Episode 19: Mo Hassan – Whatever It Takes

Success isn’t given, it’s earned, and Mohamed “Mo” Hassan will do whatever it takes. Mo was born in Egypt before he and his family immigrated to the States. He learned that from a young age to be successful meant hard work, tenacity, and above all family. Throughout his personal and professional life, Mo has faced adversity at almost every corner but has fought tooth and nail to overcome each obstacle. Despite the cards he’s been dealt with, Mo has continued to have a positive outlook. Today Mo is an Account Executive at DH Technologies, and when he isn’t closing deals he’s co-hosting The Young and Muslim Podcast. The podcast sheds light on the lives of the young and Muslim.

On this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Mo recounts his childhood as a young Muslim, how sales helped Mo come out of his shell, and the importance behind making a sales rep’s job easier to excel your own career as an SDR.

Full Episode Transcript

Name: Mohamed “Mo” Hassan
Title: Account Manager
Company: DH Technologies
Exit Year from memoryBlue: 2015
Months at memoryBlue: 16
Alumni Path: Internal Promotion

***Introduction***

Mo Hassan:
There’s certain things that are just out of your control. And once I took that into account, that really did help me. I was like, I can only control what is going through this phone. After that, where it comes back, has nothing to do with me. I can’t control that. So when I did that, I stopped worrying. I stopped stressing and all that energy I was exerting on that side can be brought back to my side. So towards me. So I was focusing on myself. So if I could go back in time, that’s what I would definitely tell myself, like whatever that guy says, you just need a response.

Marc Gonyea:
Mo Hassan is with us this week. Account manager at DH Technologies, Mo shares with us, his upbringing as a young Muslim, how sales helped Mo overcome his shyness and why it’s important to make the sales reps job easier to excel your own career as an SDR. Hi, I’m Marc Gonyea.

Chris Corcoran:
And I’m Chris Corcoran. And you’re listening to Tech Sales is for Hustlers. Tech Sales is for Hustlers is a podcast where we catch up with memoryBlue alums and reminisce about their start in high tech sales with us.

Marc Gonyea:
Let’s go get some Corcoran.

Chris Corcoran:
Gonyea, you know, I’m ready.

***Episode 19: Mo Hassan***

Marc Gonyea:
Mohammed Hassan, Mo in the house.

Chris Corcoran:
In the flesh, the first in the flesh since COVID-19.

Mo Hassan:
Oh really?

Chris Corcoran:
Yeah. The first one. Welcome back.

Mo Hassan:
It’s an honor.

Marc Gonyea:
We got social distancing going on.

Mo Hassan:
Exactly. Six feet each.

Marc Gonyea:
Mo. It’s great to see you, man. I was looking through today. You started with us February of 2014. And you bounced on April, 2015. So a little over five years ago, which is half of a decade.

Chris Corcoran:
Are you kidding me?

Mo Hassan:
That’s how it all started.

Chris Corcoran:
I thought it was like a couple of months.

Marc Gonyea:
Let’s get into it. We want the listeners to kind of get to know you a little. We have ones who worked here with you when you were here, but we got a ton of people who work here now who don’t know who you are. And then we’ve got a ton of people who maybe thinking about coming to work for us, but you know, want to get to know you a little. So tell us about growing up. Where were you born? The whole nine.

Mo Hassan:
I just want to thank you guys again for bringing me on. Today’s exciting. I’ve always wanted to collaborate. This is where everything starts and I’ll tell you why and how. My family is from Egypt. I am an Egyptian American, Nubian to be specific. My family’s from Aswan about 45 minutes East, a town called Aldhakka. I was born in a small town over there and it’s our village. That’s where my family’s from. And that’s where like the Nubian Egyptians are so like the princes, the Queens, and you know, along the Valley of the Nile, you know? So, we were one of those prominent, even if you go on Google right now, search it tombstone or just a monument has been for many, many years.

So, my family who came to America. My father was a lawyer back in Egypt and, moved to America. Things changed really quickly because he didn’t have an education, but things don’t align when it comes to credentials and accolades in different countries, which kind of it makes sense, you know, cause a different criteria. So, m was born in Egypt, came to America. I was about two years old family lived in DC. So it was my father, my mother, myself and my brother came to America. My dad had his degree, but no money. So I’m the oldest.

Marc Gonyea:
Your brother was born in Egypt?

Mo Hassan:
Yes. He was there for 30 days. And then we got on a plane. We came here, my dad, he had enough money just to kind of maintain for a little bit. But my uncle, his brother was one actually gave him money to come here. Cause he had the opportunity to is when you have an opportunity like that, whatever it takes. So we lived in DC for about a year in the early nineties I was born 1992. So we’re in DC about ’94. And then after a year there, my dad was working at the hot dog. You know, like the little hot dog stands, which a lot of foreigners start that way. Right. They come in that way.

So, he went so from being a lawyer to doing this, a big change as you guys can imagine. And then while he was doing that after a year in D C, he’s like, yeah, we can’t do this. So we ended up moving to Virginia, we moved to Reston. So we moved to Reston before everybody came to Reston. Then back in 1995 and I lived in a community called Cedar Ridge apartments. It was a underdeveloped section, eight housing over there and imagine section eight in Reston it’s not like section eight anywhere else. But at the same time, when things are focused on, they can be left untouched and things can happen. Right. So we lived there.

Marc Gonyea:
And section eight in Reston was nicer? Help me understand that.

Mo Hassan:
Not nicer compared to a section eight in Reston and then a section eight in Norfolk were kind of different. You know what I mean? And like urban city and Reston isn’t really like this. So it’s still considered the suburbs, but it was still an underdeveloped areas. So people saw income as something scarce. And the way to make money was to hustle. And that’s what people did. So my dad came here, he saw that he didn’t want to do that. Obviously he had a family he wanted to raise and be a great example. So he worked at McDonald’s right. And he’s been working at McDonald’s now for over 20 years.

Marc Gonyea:
I knew that. Cause when you worked for us, he was working at McDonald’s.

Mo Hassan:
Exactly. Exactly. He still does. So he’s worked at McDonald’s for 20 years now has been a store manager, operates in many, many other stores. I’m trying to get him to own one. So that’d be a huge step for us. But you know, going back to when was younger about four to five grew up in Virginia and a lot of my friends in the area also kind of grew up the same way section eight. So that means that the father may be in the house, may not be house. So just working and then the mother’s home and the kids just doing what they want to do. Especially as young males, we have that privilege to really not be bothered or ask too many questions. So when I was younger, my parents grew me up the best way they could had a happy, happy childhood. And I still am. Luckily very happy.

Marc Gonyea:
You’re happy. You’ve always had a good disposition, man. You’ve always got a positive outlook.

Mo Hassan:
I appreciate that. So I’m going up in Virginia was good and then I went to Forest Edge elementary. And my fathers and my uncles, they all did the same thing for a living. They all worked at the embassy. They know like Saudi embassies and different stuff like that because that’s what they knew. People could speak Arabic and they can get a job and not really not go through the grind, but you know how it is. It’s a grind out here, right? So they’re coming out there and vibe with people that speak the same language and kind of group economics coming together. So it made things easier.

Marc Gonyea:
What language, what else do you speak?

Mo Hassan:
Arabic, English, and Nubian. Nubian Is a retired language. You can speak it, but you can’t really read it there’s no written text for it. So growing up, it’s good to know what your parents do for a living as income because you understand it. But when all you know is that your dad’s all day working and getting money, then that really doesn’t help your creativity and your growth. So all of our uncles, they did the same thing. They were drivers. And a lot of the kids didn’t want to do that. And they were barely making ends meet and the moms would stay home. So that’s the culture. Egyptian culture from home that we brought here, the mother was to stay home, take care of the kids and the family. But the problem was that sometimes money just wouldn’t be enough. Right. And only one person working and you know, Marc, I got a big family. So we got a lot of kids. A lot of kids, a lot of mouths to feed a lot of responsibility.

And sometimes you got to step up in that way. And a lot of my friends did, I chose not to because I was a soccer player as Marc knows, I love playing soccer. Chris, I’ve got a soccer jersey on right now. So that is what really helped me because my dad was like, look, focus on soccer and focus on school. Don’t worry about anything else. He’s like, yeah, we may live here. But he took care of everything. You know how it is as a parent, I’m not a parent, but you want to make it seem like there’s nothing wrong. Even if things aren’t going your way. So living in section eight, household were interesting. And then when I got about eight years old and my life changed, because right now it was my mother and my father and my brother and myself living here. And then my sister was just born. And then my mom went back to Egypt for her brother’s wedding and she needed like a little break from the US grind.

Marc Gonyea:
How old were you when your sister was born?

Mo Hassan:
So I’m 28 right now. So about five years. So I was eight years old, so she was about three. Then my mom went back to Egypt and then she broke her visa. So there’s an immigration story to this too. When she broke her visa, then now what happens? Like my father, just my father and us now in a section eight home. So my mom got barred from coming to the US and that lasted for 10 years, what, between the age of eight? So between the ages of eight to 18 living without a mother, you know, a woman in your life so that really sparked motivation you know, tenacity focus, but a lot of different other things that I’m kind of healing from now.

Chris Corcoran:
Were you able to see her at all during that time?

Mo Hassan:
I saw her twice. So I went to Egypt finally at the age of 15 years old, I got my citizenship and went back. Cause I was worried that if I do go back, I would have to enroll in the army. That’s something you have to do mandatory two years. So I didn’t want to do that. So I got my US citizenship and went back when I was 15 and it was crazy from eight to 15, just first time seeing her. And it wasn’t like now calling on WhatsApp and Facebook, it was like a calling card. And you didn’t have money to $2, $5, $10 for a few minutes, you know.

Marc Gonyea:
So when did she end up coming back to the United States?

Mo Hassan:
When I was 18 years old. Eight to 18 as a young black man. There’s a lot of development, a lot of experience and living where I was living. You needed a full family and that’s what really keeps the world together as a family, right? So a lot of my motivation comes from family, not even money, right? And sales is a position that is driven by money, lots of money, but that’s not what kind of drives me it’s my family.

Marc Gonyea:
Talk about that and how, you know, earning a good income though, can help with the family. But your priority is family, not money, which I think is a great thing for all sorts of reasons I know Chris does too. So your mom eight to 18, your mom got back. Is that when you were getting out of high school or you were out of high school?

Mo Hassan:
That was my first year in college.

Marc Gonyea:
Okay. So let’s talk about that. So what did you do in high school?

Mo Hassan:
I went to high school at South Lakes high school came in as a freshmen, really smart kid focused just because I play soccer and I already know what my situation was and I didn’t have the luxury of everybody else, even going back to elementary and middle school. When I got off the bus, my dad was at work every single day, all the time. So when I got the bus, people go out and play, I had to go home, clean my room, make some food for my brother and I, cause it’s just my dad and my brother and my sister went back to Egypt, still with my mom. It’s kind of balanced things. So it was just guys in the house, no ladies. So, I learned self-independency, really quickly cooking, cleaning. That’s why I really don’t need a woman to do this stuff for me.

Marc Gonyea:
Then you’re a catch.

Mo Hassan:
So I’ve been doing that. So that’s something that I felt like a lot of males need to just do in general. But anyway while I was doing that, then going through middle school and high school, I had friends that wanted to get some money in different ways like we talked about, but then I told myself I wasn’t going to do that. I said, I’m going to stay focused like my dad and play soccer. I wanted to be a professional soccer player. So that really did help me. Then I went to college, Virginia Wesleyan.

Marc Gonyea:
How’d you end up there?

Mo Hassan:
It was another crazy story. Life is just very interesting. So Virginia Wesleyan college. I wanted to play soccer division one. I was going to walk onto a school cause my coach just wasn’t good at recruiting or getting people just looked at right. He didn’t have those skills then. I was like, okay, I’m going to go to Richmond. So I applied to VCU cause it was just very diverse school. And I liked it at the age of 15 I went and saw it. And my dad was really pushing me to go to college. For his own reasons. But you know, as a kid I wanted to go to, then when I applied to VCU, I got waitlisted and that was the only school I applied for. I don’t know if it was just laziness or just like, I like 3.2 GPA. So I was like, yeah, I’m good. And then when I applied, I got waitlisted.

And then in August I got a letter saying that I didn’t get accepted. And I was like, Oh man, what am I about to do here? It was a really tough time. My dad’s like, look, whatever you have to do, you have to get away from here. Right. Talking about just my environment. And then that really did help me. Cause when I came back at a different mindset and I was really able to help my family. So, I’ll probably go on later tell you guys college is worth it or not obviously that’s up to the listeners.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. We’ll come back to that actually. Cause it’s kind of interesting at that point you just said about how your pops wanted you to get away. But you and I were talking before we recorded about the whole community college for two years and we’ll come back to that. So Virginia Wesleyan, how did that happen?

Mo Hassan:
So after I didn’t get accepted, I was like, I gotta do something. My dad’s like, what are we going to do? You can’t go to community colleges, just get out of here. Right. I was okay. And then my cousin was like, Hey, here’s a school down in Virginia Beach. They have a good soccer team. They’re looking for players. It’s next to the beach and have on rolling admission. What that means is that you can apply all the way up to the start date. And I was like, okay. And then I got in, I was like, cool. I just went down there. I didn’t even get a tour of the school. Didn’t even know what was it about? I was like, I just got to go to college. So I packed my bags at the age of 18. I was 17. I’m sorry. I went four hours South. And that’s where I met my best friend. My business partner now Jibreel Salaam at Virginia Wesleyan College.

Marc Gonyea:
That’s so crazy. Cause I know you’re really tight with that guy. And you met him at a totally kind of random occurrence that you ended up down there.

Mo Hassan:
He actually got accepted to ODU, which you would want to go to division one school, sports, the parties, the vibe, the culture, you know, he’s like, that’s what he wants to be. But then when he toured the school, Virginia Wesleyan, there was something interesting. It was a small college, 1200 kids. Everybody knew each other, it was safe. So he liked it and he stayed. And then when I got there, him and I were the only two Muslims on campus, only two out of the 1200, which was interesting because him and I were in the same FYE class for his first year experience. So, counselors do that to make that you don’t fall behind and make sure that you’re actually getting the college experience.

So, him and I went into group and his story, my story are opposite. We’re pretty much alike he reminds me of you guys. So when I met him, he’s like, yo, your name is Mohammad. Cause we did a roll call of names and they called my name. I was like, yeah, he said, are you Muslim? I was like, yeah. And he’s like yo bro growing up. I never knew Muslims growing up where I’m from in Chesapeake. I was like, bro, I’m from Northern Virginia. There’s Muslims everywhere. It was nothing new for me and my family. I have a big family here in America. So, you can see how those two worlds kind of collided and kind of really fell in love with each other because that’s my, Oh my good friend. I learned a lot from him and he learns a lot from me.

Marc Gonyea:
So the podcast, Tech Sales is for Hustlers. You’re definitely a hustler. And you’re in tech sales. Did sales at some point kind of as a profession did it hit you at all growing up?

Mo Hassan:
It didn’t hit me at all because growing up I had a speech impediment. I would have had a very bad stutter, but I’m going to explain to you guys how sales really helped me with that, which is insane. Like you would think you need a guru or some sort of doctor or anything like that. I literally trained myself to stop stuttering.

Marc Gonyea:
We’ll get to that. We’ll get to that. I’m going to, I love saving these stories for you. So what’d you major in?

Mo Hassan:
So I majored in business. Okay. My dad wanted me to be a doctor so bad. So when I was young doctor, doctor, doctor, and that’s what I thought I was going to be. Nobody that doesn’t understand sales, unless you’re a business owner. That’s like the only sales aspect, but they don’t understand sales. There’s actual profession in very well-oiled machine profession. So my dad was like, be a doctor. So did my mom. So I was like, that’s what I’m going to do. And then going into college, I was like, no, a senior high school. I took sports medicine. I was like, I don’t want to do this. That’s not interesting for me at all.

I was like, everything’s a business. I was like being a doctor is a business being a lawyer. So everything is a business. I was going to go into business. My dad’s like, Oh, everybody goes into business. This means you don’t know what you’re doing. So then from there I decided that I didn’t want to be a doctor. So I got into supply chain and logistics. So international business, supply chain logistics in college. That’s what I studied.

Marc Gonyea:
And then you got out of college. What did you think you were going to do?

Mo Hassan:
So I got out and I thought I was going to be in logistics. Cause my buddy and I Jibreel, we had a pallet business. That’s what his dad does. You know, those wooden crates like the pallets that you see behind Walmart, Home Depot. He picked those up and then sold them to people that have, maybe have like a garden or just need to put fish on a pallet, whatever it is. Sometimes inventory would be free. Sometimes we’d have to pay. So that’s what the hustle was. So we did that. I was like, cool that’s logistics. This is awesome. But it was boring. It was like, you just look at the way, things are moving. That may be interesting for you, but that wasn’t for me.

So, after I graduated, the crazy thing happened. I was like, that’s what I’m going to do because I didn’t think I could be in sales and be in business because of my speech impediment and younger, my friends would tell me that I didn’t know how to talk. So I couldn’t be a businessman. So I was really quiet. I was a very shy kid, shy to the point where I didn’t even want to answer questions in class. So I’ll be sitting in the front and I would know the answer, but I wouldn’t say anything because I didn’t believe that I could get something out without being laughed at or whatever. So I held a lot of stuff in, you know, as you guys can see, that can be built up rage, just whatever I used it as more of just motivation. Just more energy.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. Yeah. You’re a positive guy, man. You got you down in 757 for a little while working. Right. And then you ended up coming back to Northern Virginia.

Mo Hassan:
Yeah. So when I came back to Northern Virginia, this is where the turning point of my career got into sales because my financial professor and my advisor wrote me a letter of recommendation about three pages long, which was just awesome. He was very proud of me. Graduated college, first in the family, got a little bit of debt, but was able to help take care of that with sales.

Marc Gonyea:
Happens to everybody. Not everybody, but lots of people. Lots of people.

Mo Hassan:
He wrote me a letter of recommendation. Everything was awesome. I was going to do. I was like, all right, cool, cool, cool. And then the last page at the bottom, he’s like Mohammed I think you would be great at sales. Just the last thing. And I was like, what? I never even thought about it because that’s not what I did. That’s not what I learned in school. That’s nobody, my family did that. And I was like, okay. And it just one of those things where it just kind of sat there. I didn’t do anything with it. It was just sat there. And then I see no I’m out there with my degree, motivated trying to hit the streets and help my family and feed my family because my mom’s back now. And my family’s put back together full family. Thank God, need to make money simple as that and handle business and take care of most of my responsibilities. But the problem was, it was tough. There was nobody that was hiring me.

Chris Corcoran:
What year was this?

Mo Hassan:
I graduated in 2013, December ’13. I graduated a semester early.

Marc Gonyea:
So you started with us in February of 2014. So those months that led up to it. How did that happen?

Mo Hassan:
So those few months they were tough for me cause I was trying to be employable. Right. Putting my resume out there and then I was getting calls, but the calls were like setting up Verizon machines. Like it was like a call it professional sales job. And it was Verizon. And I was looking at supply chain logistics, but I was back at home now. I was like, this is a government and tech area. There is no ships here unless I went to Baltimore and diligence over there, but that’s not gonna work for me because my family is right here and I am family oriented. So I was like, cool, well let me just keep applying. Just, just kept every day was waking up at five in the morning, put in applications. Nobody was calling. I don’t know, but just day in and day out, like Monday to Monday, you know, just every single day. And then one time after all the bogus calls and sales jobs that really weren’t sales. I saw a conference and this is where I met Leigh Ryan. That was my first interaction at memoryBlue.

Chris Corcoran:
That’s where we met Ivor Tafro. Tell us about this, I forgot about this. This was in Reston?

Mo Hassan:
Yeah at the hotel Sheraton. So I came in there and I just a sales and marketing job fair. I was like, okay, this might be a sign from God. And this is sales and marketing. I was like, cool, let me try it. Well, my financial professor said, it’s an opportunity. So I took it and I ran with this. So I showed up to the conference and I was dressed up. I was just ready. Cause I needed to do something it was about four months. I had no job for three month job and everything. So it was really, really difficult. And my parents were like, Hey, don’t worry about it. Just relax. Don’t stress. And a few months, they were like yo. And then I walk into the hotel and I see old people and I’m just like, Oh my God, above the age of 40 and up out here, I was like, is this the market? Is this what’s going on? And that really helped me because I was the youngest person in the building. We’re ready to do some sort of sales and marketing gigs.

So, everybody’s talking to me, I got my resume. I was like, yo, okay, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Right. Who knew that a lot of these people that were trying to get me had, no clue what they were doing, just saying sales was sales, but it really wasn’t professional selling. And now I saw Leigh Ryan at memoryBlue and they were just chilling, you know, really a poised, everything I was, Hey, what do you guys do? They’re like, we’re a high tech consulting company out in Vienna, Virginia. You know, these are some of our clients. That’s interesting. And I was like, you guys accepting resumes? Like yeah. And I gave it to her. And then she told me that on Super Bowl Sunday. They get the Monday off. So I was like, okay.

Marc Gonyea:
Leigh was especially proud of you. I remember now you’re gonna have to reach out to her.

Chris Corcoran:
Just so the listeners can understand the environment which we met Mo it’s a career fair. And we typically avoid those. We typically focus on going to colleges and that’s what we do most of our recruiting or through the job boards. But when we need people, we go to these career fairs. Many times, the reason why we avoid them is because typically they don’t have the strongest candidate pool. However, one of my favorite parts about going to those career fairs in general is the other opportunities that exist for the attendees. Aren’t glamorous. So we become the bell of the ball. So there’s people there. I remember our booth being next to someone who is, Hey, you want to get into sales, you’re going to sell grave plots and like a bunch of insurance and like all these jobs that you don’t want to have. And we would always get a good line because we were doing, you know, software sales.

Mo Hassan:
I was this close to becoming Ackerman security guy. I’m sure it would have been a baller at it.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. You would have been.

Mo Hassan:
I was just interested in how things worked out, especially here where we’re at. So I was like, cool. And then I gave her my resume and then memoryBlue called. And then I was like, Oh I’m with it. So, it just, the whole experience was just awesome because after that they did an assessment, I’m like dude what assessment like needs to be done here. But now that makes sense. Cause a company culture and culture in general, I now I truly understand why you guys did that. And I was really the smart move.

You want people that I can think of like work alike and kind of hustle together that really did help me when I was at memoryBlue, it was all about the team here. I was like, cool. And then I did the assessment I passed and I was like, awesome. I’ll make some headway. And then from there I got the call and then I spoke with Tiffany. And then I go with Tiffany like cool phone conversation. Then I did well in the phone conversation. They did think I did a swell job. And I came in and met you guys. And I was like, Oh wow. I’m meeting the CEO’s you know, already.

Marc Gonyea:
No, not that fancy, not that impressive.

Mo Hassan:
Usually like a director, a recruiter in there. I sat down with Marc and I think we talked about Chelsea soccer the whole time.

Marc Gonyea:
We talked about soccer, but we also talked about what you did coming out of school. And I remember we talked about your boy Jibreel we talked about a bunch of stuff. And I remember the letter from your professor. You showed me, I’m almost positive. You showed me the sales piece, you showed me something. And I was like, okay, this guy has got motivated. I didn’t have any professors writing letters for me. I don’t know about you Chris.

Chris Corcoran:
No.

Marc Gonyea:
Special K might have. So then you started and what was that like? What do you remember?

Mo Hassan:
Man, when I got the job it was mixed emotions because I was trying out something new. Right. And then my family wanted me to graduate and have a steady job right now, something that was based off of commission. Like I said, my father’s worked at embassies where their job was to just drive like Saudi princes and royalties. So just take care of them. So there really wasn’t anything that was very focused in high intensity, so, okay. You got this job. It’s awesome. But you know, we be thinking you’re supposed to be a doctor.

Now you’re here saying that you can be in tech sales and setting meetings. Right. That’s how simple it was setting meetings and they just didn’t understand it. And then a lot of my family come to me, like, why would you do this? Just be more patient, find a job, like commissions, aren’t worth it. You’re not going to make any money. They’re just going to keep working you. And it’s not just don’t do it. And I had every reason to not accept, but I was like, no, this is, I found a sales job while in Reston, in my hometown and these young candidates here, it says people coming out of college. So it’s my type of vibe. And I was like, you know what? I’m just going to take that leap and try it

Marc Gonyea:
And who did you work with? Who’s your DM? Was Leigh your DM? Somebody else?

Mo Hassan:
No, I actually had the best DM. This might hurt some people, but Ben Decowski. Ben is the man. I heard someone few days ago. They say sometimes the company, sometimes the manager. Right. And it was both. And I’ll tell you why he really helped me be successful in memoryBlue and just keep me going and help me stay focused. So I had Ben Decowski and it was weird because when he started, he’s like, all right, cool. I’m his first guy. The first one, I was the first guy on Ben’s team. And I don’t know anything about sales. He’s just getting into this really. He got promoted. And then the third wheel was Nick, Nick Keim. Nick and I was just, we stayed close. Cause we’d had to figure this thing out. This was a grind. It was just as hard as the grind. And then it’s good to have those peoples kind of lean on and help let you know like, Hey, this is why we started. So I was an SDR now by sales development role, I think, I don’t even know if we were called that.

Marc Gonyea:
We called you Account Executives when you worked for us. Sales development blossomed in the past. I don’t know, five years, probably seven years. So you’re doing the work Decowski was, you’re a DM. Nick Keim was your prime time Keim was your coworker. Do you remember what client you were on?

Mo Hassan:
Yeah, I did. So when I came and I had a client called, I think Horse Tail was a cybersecurity company out in Maryland and they were a credit card processing POC company, I believe. Horrible. Just in regards to, they just didn’t have their things together and you see that right. Sometimes you can be ready, but the other team’s not ready to play and they’re on your team’s supposed to work. It’s just not going to work while I was there. We had somebody else come in on my boy, John,

Chris Corcoran:
Jonathan Stevens.

Mo Hassan:
And then I think it came out that we have like a two week trial period before you get on the phones. And we listened to Costigan. That was the man. I was like, dude, if I want to be good at this, I want to follow the best. Right? And I have just listened to his tapes over and over and over. And that really did help me in my game. So I was definitely obsessed. Cause I was like, cool, I’m starting this thing now. And I just want to be the best, just hands down. I just graduated college. I’m ready to have a whole bunch of energy. So while I’m listening to that, John Stevens comes on board and he tells me he’s from Herndon, Herndon high school which has a rivalry of South Lakes high school. So just talking to him, we, him and I really did vibe, you know? And I think he also came on Ben’s team too. Or maybe not. I’m not really sure about that. I don’t recall.

But then we just started rolling and then what really helped me at memoryBlue was that the day that I was about to get on the phones right before I called Ben was like, Hey Mo, why don’t we practice? And everything like that. I want you to listen to this. And he showed me a lead that Nelson Imade got. So I personally don’t know Nelson, but just through Ben. I was okay with talking about Hitachi and how he used the reverse and just a whole bunch of different techniques. I was like, all right, cool. Well, if a conversation opens up like this, I kind of got some things to use here, but I’m still listening the cost again. I’m still doing my thing.

Chris Corcoran:
If Lebron can dunk I can dunk.

Mo Hassan:
And then from there I remember like it was yesterday Ben and Percy Darkwah was here to. So everybody was in the kitchen, just chilling and it’s your first day. We already went through the training and Ben was just a hard worker. Anytime I had questions, he would stay with me. I’ll definitely tell you my experience with Ben like I said, how he really did help me in this position. So after that happened, my seventh call, the guy picks up.

Chris Corcoran:
Lucky number seven.

Mo Hassan:
Yeah. If somebody picks up is hello. And I’m just like, Oh, like just in sock. I’m in it now. There’s no more listening to tapes. I thank God because the guy was patient with me. So, you know, he’s patient with me and I was just talking about data storage and backup. Like what I just remembered from Nelson’s call. Cause I was calling on Hitachi. That’s why I’m listening to the call. And then after he did it and then, you know, the reverse, all it worked verbatim and I was just like, wow, you know what I mean? Like there’s information out there in the world. And if you use it, you can, it’s a resource, you know? And then obviously it’s like, okay, this guy was slowly just opening up and just telling me stuff. I was like, Oh my God, he’s talking.

Chris Corcoran:
Did you book it?

Mo Hassan:
I did book it.

Chris Corcoran:
Did it occur?

Mo Hassan:
It did occur. So after I talked to him, he was just going in and I was like, Oh my God, like, I’ve been on the phone for like five minutes now, how can I get off the phone? Cause you guys just talking and I kind of just, you know, use a closing statement. The money statement was, the phase that pays. So let me know before we meet next Tuesday at 8:00 AM, what else would you like to hear on the call and tell them a whole bunch of stuff? And he tells me one thing that is so funny because that one thing that he did not want is what I do right now. He said, all right, Mo, I’m willing to talk to it. But no VARs, and I didn’t even know what VARs was. Yeah, don’t worry about there won’t be no VARs. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

Chris Corcoran:
For our listeners, can you explain what a VAR is? Because a lot of our listeners, aren’t going to know what that is.

Mo Hassan:
Absolutely, a VAR is a value-added reseller. What they do is resell items from manufacturers and OEMs, such as you know, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco. So you get the margin and you’re the middle man. And this is what I do right now. I work for a VAR.

Chris Corcoran:
In that case, it would be a Hitachi VAR?

Mo Hassan:
Exactly.

Chris Corcoran:
A company that would go out and resell Hitachi systems. So while they’re representing Hitachi, they’re not Hitachi.

Mo Hassan:
And I called him at a good time. Cause he had a project. I looked cool and I wrapped this thing up. And next thing you know, Percy and Ben, you know, the mental. They put me on the phone and they turned around. I was like, I’m coming to smile. I was like, I got to lead. They’re like what? You got the lead. Everybody was just partying and celebrating high five and hit the gong. It was just phenomenal.

Chris Corcoran:
It was with Hitachi that he didn’t need to worry about the VAR thing.

Mo Hassan:
When I booked the meeting, the guy got on the phone, there was a VAR on the line. I didn’t know what happened. And the guy kind of, you know, he kindly asked the VAR to go off the phone. The we continued the conversation.

Chris Corcoran:
So looking back, what advice would you give yourself the night before you started at memoryBlue?

Mo Hassan:
I just calmed down. I would say just calm down because like you just play things through your head in different type of situations. And what I understand in life now that really helps me is that there are certain things that are just out of your control. And once I took that into account, they really did help me. I was like, I can only control what has gone through this form. After that, where it comes back, has nothing to do with me. I can’t control that. So when I did that, I started worrying. I stopped stressing and all that energy and I was exerting on that side. It can be brought back to my side. So towards me. So I was focusing on myself. So if I could go back in time, that’s what I’ll definitely tell myself, like whatever that guy says, you just need a response. You can take some time. You can think you can breathe. There’s different ways to do that. And the ballers and people up there know how to do it. And very, very well without even seeing me, just like leading the dance. So I wish I knew that.

Marc Gonyea:
It’s hard though. Cause that’s the stuff you can learn from experience. Right? You don’t know what you don’t know. So you talked about, you were shy kid growing up with a speech impediment, but you get into a professional occupation to talk to people on the phone with strangers. How’d you work through that?

Mo Hassan:
I’ll be honest with you. When I got the job, I knew what it entailed, but I didn’t know. It was just that like high tech consultant. You think it’s get on the phone with people for an hour and try to figure out things. So you talk like three days a week or? Yeah, that was not the case. No, not even close. I was like, yo, like I have an Excel sheet. People have Salesforce now. Luckily I have an Excel sheet paper. Just numbers, numbers, calling legit phone book. And I’m just like, dude, I was terrified.

Marc Gonyea:
Rightfully so. It’s a hard job. We try and tell the people, but people don’t know what it is. They kind of don’t even know to do it.

Mo Hassan:
Exactly. And then after I got that first meeting, I was just like, wow, this is awesome. It was such a great energy, such a great feeling. And I was like, do it. I just made some money too. I just made some extra money. The money that, that wasn’t based on my base. So that really did motivate me. And I was just like awesome. Everybody was just, the atmosphere really did help me too. Cause there’s some companies you may do something good, even something so small and they are celebrated. Like it was a meeting even though that’s what we do at memoryBlue, but it felt like a Super Bowl.

Marc Gonyea:
So, how did you get good, practice? Like listen to that call? What was it?

Mo Hassan:
Like I said earlier, I was obsessed with listening to people that has did this before then I got obsessed with trying to win. Okay. One for my family, one for myself. So I was like, I want another one. So it was like another one may come in 10 more calls. Another one may come in a hundred more calls. I just don’t know. And I remember listening to, Hitachi executive that worked with there’s this one guy, I think he worked for Hitachi. He worked here too. He had a kid and I think he came here and he was talking to us. He’s one of my clients and he was making good money. He lived in Maryland. And then after watching with him, I was like, Oh man, this is very interesting.

So, before I knew what reps were, I was like, dude, not only do I want that feeling, I can make a hundred, I can make extra a hundred dollars, $200. So I was like, dude, I’m digging. I’m looking for the gold. And what the guy was saying, all his podcasts or his call. I loved it because he’s like, don’t think of it as like I have to call a hundred people and try to get one leads Think of it as, okay, there’s three golden nuggets in here or three needles in this haystack. What I need to do is try to get through this haystack as quickly and as confident as possible to find those gold nuggets. And that’s why I tried to switch my mindset. And that’s where I saw the role.

Marc Gonyea:
So we can move on from memoryBlue, but anything else from memoryBlue?

Mo Hassan:
No, there’s actually a lot more because at memoryBlue, at that point, I had the motivation. I wanted to do it and I saw the way to do it. And then I had a great delivery manager shout out to Ben because late nights, early morning, because when I saw the way that people worked here, I wanted to be the best I was looking at the best. So I saw that you had to set up sheet music and then you have about two to three hours of the day where you can go on break, you can chill or what you can do, keep building up your pipeline. And that is what I do right now. And I knew that if I want it to be the best, just like I said, I wanted to get all those leads. I had to do whatever it took. So, what that meant was first one in the office, last one out all the time.

And when I would get there, it would be awesome to get there at 7:00 in the morning or 7:30. And then Ben would be there too, my delivery manager. He just started up at the role. So am I, so he’s baking off of my success I’m baking off his success. We’re like, we gotta do this together. Just grinding. So from there 7:00 to 7:00 put in 12 hours days. But like it’s nothing, cause we just know what this job takes and that’s what we’re learning. So after making so many calls, I started getting good at it. And Ben is like, yo, he’s proud of me, I’m getting meetings and I’m meeting with clients. And I had that motivation where I love memoryBlue, but I wanted to go to the next step.

Chris Corcoran:
Yep. Were you always on just Hitachi or what other clients were you on?

Mo Hassan:
I was on Hitachi. The Horse Tail that I was telling you. And then I worked for a company called ByteGrid, ByteGrid is the enemy of CyrusOne. And this is before CyrusOne blew up. So this was huge. And John was on CyrusOne. So I knew about the data centers. And then just listen to his conversations. I’m like, Oh my goodness, this is insane. Like these are the servers that people are talking about for these high level government agencies and Intel agencies and huge Fortune 500 companies and when you hear people like, Hey, I’m in IT and Cisco certified, this is what they, this is it. You know? And that was okay, how can I get there? And then once I started booking meetings, I was very interested to see how the conversation went. So I used to listen to all the calls here. Again asked the rep so many questions and what really helped me differentiate myself between everybody else is that I made the reps job so easy, which helped me in my future career.

Chris Corcoran:
Without question.

Marc Gonyea:
Tell us about that. Go into that a little bit. Making the reps job easier, which help you in your career.

Mo Hassan:
So at memoryBlue, you were considered an inside rep, BDR, whatever you want to call it, you know what your job is to uncover opportunities, book meetings. That’s what you’re here for. Then I did just book meetings. I was also in a way on his calendar, making sure like he’s on the road a lot of solid call him an hour before, Hey look, this is the game plan. We have a call. Let’s talk about it. This is stuff that we talk about. This stuff that we’re not going to talk about. How is the customer failing? Okay. And I just do the small things that you guys tell us every time before I got on a call with the customer to assure that we’re going to get on, I was sent a calendar invite with an hour notification on there. That way within that hour, they know that if they can make that meeting or not, they’re going to either deny it or accept again. So from there and when the call goes on, I don’t have to wonder, are they going to get on this call? Am I going to get paid? Because that’s the goal I’m trying to get paid.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. If it’s going to occur or not. And how did that help you later in your career?

Mo Hassan:
That helped me because I said, okay, I want it to be the rep. And I couldn’t believe it where they were telling me stories where these people make six figures, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000. I just thought that’s insane. Because come from section eight, that type of money, you don’t get that type of money from selling drugs. You know what I mean? Or just legally, because that’s insane and you don’t have to go to the stress of life and criminalization and then just, they didn’t want to put your family through. So, you know, decided to keep my hands clean. And then with that, I was like, I can make six figures. Just again, I was thinking about the money that I can make with the meetings to help my family.

And then when I figured out, what our rep was making as much as doctors or more, I said, I can make my family proud. So the way that I made the reps job easier was I did. Why can’t remember right now there was, that was a lead. It wasn’t a lead list. Those lead write-ups were insane. The reps absolutely loved it. And now they get on the phone with the customer and they’re getting straight to it. You would think that, you know, an hour call was enough for demo. All I need now is 30 minutes just because you get straight to it, you don’t be on something that don’t matter. You really getting down to business.

Chris Corcoran:
Well, I think your story illustrates is that it’s more important than just getting leads. It’s all the stuff that doesn’t show up it’s the relationship with the rep. It’s the lead write up. It’s the relationship after the call. Also the Marc refers to as bedside manner, right. Your bedside manner with the reps.

And we had Arash on the podcast a couple of weeks ago and he comes at it from a different angle, but he said it brilliantly. He’s in client success. And he says, when he’s working with his clients, he talks to his point of contact and says, listen, my job is to get you promoted. Like I’m going to do whatever I can to make you look good and make you shine and SDRs that should really be your goal is to get your rep promoted or to club or to quota. You’re the support system to help them do that. And if you can do that, you’re going to be the rep faster than you can think.

Mo Hassan:
So, because I knew my end goal that made things easier. Cause I was like, here it is no matter what it takes, I got to go. And I think a lot of people don’t see things through. I was like, no matter how hard it gets, whatever it takes, I know what I want. So I had to go through a lot of BS and I’ll tell you why, especially in the professional workforce, especially in sales. So after I crushed it here, at memoryBlue for six months, I got promoted internally to become a sales rep, bringing in clients for memoryBlue, to sell upon, right. For them to provide the services for. And then that was a different world, that was a different world. I thought making leads was lonely. That’s a lonely job. That’s lonely.

Marc Gonyea:
It’s a big leap. And some people, you know, they do so well in one role. Then they get put into another role. You know, it’s a big leap.

Mo Hassan:
But then again, I was like, okay, I know the mission, but just like, I got this BD thing, I’m going to do the same thing here. So I use my skills and considered myself as a hunter and just started calling people. And it was tough because not only did I have to set the meeting by to keep those conversations going. Right.

Chris Corcoran:
It’s not just about setting meetings anymore.

Mo Hassan:
No, it’s not about selling meetings like, okay, I’m here, you got the girlfriend and you now it’s time to talk. But the good thing was that I did my research and it didn’t go from talking anymore. It went from listening and that’s what my shyness really did help me because I was a great listener. And sales is more of a listening sport then it’s talking sport.

Marc Gonyea:
Say that again for everybody, please.

Mo Hassan:
So sales is a listening sport more than, as a talking sport. And that’s my financial advisor says, I think you’d be great in sales because you’re a great listener and you’re good on this guy and people like talking to you. And then that’s what, now I know what he meant. Nobody tells you that. So, and then I did my thing as a rep here. And then I got bought out Fidelis Cybersecurity out in Maryland. And then the goal is like I was going to be in the channel, which I wanted to become a rep, but it wasn’t it. I was like, it’s okay, it’s the next step. But the channels would help me in my current role right now. Then when I got into the channel, I worked for Fidelis Cybersecurity. Right? One their venture partners was GD. So when I got to the company, everything was gravy. We were going on trips. I was flying to Texas. We had company cards and it big meetings, big forecast calls. And my job was to set those meetings.

And then when I saw what those reps were making and doing, I was just like, wow, well, like these people aren’t even doctors. These aren’t even lawyers, but they’re doing really, really well for themselves financially. And their job was tough, but like, if they have a bad day, they just lose a deal. It’s not, it’s not operation but it’s a mindset. It’s a stress game. It was very, very tough. So I was like, cool. So I did my thing of Fidelis Cybersecurity for a year. I just wasn’t getting the thing that I wanted, which has become a rep. People sometimes go to job and don’t know their focus and just kind of get lost in the sauce, you know, kind of get the foot off the pedal, but I didn’t want to do that. And then from Fidelis cybersecurity, I got a call from one of my networks. That’s why the memoryBlue network is so important. This call, right here is what helped me get to the financial impact I was trying to get.

Chris Corcoran:
Who called you?

Mo Hassan:
Christian Posse.

Chris Corcoran:
So he called you out of the blue or what was the purpose of his call?

Mo Hassan:
We were staying in touch. I was here in the area. I was in Maryland. He was also in Maryland. So we tried to get up for some coffee and he’s like, Hey Mo, I know you always wanted to be a rep. I got a position. I was like, no way. And then I moved from Reston to Ashburn at that time. And I was driving from Ashburn to Rockville, Maryland. That’s where Fidelis was. So 45, 50 minutes daily commute. So I’ll listen to podcasts and NPR, a lot of stuff like that. So I’ll just get motivated. And then he gave me a call to, Hey, Mo, there’s a job out here in Leesburg. I said, Leesburg? He’s like, yeah, I was like bro that’s 10 minutes away from my house. He said, it’s a closing position it’s with a VAR. I said, bro. He said, it’s a recruiter. Do you want to take it? I was like, absolutely.

So, I went from setting a meetings to having a position, become a rep. Cause at Fidelis, those reps weren’t going anywhere. And I saw these were also guys, forties, fifties, and I’m like, I’m coming out of the gate in my twenties. Just like, I’m not going to help these people, but I still have my focus. Like I said, I could’ve gave up. Then I was like, I’m taking it. So I get to DH Technologies where I’m at right now is a value added reseller for the federal government out in Leesburg, Virginia. But when I got there yet again, another obstacle because when I got there, I wasn’t a rep. I was an inside rep. So, I was dude every time I get to the door, it just somehow just seemed like it closes but that’s just God is working his time not your time. Right? So I get them my cool again, whatever it takes, just be patient. And I started this job four years ago. And when I started, I was working on this one guy, , I won’t say his name. And that was an inside rep. And in sales, he showed me what not to do.

Chris Corcoran:
Share with our listeners.

Mo Hassan:
What not to do is that I had the mindset from memoryBlue where I was just hustling. Chris, Marc, you guys know how it is. I call at this time. I do my emails. I do my list. I get everything ready. Just boom, boom, boom, period. I’m very disciplined reps are sloppy. Now they’re very, very sloppy because you know, they might get up a little bit late call when they want maybe call five people. By the time they were calling 10 people, I was already calling a 100. That’s what memoryBlue came from. And it blew people’s mind. When I came to the company, they’re like, dude, where did this guy come from? Where did this? Like, wow. But they still didn’t give me the position. So the rep that I was working with, he was taking a lot of vacation because he worked remote. Maybe he was working. Maybe he wasn’t. I was doing all the work, but I knew what it took because I was giving him everything. So all he had to do was close it, close the deal, but he didn’t close deals. So he went for fa full year and he finally closed one deal. And then long story short, he got hacked. He’s gone.

I’m his inside rep I should be able to step up. It’s my time. Right before I was going to get that, another rep came in from this big company. And he was worried about coming to our company because he wouldn’t have the support. So what our CEO did was like, okay, let’s give him my best player, which was me again on the inside. And I was just like, that’s again, you know? So it’s just, life is very difficult, but you get back up. I got back up and I was like, alright again, you gotta be set, whatever it takes, I’m going to get it. And then finally I was working with him for about a year. And that guy, he was the total opposite. He was closing deals. He was a baller, but was not the best human being. And that it really showed me. I was like, yo bro, I don’t care how much money you make. You cannot treat people like this. Like, you know, we’re here to work together. But like treating me like, you know, I worked for you and all this stuff, like, no, that’s not. So, we butt heads, but he was a great dude, you know? But he was so caught up in work that whatever it took, it didn’t matter if you were in the way you see reps like that. And even in the industry now you got some a**holes. You’re making money and crushing it 800,000 million dollars. But inside they’re not right. And this game will get you.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah, for sure. Life will get you. You don’t have to be in professional sales, make a lot of money to be a jerk. It catches up at some point.

Mo Hassan:
So, after that, finally this was in September. I went up to my CEO and in September and the federal government is the busiest time. The government has spent all the money in 30 days. So I may one of the biggest decisions in my career. I could have lost my job. I said, Hey, look, I’m done with this guy. I need my own accounts. I don’t care if sink or swim, give me a million dollar quota. I don’t care. Give me a quota. Basically at the point where I do this or I’m out. I gave him that option and he gave me a chance.

Marc Gonyea:
You earned the chance. You did ask for it, but you earned it.

Mo Hassan:
And then when I asked for it, I got it. And then I was the youngest rep in the company, like 22 years old, you know, just become a rep I was like okay. And I’m getting on calls. And these people have worked at GD and companies for 20, 30 years and I’m just like, okay, Hey, what’s going on? I worked this company, but people just like me because I was on the phone and I listened, did what I did at memoryBlue. And that really got me ahead.

Marc Gonyea:
You learn along the way though.

Mo Hassan:
You know, and that helped me got there. Then when I got to that position, I got a few accounts that I really did excel because I saw what people weren’t doing. Even the best ones, what they weren’t doing. I was just like, well, we’re playing the same sport, but you’re not blocking and tackling. You’re just trying to catch touchdowns. That’s all they wanted to do is catch touchdowns. I want to catch touchdowns too, but I’m a full game type of guy. So I played the full game and I legitly smoked people. And what I mean by that, you know, talk to my customers every day. And then when my pipeline was small I got on the phones. It wasn’t like, all right, Mo we need you to get on the phone. I was like, people managers now have to beg reps to get on a phone. Right? I’m sure you guys believe that.

Chris Corcoran:
Yeah. At the same held true. When Marc and I worked before we started memoryBlue.

Marc Gonyea:
Because it’s hard Mo most people and it’s not any, any, does it make you any better or worse than someone else, but most of the difficult things in life, people don’t want to do that. Yeah. And in our line of work, the psychological trauma that comes with the rejection on calling complete strangers, wears people out.

Mo Hassan:
But that actually helped me because when I talk about my speech impediment, going back to that is that I legitly had to get better at that. So what did that do? I had to get better on my speaking. So I would just go into the mirror and just speak to take my time. I would pick up the phone or just put on audio recording and just talk, Hey, this is Mo did I catch you at a bad time, just pause one, two, three, it was an act like you get on the phones and character. And I want it to be the best at my character. So practicing, practicing, practicing. And then when I became a rep and then that’s when the last two years at DH Technologies, I’ve been a rep. And then last year I did really, really well crushed it. I hit my quota which was phenomenal. And I was in a way where I can support my family, you know, help with my financial freedom, you know, and being a rep is just, it’s the best decision I made.

Marc Gonyea:
Has the family come around yet?

Mo Hassan:
Oh yeah. I think after the first check, they’re just like, alright, you can keep doing this.

Chris Corcoran:
So how long have you been closing?

Mo Hassan:
So, I’ve been closing now for coming on to three years.

Chris Corcoran:
I want you to look back over those three years. What’s your most memorable deal? Win or lose?

Mo Hassan:
Oh man. One of my most memorable deals, the deal that I did last year it was a win. I sold a VDI solution, which is virtual desktop infrastructure to the federal government. And then it had like a five different solutions on it. And then one thing that you get better at while you’re in this position is just negotiating. Right? That’s one thing I think that comes out of memoryBlue, that you need to go out there on your own. I was listening to the tapes. I was negotiation that next step do I got there? I was a reseller. I’m a reseller now. So what a reseller is, I need to talk to my manufacturer and try to get their products for the cheapest price. So, I can sell it for market price and make my margin.

So, I sold a Nutanix It was a Nutanix and HPE combination deal. And what I did was that I talked to the customer and I got the budget. Right. And then I got lucky, the rep that was there left, they had a new rep, interim rep, an inside rep, you know, me, I catch things. And I was like, Oh, this rep is desperate. And then I was like, look, I’ve been working this deal with going on board. This was going on. Basically told them what I got going on. Right. I was like, look, I’ll be honest with you, like we need to lower this price. I’m running this deal. You’re not, you just come in here. He should like, yeah. If I hit my quota, I get a promoted. So it was helping elevate people because I elevated her she elevated me. So she came back and gave me a crazy discount and then making up like 45% margin on that deal.

Chris Corcoran:
Typically how much margin?

Mo Hassan:
Typically, if you have registration, which means that you have the best price on the market and you are protected, nobody else can do that. You get about 15 to 20%. So when I came in, it was a huge bottle poppin’ event. I don’t drink, but there was bottles popping.

Chris Corcoran:
So, what did your coworkers say when you hauled in that?

Mo Hassan:
They couldn’t believe it was just like, yo, just like, what did you do? You know what I mean? And I remember that that quarter, I got like 340% sales quota just for that quarter. So that was phenomenal. And then, you know, 28 now and still going through my accounts, still learning and I have a, what sales also helped me now is that I have a podcast as well.

Marc Gonyea:
Tell us about that. So let’s talk about two things. One thing I’m not a social media really. So I don’t get to see it as much, but I hear about it from other people. Tell us about your podcast. Tell us about your charity involvement.

Mo Hassan:
Oh yeah, I run a podcast right now with my good friend, Jibreel we went to college, we have several businesses too. So we call it The Young & Muslim Podcast with the voice of the young and Muslim culture. So we’ve been doing it for about two years now, have 94 episodes and sales has helped me with that because you know, I have more time and I work remote and, you know, get deals done and have that free time to get things done with the podcast. I don’t have to be a nurse to work 12 hours 14, you know? So that’s the good thing about sales, flexibility. You have a phone and a laptop. I can work from wherever. So, we’ve been doing the podcast and we’ve been doing pretty good since.

Marc Gonyea:
And what’s the theme of the podcast?

Mo Hassan:
So basically we take you through a day or a life of some young Muslims here in America, black, young Muslims here in America. And our struggles are usually your struggles with all the youth. They can be, you know it can be online addiction. It could be family issues, relationships. So it’s things that everybody goes through, you know, but we talk about it from our perspective and try to collaborate. And in the high tech sales, I would say definitely change the conversation because a lot of foreigners or just Mohamed’s or just people in the Muslim faith. They go after IT. But nobody knows about this other side. They call it the dark side because the lights are off we’re in there hustling. Right. But the light is on IT focused on going out there becoming a PM, being CSSP certified and you’ll make tons of money doing that.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. It’s a great fashion, but like what about sales?

Mo Hassan:
Nobody talks about it, so now when people ask me what I do and they’re surprised, but like, Oh, you’re in IT. I was like, yeah, I’m in IT just like you, they’re like, wow, yeah, I call you guys. And it’s helped me now cause my brother and my family understand what sales is and high tech sales is. So now I’ve opened up a new avenue. It’s like, Oh wow, Mohamed added another tool to the tool belt and you can do what you want to do. And just staying focused, just being grateful, keeping God and family first. So it’s been one heck of an adventure, man.

Chris Corcoran:
That’s good. So I know your faith is really important and I remember you kind of introduced me. Do you want to tell that story?

Mo Hassan:
So during Ramadan, so people that know that Ramadan is a 30 day spiritual cleanse you fast. It’s the month of the Quran, which is the Holy book for Muslims. So it’s a lot of reading in there, a lot of reflecting. And then I was always talked with you guys. Cause you know, we had that good relationship here with a small company. When I was at memoryBlue I was like, yo, we’re going to fast. When I was memoryBlue, I was like, I sent out a mass email to the team. I was like, I’m going to fast today. Whoever wants to join me. This is the routine. This is what you need to do. I think good amount of people joined me, but only a few lasted. I think Marc was done at 11:55.

Chris Corcoran:
I was in. What I remember most about the experience was, it wasn’t the lack of food. It was the lack of water. And you know, I was a first timer where you’re a veteran and I just did it for one day and you need to do it for 30 days.

Mo Hassan:
30 days, no water, no food, nothing passed the mouth from sunrise to sunset. So yeah, that really did help me cause I was here at memoryBlue and I would pray here too. So that really did help because I needed it. Sometimes you need that break in sales, you know, to catch up with yourself, reflect and then time to get back to work.

Chris Corcoran:
So how do you keep your skills sharp though?

Mo Hassan:
Oh man. That’s going back to the basics, just getting on the phone, things are done off the phone. You can’t close a deal on email unless you’re sending a DocuSign.

Chris Corcoran:
There you go. A lot of SDRs, all they like to do is book meetings via email. What would you say to that?

Mo Hassan:
It’s nice. You know, you get a few blue birds hearing that, Oh wow, this is cool. But when that becomes your game, you become sorry because it’s just like Kobe was saying everything. All you do is working on your shot. You’re not trying your layups. You’re not playing defense. That’s all you’re doing. Somebody is going to stop that one day. You’re going to get tired of it. That move isn’t going to work. So I was like, I just keep calling. I’m making my cold calls, staying on the phone with customers, do my lead write ups. I was writing down my things, you know, still being very, very disciplined because nobody has to tell me, get on the phone. Again from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. I know that people are coming in early. So if I need to catch somebody early, I call my 7:30. It’s the military that I’m calling the DOD. So those are the types of skills that has kept me sharp. You know, it’s kind of tough because I don’t have that DM and kind of environment. Cause I’m the only person doing this.

Chris Corcoran:
Well that’s a whole big responsibility. You have to hold yourself accountable. You have to develop that discipline yourself. But if you can do it, the world is your oyster.

Mo Hassan:
Exactly. And I was like, not only was, I was getting meetings, closing meetings in the pipeline, just kept building. And then my boss, like Mo can you come help us? You know, like how do you do this? So definitely coming in and training and helping people develop their lead generation pool as well.

Chris Corcoran:
That’s great. And then if you look back, what would you say is the biggest mistake your fellow memoryBlue contemporaries make when they leave the company?

Mo Hassan:
Oh man. I would say the biggest mistake is forgetting the whole reason why you started, like whether it’s in sales or staying focused and forgetting those skills that you got. Because those small things that I just talked about earlier, not only does make a difference in your game, but in your paycheck, for sure. Like you’re talking like two digits sometimes, you know? And just by being disciplined in doing what you’re meant to do. So they’re missing the, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table and it’s going to fall behind, you know, so staying what you learn, stay true and keep that hunger. You know what I mean? Stay hungry.

Chris Corcoran:
Mo thanks for joining us in the flesh. Crazy COVID-19 times, I can’t believe it’s been five years.

Marc Gonyea:
I’m thrilled you’re doing so well. I’m not surprised at all, but it’s so great to hear.

Mo Hassan:
And my CEO says all the time, just like, you nailed the interview. Like, I don’t know how I could have found you. Wherever people go and they hear memoryBlue, it is legit the certified stamp, like this is official.

Chris Corcoran:
Well not everyone takes that seal it does what you’ve done. So that’s more about you than it is about the seal.

Mo Hassan:
I appreciate that.

Marc Gonyea:
We’re fortunate. I mean, everyone, I tell everybody on the podcast, but we’re very fortunate that you work for us. You did the job you did, and I’m thankful eternally thankful that you’re an alumni now.

Mo Hassan:
I appreciate you guys for everything.

Chris Corcoran:
For sure. Well, this was great. Thanks Mo.

Mo Hassan:
Thanks Chris, thanks Marc peace guys.

Marc Gonyea:
Peace out.