-based mindset of having worked at very volatile companies,

[00:43:53] like, the car industry, the, just realizing that if you’re able to obtain all of that knowledge where all of these other people may be too intimidated to really get deep into it, you’re securing yourself a career, not just a job like the car industry. 

[00:44:10] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. It brings new definition to that word “You’re a knowledge worker.”

[00:44:15] Yeah. ‘Cause, that’s the, uh, what you knows what your skill is, basically a scarce resource. Right? So here’s resources, or I won’t. Yeah. So, what are you doing 

[00:44:28] Justine Tourtellotte: now? So, currently, I’m a manager team lead for our SDR team. We currently actually have another MB alumni on the team. Oh, wow. Who’s that? Um, Yetta Ghetto. And we started off with Will Braxton,

[00:44:49] so. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, he started off the SDR team over there and ultimately. 

[00:44:57] Marc Gonyea: And how do you as a team lead, what does that mean? Like, what do you do? 

[00:45:00] Justine Tourtellotte: So, it was a lot of, you know, building out the talk tracks, creating certain messages, being a liaison between marketing, um, between, you know, like, the dev team and anyone that you needed to, to obtain resources so that you could essentially help yourself and the other SDRs.

[00:45:19] So, it was a combo role, or is a combo role where I do SDR work and supplement the team. 

[00:45:25] Marc Gonyea: And how is that? Because you’ve got some more experience than most people, you know, you did your time here to say that, like it was jail, but you did work here, you worked in the car industry, right? Amongst other things.

[00:45:38] So, you, how do you function, how do you perform at a high rate? 

[00:45:44] Justine Tourtellotte: I, you just have to make the space. Creating the space is really important. I chose an apartment that has, like, a business office that I can work from. I can work from the roof ’cause I have WiFi there. You can work from the living room if you build the space for it,

[00:45:59] but something that I learned during quarantine up memoryBlue is, do not work from your bed. 

[00:46:07] Marc Gonyea: You’ll need a chiropractor, too. Yes. You will need a chiropractor. That’s true. And what, uh, what, how do you, are there things that you did here that you implement, you know, with new team members or you kind of implemented to the structure of how you guys do the outbound motion? 

[00:46:24] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh, absolutely. We kind of are a carbon copy of your process, to be completely honest.

[00:46:29] Like, we, it’s that good. 

[00:46:31] Marc Gonyea: It’s really our process ’cause you worked here. Yeah.

[00:46:34] Chris Corcoran: Sort of Will, Maria. 

[00:46:36] Justine Tourtellotte: That’s what I’m saying. We’re like a memoryBlue shop. Yeah. 

[00:46:40] Chris Corcoran: Okay. That’s good to hear. I love hearing that. Yeah. 

[00:46:42] Marc Gonyea: Right? Right. And so, you know, you’ve like, you’re firmly entrenched as a tech sales professional.

[00:46:50] Right? Where do you think you’re going to take it? Like, you like the sales development world, do you want to get into a closing gig that that’s going to take it, that’s another little hurdle overcome, or did you, do you like kind of magically at w, w, w, where we’re going with this?

[00:47:05] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I do want to move into a closing room.

[00:47:10] Um, we have something like small, like, SMB, right? So, like, they’re commercial market. So, I would like to move into that role next. Um, either that, or say, if I get, if I don’t end up liking it, I did enjoy that kind of management position, but I would want to be entrenched in it. I wouldn’t want to combine that with SDR work ’cause that’s a lot of hats to wear.

[00:47:36] Chris Corcoran: Oh yeah. Absolutely. So, you’re a team lead? SDR team lead right now? How many, uh, SDRs are you leading?

[00:47:41] Justine Tourtellotte: So, just one right now, I had another from memoryBlue previously, um, and then we also had two people from the memoryBlue team outsourced. And we have two new people coming onto the team, so. Okay. 

[00:47:58] Chris Corcoran: Wow. Very good.

[00:48:00] Very good. And so, you’re looking for an industry is really headquartered company, but everyone’s virtual in the US and so that’s, you’re, you’re using that as an opportunity. Well, yeah. Absolutely. Right. And so, talk, you, before we went on air, talk, talk to the listeners about how you’re using this as an opportunity to really change your life.

[00:48:20] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh, absolutely. 

[00:48:21] So, I’ve lived in Massachusetts my entire life, which if you like living here, no, you do not. Like, the winters are just incredibly awful. The summer, it gets muggy, people from Massachusetts know what that word means, and it’s just ultimately not an ideal situation. Can you imagine a woman’s closet here? And you have the spring, summer, fall, winter. Four seasons.

[00:48:44] Yeah. You need the shoes to go with it. And then now I have a dog for the first time, she’s my dog. No.

[00:48:54] Um, so I realized also that it’s not favorable to have a dog in this kind of, like, four-season environment because sometimes you’ll have so much snow, she’s white by the way, and tiny so, it’s easy to lose her. Um, but shoes on them for, for the dicer, the ice smell, and it’s just, yeah. Now I have to shave her in the summer,

[00:49:17] so I would rather more Constance ’cause I’m a creature of habit. Sure. 

[00:49:22] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. So, what’s happening?

[00:49:24] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. Yes. So, that leads me to working for this company. I have the opportunity to live wherever for the first time in my life, so I’m moving to sunny Florida in September.

[00:49:38] Chris Corcoran: That’s exciting. Where? West Palm beach. West Palm beach.

[00:49:40] Marc Gonyea: So, yeah, exciting. Good for you. I will tell you, though, there are possible winners are probably made you a piece of what you are too. A little bit. Yeah. Or the plumbing. Yeah, you’re right. 

[00:49:51] Justine Tourtellotte: Oh my gosh. I’m getting the winter. Can you imagine in a bare-bones house? It’s like freezer. 

[00:49:58] Marc Gonyea: No chance. 

[00:50:00] Chris Corcoran: And you’re dealing with water.

[00:50:01] Yeah. When you’re cold deal, the worst thing is being cold and wet.

[00:50:05] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. The pipes. The pipes were actually the worst part. So, imagine, like, cast iron, how cold it gets in the winter or. 

[00:50:11] Marc Gonyea: Especially here. Yeah. Frigid. Well, that’s really amazing. 

[00:50:15] Justine Tourtellotte: Yeah. Yeah. Excited to have summer all the time. 

[00:50:20] Marc Gonyea: All right. So, knowing what you know now, what advice would you have for yourself the night before you started at memoryBlue?

[00:50:30] Justine Tourtellotte: Um, I think it’s just, it goes full circle, right? So, you don’t need a piece of paper to dictate your worth or what you’re capable of, and you should never be comparing yourself to the people that do have those things. ‘Cause if you come from a background like mine, chances are you’re actually extremely strong, and you have the tools, maybe nobody’s shown them to you yet, but they’re there

[00:50:54] and being in the right environment will definitely help people. And I would say for anyone who doesn’t know if they’re qualified to go into cyber because I’ve also found there some kind of stigma between making that hurdle, which is like, I mean, why is there a hurdle, right? But there’s this figurative hurdle to make it into cyber

[00:51:16] and that’s like a whole nother ball field that people see, and that’s how I understood it as ’cause that’s how it was introduced to me. That doesn’t exist. You just, you got to be confident with yourself. You, you have to, and you have to understand that how far you’re willing to go is how far you really want to push yourself, and obstacles will come, and they will go.

[00:51:36] And no, nothing is nothing is permanent. Nothing is permanent. Everything is ultimately within your control, and if you have the right group around you, you’ll be able to accomplish anything as long as you communicate it. 

[00:51:49] Marc Gonyea: It’s almost like it’s a little diary to yourself, to your former self, the way you said that. Yeah.

[00:51:54] Let’s talk about this, women in tech, tech sales. So, there aren’t as many of them as Chris, and I would like. Yeah. And we don’t know what it’s like, so not women, but we’ve worked with women who we try and get it into tech and, or they were clients or women in sales and the marketing side. What’s, what’s it like, and what, what feedback and insight do you want to have for people who are in the industry now or considering it?

[00:52:19] Justine Tourtellotte: So, I’ll preface this with, I mean, everyone’s probably seen “Wolf Of Wall Street,” right? You just see this room full of guys, like, all those male energy, all crazy and, like, this so much work and it’s, it’s not like that when you work with a lot of guys actually, um, it’s, it’s really just, honestly, it’s been an incredibly fun environment.

[00:52:39] The people that you meet that are in that technical role are actually in, oh my God, they’re brilliant. A lot of them are brilliant. Yes. Being able to listen to them and have those conversations with them over time, the more you know, too, the less intimidating it is to meet new people like this. So, women, I mean, there’s no hurdle, like I said before, the why is there a hurdle, it’s imaginary.

[00:53:04] It doesn’t exist for you. Just go for it because where the opportunities are, you can’t be limiting yourself by getting intimidated by something, you know, as an office full of men. Change that narrative. 

[00:53:17] Chris Corcoran: Um, well, that’s coming from somebody that’s been in male-dominated industries since she was 14, plumbing. Plumbing. Car sales, gym, tech sales.

[00:53:29] So, you’re a prime example of changing the narrative. We’ll leave it at that. Yeah. We appreciate you sharing your story. It’s been great. 

[00:53:43] Justine Tourtellotte: I was incredibly terrified, by the way. 

[00:53:45] Marc Gonyea: Oh, you killed it. You killed it.  

[00:53:47] Justine Tourtellotte: Thank you. I hope someone gained something.

[00:53:50] Marc Gonyea: Well, I’m sure. We’ll do this again in a couple of years. Very good job. 

[00:53:56] Chris Corcoran: For our, for our South Florida tour stop.

Yes. I’ve never been… Very good. Well, Justine, thank you very much. Thank you.