Episode 100: Jon Stevens – Dedication Leads to Success

No two sales jobs are the exact same. The company you work for and your client can make all the difference. Jonathan Stevens’s sincere interest in his client CyrusOne Data Centers has been the defining characteristic of his sales career trajectory since day one.

In this episode of Tech Sales if for Hustlers, Jonathan Stevens reflects on his first days at memoryBlue, the work habits that aided his success, and his current company’s mission to outsource data centers.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Jonathan Stevens

💡 What he does: Jonathan is the national channel manager at CyrusOne Data Centers.

💡 Company: CyrusOne Data Centers

💡 Noteworthy: Devotion and a strong work ethic helped Jonathan be where he is now professionally. He believes that no matter what you do, it’s critical to invest your full attention in it and show your partners/clients/customers that you care about them and that you are their ally on the path towards success. 

💡 Where to find Jonathan: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡Dedication is key to success. Jonathan was into sports while growing up, so he is competitive by nature. He also got his degree in marketing, which gave him knowledge to use in sales. While he was not sure what his calling was, he was confident and possessed the determination and work ethic that led him to his desired job options and great results. ”I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up, honestly, until I got here, and I can get onto that. But what I was always good at was working when I was employed by somebody; I’d found a way to be successful.”

⚡I genuinely care for my clients, and they feel it. Discussing the first days at memoryBlue, Jonathan shares that he got two clients, one of whom was his current employer, CyrusOne Data Centers. He was so mesmerized by the business they were developing at the time that he focused his whole attention on them and hoped that he would get a job offer. However, at some point, they decided to stop collaborating with memoryBlue. Jonathan thought the possibility of landing a job had disappeared, but he wanted to send an email expressing what they have achieved together and how he hopes they will collaborate in the future. Although that was not the intention, the email opened the door to Jonathan working at CyrusOne Data Centers. ”I got a call from Stu that they had opened up some headcount for me; they created it out of something that didn’t exist. And he had helped convince Fred and the rest of the company: ‘We [would be] foolish not to hire this person.’ It is weird for me to say, and I don’t like to talk about myself, but that’s what they had communicated to me.”

⚡ It is hard to find high-quality employees, so it’s in everyone’s best interest that they stay with an organization as long as possible. The position at CyrusOne Data Centers is practically Jonathan’s first and only employment so far. He has grown as an individual and a professional. In addition, the data center space is growing, and it’s appealing to many, especially from a financial perspective. However, there is also the piece around the knowledge and experience that employees gain while working in the industry  that somehow makes them linchpins, and no good employer would want to lose them. ”Once you know what you’re doing, everyone else wants you to work there because it takes so long to train somebody and have them learn how the business works. So you’re protected in that sense. You’re in a cocoon that allows you to stay in the industry because you have all this knowledge.”

Episode Highlights

Recalling the First Days at memoryBlue

”I had my office at the last place, which is crazy, but then you’re in these cubicles; everybody can hear everything you’re saying. So that was a bit intimidating. 

But I learned very quickly that all the people there were similar to me, and it was incredibly easy to talk to people and make friends. Work quickly became very fun, and I started to enjoy what was going on, and that’s always been the key for me in life.”

What Does the National Channel Manager Do?

”I manage everything that we do through partners. So, to simplify it as much as I can, when you buy or sell a house, you use a real estate agent, and that same function exists in our business. 

There are third parties, and their purpose as an entity is to represent users in the data center buying process. And I go out and solicit those companies, maintain relationships with them, and try to get them to bring their clients to CyrusOne. In exchange, we pay them a commission that can have many different levels of variance. […]

The word ‘channel,’ which people might see on a superficial level, ordinarily means that you’re a white labeling service and reselling it under one big umbrella in most software sales. A company like CDW will have hundreds and thousands of different things underneath their portfolio that they resell to end users because they already have MSAs in place.

For us, it’s different because we’re still contracting directly with the end user, with the customer. So we’re just paying this middleman a fee. So that’s what my job is.”

How to Find Reliable Agents and Brokers

”The good ones are constantly attached to high-dollar opportunities; they have the reputation that makes them valuable. The other side of that is the agents that are working with upstart companies that have the potential to grow into large customers one day; there’s a lot of gray area. And there’s some looseness with how we accept the registration. […]

Registration is our commitment to compensate somebody in exchange for a deal. Once we give a registration out, that’s our word, like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna pay you on this, no matter what happens.’ […] So I’ve done a good job being very careful in how we deliver those. 

But some people are nefarious; some are honest. You have to evaluate each person and use your best judgment to figure out if this person is connected to this account or did they hear about this at a cocktail party and they’re trying to get paid on it. So a major part of my role is evaluating and making sure that the integrity of the company is protected and that we’re making the right choice.”

Transcript: 

F6345105_106 – memoryBlue – Tech Sales is for Hustlers – Jonathan Stevens

[00:00:00] Jonathan Stevens: High impact. People are typically the ones that get ideas bounced off of them first, and if you’re close to those folks, then you can know what’s coming down the pipe and how to position yourself, and it’s really useful. Jonathan Stevens. One of the pioneers of the Austin Office, Chris.

[00:01:03] Chris Corcoran: Heard in Virginia Zone, Jonathan Stevens, down in Austin, Texas. Great catching up with you. I’m looking forward to kinda walking through your experience with us, and then what you’ve been able to do out in the wild ’cause I think you’ve got a lot of wisdom to share with, with the listeners.

[00:01:20] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I’m looking forward to doing that, Marc and Chris; thanks so much for having me. Obviously, I am a longtime listener first-time caller, this should be exciting. I’m very honored you asked me to come join, and looking forward to discussing. 

[00:01:32] Marc Gonyea: Thanks for making the time. 

[00:01:34] Jonathan Stevens: Obviously.

[00:01:34] Marc Gonyea: It’s great, man. All right, well, let’s get into it. So, we were just, before we went live, we were talking about, you know, what we know about you from your origination at memoryBlue, but let’s educate, Chris and I, and also people listening kind of where you’re from, family, like, growing up, what you were like as a kid, we’ll get into that.

[00:01:53] Jonathan Stevens: So, I am from Northern Virginia, went to Herndon High School, born and raised out there. Then went to Old Dominion from

[00:01:59] Marc Gonyea: Hornets. 

[00:01:59] Jonathan Stevens: 2009 to 2013, the Hornets, the Horn, Hornets, and had a marketing degree in school, really wasn’t very good at school. 

[00:02:08] Marc Gonyea: Back little. What were you like as a kid?

[00:02:09] Jonathan Stevens: As a kid, I was 

[00:02:10] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:02:10] Jonathan Stevens: athletic, a little shy, but kind of always managed to figure out how to get my way in certain situations, especially

[00:02:18] Marc Gonyea: How tall are you?

[00:02:19] Jonathan Stevens: ask my brother. 6’3, maybe six with shoes on,

[00:02:22] Marc Gonyea: Man, Corcoran.

[00:02:23] Jonathan Stevens: it’s nice. It helps. It helps. Corcoran’s the shortest of them. 

[00:02:28] Marc Gonyea: Of three, three brothers, and you’re taller than me. 

[00:02:31] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, it’s ridiculous. 

[00:02:32] Marc Gonyea: Do you have a favorite sport? 

[00:02:34] Jonathan Stevens: I played soccer all growing up,

[00:02:35] Marc Gonyea: Okay.

[00:02:35] Jonathan Stevens: and played lacrosse as well, but super into hockey, 

[00:02:38] Marc Gonyea: Okay.

[00:02:40] Jonathan Stevens: big golfer now, so.

[00:02:41] Marc Gonyea: What position did you play in soccer?

[00:02:43] Jonathan Stevens: Center.

[00:02:43] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Okay. Center. And now you’re a golfer? 

[00:02:48] Jonathan Stevens: Big golfer now, which I got into because of work, frankly,

[00:02:52] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:52] but I, I love golf. It’s definitely my favorite hobby in life, currently. 

[00:02:55] Marc Gonyea: Okay, and there’s, growing up your, where were you? You had siblings, right?

[00:02:59] Jonathan Stevens: I have a younger brother named Matt who worked in memoryBlue, 

[00:03:01] Marc Gonyea: Correct.

[00:03:02] Jonathan Stevens: yep, and our sister Shelby just started Medical School at VCU, which we’re very proud of her. We did not inherit those same work ethic genes from her. 

[00:03:09] Marc Gonyea: I remember you telling me about her in your interviews, like, oh, just talk out like a quarter order sister, God, he’d be good for us. 

[00:03:14] Jonathan Stevens: Yes. She made the whole family proud. First person, in the whole family history, both sides, to get accepted in med school, so it’s a very big deal for all of us.

[00:03:21] Chris Corcoran: Wow.

[00:03:22] Marc Gonyea: I saw on social media, you, you, what’s called you a white coat?

[00:03:25] Jonathan Stevens: White coat ceremony.

[00:03:25] Marc Gonyea: I saw you guys pump, you pumping up.

[00:03:27] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:03:27] Marc Gonyea: I was like, he told me about this like 2014. It’s like a, she’s gonna do. 

[00:03:31] Jonathan Stevens: It’s like a high school graduation ceremony, except everyone in the crowd, like, actually wants to be there and is interested in watching because people are full of pride, not like, oh, you graduated high school, big deal,

[00:03:40] good for you, like, this is a major life accomplishment. So, they had 11,000 applicants in this class, and they took 188, so,

[00:03:49] Marc Gonyea: Wow.

[00:03:49] Jonathan Stevens: it was, you know, it’s pretty cool, yeah. 

[00:03:51] Marc Gonyea: All right, so.

[00:03:52] Jonathan Stevens: Maybe should talk about my sister, the first two minutes, I’m on podcast. Things are going on. 

[00:03:56] Marc Gonyea: That’s, that’s a good way to open up a conversation with someone ’cause I about brilliant your sister is, then you got the two brothers who are great guys, and they’re smart too. 

[00:04:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, we don’t have the same skillset.

[00:04:04] Chris Corcoran: You’ve been telling me about her. 

[00:04:05] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:04:06] Marc Gonyea: Alright. So, growing up, so, you, sports, what else? Like, when you were in high school, what did you think you wanted to do when you grew up?

[00:04:13] Jonathan Stevens: I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I grew up, honestly, until I got here, and I can get onto that, but what I was always good at was working, was, when I was employed by somebody, I, I, I found a way to be successful. 

[00:04:25] Marc Gonyea: Okay.

[00:04:26] My, my dad’s our first-generation American. 

[00:04:28] Marc Gonyea: Okay.

[00:04:29] My grandparents moved to Canada from England when they were 23, then eventually immigrated to Olney, Maryland. My dad, my grandfather started Olney Soccer Club, actually, up there,

[00:04:40] Chris Corcoran: Really?

[00:04:41] Jonathan Stevens: the fields, everything, him, and my dad, and all that. But, you know, Northern James, a very wealthy area. So, I had a lot of friends growing up that were just in different situations than me, and I remember distinctly one time going to eat at Glory Days Grill in Sterling, which I’m sure a lot of people around here have been to,

[00:04:55] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:55] Jonathan Stevens: it’s no longer there, unfortunately. I asked my dad for $10. So, I’d go eat with my friends. He said, “No, you need to get a job.” I was 15 at the time, and I got a job there that night,

[00:05:06] Marc Gonyea: At Glory Days?

[00:05:07] Jonathan Stevens: At Glory Days. 

[00:05:07] Marc Gonyea: In Sterling.

[00:05:08] Jonathan Stevens: I worked there for three years in high school. They initially hired me, talking about the height thing, they didn’t realize I was 15, actually, ’cause you couldn’t hire people until they were 16. So, I, they told me I got the job.

[00:05:18] Marc Gonyea: You didn’t get a work permit. 

[00:05:19] Jonathan Stevens: And I showed up my first day, and they were like, “Wait a minute, you’re actually only, you’re not 16 yet.” So, I could only work from three to six until I turned 16, which obviously is not an ideal time at a restaurant, right? But they still gave me the job anyways, and I eventually managed all to-go orders shortly after when I was the youngest person in the kitchen.

[00:05:38] And then, got, like, five of my friends’ jobs there that never lasted as long as me, but it worked out, so.

[00:05:44] Marc Gonyea: That’s a long time to be in high school, maybe in the college; I don’t know, they had three years, that’s like ten years for a normal person. 

[00:05:52] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:05:52] Marc Gonyea: So, high school kids always doing dumb stuff, right? And that’s why your buddies, you know?

[00:05:58] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, it is. 

[00:05:58] Marc Gonyea: How it’s, I would’ve one of your buddies, would’ve not lasted three years. 

[00:06:02] Jonathan Stevens: No, some of ’em didn’t last three months. 

[00:06:04] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:06:05] Jonathan Stevens: Five of them I got jobs. 

[00:06:06] Marc Gonyea: And what did you attest that to? 

[00:06:09] Jonathan Stevens: You know, I, I, I don’t, I can’t really put my pulse on it, but when I’m, when somebody’s paying me to do something, I, I think I find a way to just, I can figure problems out myself and come up with solutions for things that might not have been based, you know, right there to be obvious to somebody, and I just, they just trust me to take care of things, and I’m very good with people, good with customers. I make people feel happy, and I’m easy to get along with, and I can, when it’s my time to be firm, I can definitely do that and turn it on, and I know when to flip the switch and say, this isn’t happening anymore, or this is the way we’re gonna do things,

[00:06:41] and I think, but most importantly, like I just, I treat everybody the same there where they’re the dishwashers, the head chef, the managers, to go people servers. And I think I’ve kind of carried that through every job I’ve ever had in my life that you never know when you’re gonna need someone to be your ally.

[00:06:59] So, it’s just, if everybody likes you, you’re gonna be in a good situation, and people are willing to look past performance a little bit if, if you’re likable,

[00:07:06] Marc Gonyea: Yep.

[00:07:06] and I, I’ve definitely felt that true, you know, in every step of my career to this state, as well. 

[00:07:10] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re in high school, work at Glory Days, and I asked you about, 

[00:07:13] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:07:14] Marc Gonyea: you know, what you thought you wanted to be, and you figured that out when you gotta here, but like, but keep walking through the process. So, you’re coming outta high school, you get athlete, got the sport experience, priceless, the work experience.

[00:07:23] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, I went to ODU. I, I wasn’t a good student. 

[00:07:26] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:26] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, I, I went there because I could get in there.

[00:07:28] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[00:07:28] Jonathan Stevens: Uh, I didn’t get into any of the big, good schools in Virginia, which was extremely competitive. So, I went there ’cause they accepted me, and then I had a marketing degree. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and I have a problem when, when I am not interested in something, I can’t, like, fake the work ethic, honestly,

[00:07:44] even though I might be capable, I might not, if I don’t actually think it’s fun, or I’m not, I don’t wanna do it, like, I, I can’t convince myself to spend all this time doing something that I, that I’m not interested in. And I think that’s a difference between my brother and my sister, who, or my brother and I, and my sister who, she’s able to focus hyperly on something and able to get it done, but I can never do that.

[00:08:02] Jonathan Stevens: So, but I don’t know, I always had this confidence in the back of my mind that whatever I figured out, I was going to find a way to make it work, I didn’t know what that was, and I was kind of waiting until I was, like, eventually it’ll come to me, I’ll understand what I’m supposed to do. I think I can have some type of cus customer-facing role, whatever it may be.

[00:08:21] Marc Gonyea: But when did this happen? So, you’re not, you’re in college, 

[00:08:24] Jonathan Stevens: In college, and then I just didn’t know, like,

[00:08:25] Marc Gonyea: like, I guess as you were working,

[00:08:26] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:08:27] Marc Gonyea: right? Doing, going to school, and you’re coming outta school with a marketing degree, what, what’d you think you’re gonna do? 

[00:08:34] Jonathan Stevens: I, I don’t know, go into sales, do something like that. So I, I got an internship actually with sprint while I was in school, and they, they took it back because I had a speeding ticket in Maryland that they didn’t like, which is insane.

[00:08:48] Marc Gonyea: I would’ve been out too. 

[00:08:48] Jonathan Stevens: So, they had a, a couple speeding tickets, and they revoked the internship, and I was like, “Well, now I dunno what to do,” ’cause I interviewed for that. I got it over, like, 25 people, wish it was exciting, and then I really just talked to Justin, and, Justin Brown, I used to, 

[00:09:05] Chris Corcoran: Justin Brown.

[00:09:05] Jonathan Stevens: Justin Brown, my boy.

[00:09:07] Chris Corcoran: Interesting. The entire experience today. 

[00:09:11] Marc Gonyea: What’s up, Justin? 

[00:09:12] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, he’s my buddy in school, and he was somebody who even said to me distinctly, I remember at one point at a party, he was like, “Whatever you do, you’re gonna find a way to be successful.” I think Justin and I had that same type of mentality on things; we could figure things out,

[00:09:26] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:26] Jonathan Stevens: we could get it done; we can be firm and tell people what they need to hear. And he, I think I had his respect. So, when time came to figure out what I wanted to do after college and make money, he was interested in giving me an opportunity. So, that’s kind of where it started.

[00:09:41] Marc Gonyea: We’ve hired some really strong people from ODU. 

[00:09:43] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. So, 

[00:09:45] Marc Gonyea: I know.

[00:09:46] Jonathan Stevens: you know, and you kind of punked it little earlier. That’s where I got in, but there, 

[00:09:49] well, that’s at the time, I mean, I think we all figured things out later, like I, you know, it’s not, I think back at the time, my GPA in high school, it might have been a measure of my work ethic at the time when I was a kid, that’s changed 

[00:10:00] Marc Gonyea: Working, you’re working

[00:10:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:10:02] Marc Gonyea: and doing sports. 

[00:10:03] Jonathan Stevens: That’s not how that’s not 

[00:10:04] Marc Gonyea: high working and doing sports. They’re doing one than another, you know? 

[00:10:08] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:10:08] Marc Gonyea: And then it’s not like the schools, they’re pretty demanding, and it’s very competitive, but I’m Virginia. So, you, Justin, Ben, Nina, we got a host of people.

[00:10:17] Jonathan Stevens: Oh, I loved it, after 

[00:10:18] Marc Gonyea: Ron Cook. 

[00:10:19] Jonathan Stevens: Ron Cook is my, one of my brother’s, groomsman in his wedding coming up. So, one of his best friends that Matt got Ron’s job here, I think, so, it’s, yeah. 

[00:10:27] Marc Gonyea: So,

[00:10:28] Jonathan Stevens: What’s up, Ron? I know you’re listening.

[00:10:29] Marc Gonyea: There you go. So, the maroch, the football team’s pretty good too.

[00:10:32] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, we had a good weekend.

[00:10:34] Marc Gonyea: Come on. 

[00:10:34] Jonathan Stevens: Did you guys watch it?

[00:10:36] Marc Gonyea: No.

[00:10:36] Jonathan Stevens: I was actually there. So, 

[00:10:37] Chris Corcoran: Oh, you were there?

[00:10:38] Jonathan Stevens: went back, yeah, indeed, I was there. My wife is throwing a baby shower for a best friend, we just happened to be there, and it was awesome. 

[00:10:44] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. Nina was there.

[00:10:45] Marc Gonyea: Nina was there. I don’t know why the tech even plays ODU in football.

[00:10:48] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, they need a. 

[00:10:48] Marc Gonyea: Ridiculous. 

[00:10:49] Jonathan Stevens: It’s supposed to be a recruiting game for you guys, but it’s not working out so well. 

[00:10:51] Marc Gonyea: It’s not; it’s an embarrassment game. 

[00:10:52] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:10:53] Chris Corcoran: It’s a beat-down game. 

[00:10:55] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, we, we played horrible 

[00:10:56] Marc Gonyea: Three more 

[00:10:57] Jonathan Stevens: and still beat you, so, that’s not, like, you guys should have destroyed ODU, last time we beat you, you know, ’cause this is the second time for everyone that’s not familiar, that’s working on their. We at least scored 50 points, but this time, you know, I think we, our quarterback had, like, 130 yards passing, and 40 of ’em was on the last play of the game. So, we’ll take it, 

[00:11:19] Marc Gonyea: Of course.

[00:11:19] Jonathan Stevens: whatever way we can get it.

[00:11:21] Marc Gonyea: So, just want give ODU some props, man.

[00:11:23] Jonathan Stevens: Oh, no, I, I liked ODU. I was just like I said, “I wanna clarify that.”

[00:11:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[00:11:27] Jonathan Stevens: That was at the time I didn’t have the grades to get into another school. 

[00:11:30] Marc Gonyea: Yep. 

[00:11:30] Jonathan Stevens: They took me, and here we are. So, I’m very happy with the way things matriculated from there. 

[00:11:34] Marc Gonyea: That’s some, I don’t wanna say it, late bloom, whatever it is like we got some ballers at that place. You’d be one of them. So, you, so, are you coming outta ODU, the marketing degree, the sprint thing, did it, internship, did it work out, but did you see customer, how did, what do you think you wanted to do?

[00:11:51] Jonathan Stevens: I knew I had to do something in sales, I mean, I, B2B or whatever that meant at the time.

[00:11:55] Marc Gonyea: But how did you know about that, how’d you even know about, ’cause your father wasn’t in sales,

[00:11:59] Jonathan Stevens: No.

[00:11:59] Marc Gonyea: like, your mom wasn’t in sales either, right?

[00:12:01] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, the hard reality of it is I didn’t have any real marketable, hard skills.

[00:12:05] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm. I didn’t college graduate, so, by the way.

[00:12:08] Jonathan Stevens: Well, some of ’em can do, you know, have something within stem or that they can code, or they have engineering prowess, or they have specific accounting or business acumen, whatever it may be, that they’ve, they can prove on, on a piece of paper. I didn’t have that. I felt like I was capable of learning it in a, in a corporate setting, perhaps, but I didn’t have that to demonstrate at the time. So, I started just applying for things that were sales oriented. I figured I was gonna have to do that at some point, you know, I’m gonna have to step up and make cold calls, whatever, however bad I wanted to do it or not, but 

[00:12:40] Chris Corcoran: Was Justin ahead of you, or did you and he 

[00:12:42] Jonathan Stevens: Justin was a year ahead of me, graduated year before. 

[00:12:44] Chris Corcoran: Okay. All right. So, he was ahead of you. 

[00:12:46] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:12:46] Chris Corcoran: And then, did Andy Gray, 

[00:12:49] Jonathan Stevens: So,

[00:12:49] Chris Corcoran: how did he kind of get involved? 

[00:12:50] Jonathan Stevens: yeah, so, I actually, I interviewed at memoryBlue twice. The first time was right outta school that Justin set up quickly for me, and I had my last interview with Marc. And at that point, I had already had an offer from another ERP services company in Herndon, actually was in Chantilly, but it was real close to Herndon, very close to where my parents lived at the time, and I started counting on my fingers, like, how quickly could I get to happy hour after work from there,

[00:13:17] and they had offered me marginally more money than memoryBlue was offering at the time, 

[00:13:22] Chris Corcoran: But more 

[00:13:22] Jonathan Stevens: we were talking about, yeah, $1,500 more, maybe not, nothing substantial. 

[00:13:26] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. 

[00:13:27] Jonathan Stevens: Um, 

[00:13:28] Chris Corcoran: And I still lost.

[00:13:29] Jonathan Stevens: and, you know, I was shortsighted, and I took that job, and I interviewed with three people that I, that, that seemed very trustworthy on the tertiary level, and

[00:13:40] they weren’t, I showed up the first day, none of those folks even lived in the state little and worked at that office, and they just handed me a phone and said, “Here you go.” And I was like, “Well, what do you mean, well, what do we do? What do we do as a company? What is my job?” And I knew that was a that was gonna be a short fuse, so I kind of just coasted and waited till they fired me and took my free money, and I, I left, and I was like, this is getting too boring,

[00:14:05] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:05] Jonathan Stevens: and I reached out to Justin, again, and at that point, Chris had a former fraternity brother of his that’s friends with my parents, named Andy Gray, that

[00:14:13] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:13] Jonathan Stevens: also had mentioned something to my parents that you should give memoryBlue another look. So, I came back in, and they just fast-tracked me to the last interview to Marc again because they had already previously made an offer. 

[00:14:24] Marc Gonyea: He turned me down once.

[00:14:25] Jonathan Stevens: He gave me an ultimatum and said, “Look, we would like to have you, but if you decline me again, this is the last time; you’re not coming back. Not doing this again.” So.

[00:14:34] Marc Gonyea: We’ve got a lot of people who turned this stuff out, and I think I, I was on the toll road talking to him on the phone, and he was telling me he was taking the other job, and I was like, “No, what are you doing?”

[00:14:45] Jonathan Stevens: And I went into that with my mind already made up, which is very foolish, yeah, no, I went into the last interview with you knowing I was gonna do it, and I even, Justin was like, “Are you taking it?” I was like, “Yeah, I think I’m gonna take it, but at least want to. I’m already here, I want to hear what he has to say,” and but everything was going in one ear, out the other, I was thinking about, “Oh, I’m making 40 grand, it’s a million dollars,” like, it’s just, it was foolish,

[00:15:05] and it’s at a point, you know, hopefully, people are listening to this that are maybe in a similar situation to look kind of down the road around the corner a bit and think about what, what you’re really coming to memoryBlue for, it’s not, it’s the ultimate, you know, short-term sacrifices, long-term gain type of place.

[00:15:19] So, you can’t look at it for what you’re gonna make in a couple of months or even one year, but what it can do for you in the future, and I wish I paid more attention to that at the time, but I think it worked out that I didn’t, absolutely. 

[00:15:31] Marc Gonyea: Are you kidding me? Of course, it did ’cause it gave me such great perspective, too,

[00:15:33] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, it gave me a perspective.

[00:15:34] Marc Gonyea: and it’s not that memoryBlue’s perfect. Sorry, go ahead. 

[00:15:36] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, and then, you know, there’s just, it’s complete luck of the draw when you, what type of clients you get assigned to from a, AE level, I don’t know what you got, is SDR now? 

[00:15:45] Marc Gonyea: Yes, it’s SDR now, yeah.

[00:15:46] Jonathan Stevens: You guys have your system internally, how that gets divided out, but we’re, we don’t have awareness to when you’re coming in, and if I started, still the same way, two weeks earlier, two weeks later, I would’ve been on something completely different, and who knows where my life would be now. So, it, it all worked out famously. 

[00:16:01] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, let’s talk about that. So, you joined, you joined up, and, well, I, we go back to two things. I think it says a lot about you that you went through the process the right way with us. And, uh, ’cause there are some people who, who want interview process with, and then won’t work out for whatever reason, and then, but this is, you know, thinking back, we can’t hire, you handed yourself, you were always very honest and upfront.

[00:16:23] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:16:24] Marc Gonyea: With like, where you’re going and why, and, you know, when we got upset, not at you, but like that we lost you, you didn’t get upset us, being upset, and like, we respected you enough to have you come back. So, that says a lot about you in such a young age. 

[00:16:34] Jonathan Stevens: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:34] Marc Gonyea: I think that’s the work experience stuff, I think,

[00:16:36] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:36] Marc Gonyea: like handling, handling situations that a lot of 21 year, 22-year-olds might fumble.

[00:16:42] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:16:42] Marc Gonyea: So, good, and then I talk about this, this is for the SDR, remember who listening to this ’cause we talk, everybody reached the dip,

[00:16:49] Jonathan Stevens: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:50] Marc Gonyea: and we talk about the dip and, like, the fact that you had that job, whether you got fired, you quit, whatever, I, you know, because it didn’t work out for them or I think ’cause we quit, you’re like, take my money and leave, that gave you some perspective on what you wanted, and helped farm up, ’cause definitely, ’cause we’ll talk about the memoryBlue job, memoryBlue job’s not easy. 

[00:17:08] Jonathan Stevens: No.

[00:17:08] Marc Gonyea: it’s not like you walked in, remember it was great ’cause it’s such an easier job, but, like, it’s a pretty good job compared to, like,

[00:17:14] Jonathan Stevens: Definitely.

[00:17:15] Marc Gonyea: “Here’s the phone; good luck, Jonathan.”

[00:17:17] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:17:17] Marc Gonyea: Right? Although, we do a little, a small degree of that, right? You gotta feed yourself, I mean, you could say that nothing in comparison to this, I mean, there’s very few companies that even I’ve, that I’ve learned about in my career since memoryBlue that will pay you to learn

[00:17:33] just about sales and not selling something specific that’s gonna directly impact the bottom-line revenue for the organization. So, it’s, it is particularly unique, and especially how you really just sell your best people and constantly are turning accounts, I mean, it’s incredibly, I mean, volume-driven business model, I, it’s nuts.

[00:17:51] I’m sure somebody that had never heard of it before would be like, “What, you guys are, two of you are insane for this, but yeah, it works.”

[00:17:57] Chris Corcoran: We’ve been hearing that 20 years, Jonathan, 20 years.

[00:18:00] Jonathan Stevens: It works insanely well. I mean, evidenced by today, how enormous this office was; I was just struck by how many people were in here compared to six or seven when I when we came out to start this so long ago. 

[00:18:11] Marc Gonyea: So, we’re to get to that. Let’s talk about that. 

[00:18:12] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Let’s get to that. 

[00:18:14] Marc Gonyea: Sorry. I’m monopolizing this. 

[00:18:16] Jonathan Stevens: No worries. 

[00:18:16] Marc Gonyea: I’m excited to see you. So, you, you got into memoryBlue; what was that like? So, when you showed up to work? 

[00:18:23] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, much different. I mean, I had almost like my own office at the last place, which is kind of crazy, but then here you’re in these cubicles, everybody can hear everything you’re saying.

[00:18:32] So, that was a, a bit intimidating, but I think what I learned very quickly is all the people in there were very similar to me, and it was incredibly easy to talk to people and make friends and work quickly became very fun, and I, I started to enjoy what was going on, and that’s always been the key for me in life,

[00:18:52] Jonathan Stevens: if I can find some type of fun and some type of element of enjoyment, I’m gonna be successful at it ’cause I’m gonna, naturally, wanna learn more and research and figure it out, and that’s what drives me. And so, it was, I mean, pretty cool from the jump that I, I got lucky, I was blessed with a great client and our rep at the time.

[00:19:11] Marc Gonyea: You keep saying that you got lucky.

[00:19:13] Jonathan Stevens: Well, I mean, everybody, there’s, there’s always an element of luck, right? I’m not gonna pretend like I did all this by myself, but it’s, yeah, there’s, did I have a role in it? Of course. 

[00:19:22] You give people the same opportunity, Jonathan. 

[00:19:24] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, on, on what they would think would be a great client or great account and doesn’t always work.

[00:19:29] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, you saw the opportunity and took a hold of it. 

[00:19:32] Jonathan Stevens: I did. 

[00:19:32] Marc Gonyea: ‘Cause, as every, by the fact that you still work for the company 

[00:19:34] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:19:34] Marc Gonyea: that it was your client. 

[00:19:35] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:19:36] Marc Gonyea: Right, in, in a great rapidly growing space. 

[00:19:38] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, we work there. 

[00:19:40] Marc Gonyea: So, take us back to that when you started, like, who you fired things up with?

[00:19:43] Jonathan Stevens: Oh, I was with Mo Hassan right next to me, my boy Mo, and, yeah, he’s my man, and we would always just bounce ideas of each other all the time, read each other’s emails, critique each other, and, and I could tell him something, we could create a size each other, and neither person would be offended, and we welcomed it, and we would start to make fun of the other one and like, “Hey, like, you’re just gonna grease me up all day, or you’re gonna, like, tell me something I can actually use?” You know, and he’ll hear that and laugh ’cause he knows, exactly, what I’m talking about. But then, Ben Decowski was a phenomenal 

[00:20:11] Marc Gonyea: Decowski.

[00:20:12] manager for us, and Ryan Hasbini was behind me, as well 

[00:20:15] Marc Gonyea: Hasbini.

[00:20:16] Jonathan Stevens: But then, lots of guys.

[00:20:18] Marc Gonyea: See, you, you, wait, so you tell me when you’re working from your house, you as a newbie, not a vet. 

[00:20:24] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:20:25] Marc Gonyea: You can’t; pasturing goes back and forth to people. 

[00:20:28] Jonathan Stevens: It’s not the same.

[00:20:29] Marc Gonyea: It’s not the same.

[00:20:29] Jonathan Stevens: It’s not as fun. It’s worth it to come in, in, guys, especially when you go to go out to lunch with your buddies and have a good time and bullshit about work. I mean, it’s fun. 

[00:20:37] Marc Gonyea: It’s not forever. 

[00:20:38] Jonathan Stevens: No, it’s not forever. It’s a very short amount of time, really,

[00:20:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[00:20:40] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, it’s crazy to look back. I only worked in that office for eight months, and it feels like such a fork-in-the-road moment in my life, but it was a really small, actually finite amount of time.

[00:20:50] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm. 

[00:20:51] You didn’t choose, so it’s

[00:20:53] Marc Gonyea: You giving me chills; think about all those guys, it’s, right,

[00:20:56] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. Great time. 

[00:20:57] Marc Gonyea: Mo, Hasbini, Hasbini. 

[00:20:59] Jonathan Stevens: Nick Heim was in my wedding 

[00:21:00] Marc Gonyea: The prime-time kind. 

[00:21:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. Prime-time kind. Ben Davis, Fel, Neil. Wow. Dick Should. 

[00:21:11] Marc Gonyea: And Decowski,

[00:21:13] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, it was fun.

[00:21:14] Marc Gonyea: What was it like getting on the phone, learning on that part of the business, the outbound game?

[00:21:19] Jonathan Stevens: You know, because I think I had that, that earlier experience, it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as it would’ve been if I just came in fresh because they, they just buttered you up, and yeah, what was it? 42 days of training, or something like that,

[00:21:32] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:32] Jonathan Stevens: Which is, like, nuts 

[00:21:33] Marc Gonyea: The first 42. 

[00:21:34] Jonathan Stevens: So, I mean, you just felt prepared by the time it actually counted, you know, it’s like, I already studied the playbook, like, I know it’s coming, like, I’ve proven I can do it, just trust yourself, and, and it kind of developed that way, I would say.

[00:21:47] Chris Corcoran: I, I would say I remember, what I remember very vividly about you was you really embraced the client, and like, dove right in, loved the space, that technology you were incredibly curious. 

[00:21:59] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:21:59] Chris Corcoran: So, talk a little bit about that ’cause some people don’t, don’t make that investment. 

[00:22:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, I mean, so I was actually assigned two clients on my first day. CyrusOne is the one that I know I still work for eight years later. The other one was InfoCepts,

[00:22:12] Marc Gonyea: InfoCepts. 

[00:22:13] Jonathan Stevens: there could have been more of a, of, it’s like dichotomy between the two, I mean, one, I just had absolutely no interest in never learning anything about it was

[00:22:21] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:21] Jonathan Stevens: incredibly complex, I mean, to be frank, the, uh, 

[00:22:26] Marc Gonyea: Very difficult going on, 

[00:22:27] Jonathan Stevens: very difficult, the,

[00:22:28] Marc Gonyea: very difficult.

[00:22:29] Jonathan Stevens: the, the people involved in the account that worked for the company weren’t as friendly and as amenable as the folks who are at CyrusOne, but really what did it for me, and for CyrusOne, we’re a colocation company, which is the technical term for outsource data center leasing, and I had never heard the word colocation in my life before, before memoryBlue, I, I really had no idea what it meant, I was like, are we selling soda? Like, what is this, like, um, colo, but Stu, uh, Stu Dyer brought

[00:22:59] Marc Gonyea: Stu Dyer.

[00:23:00] Jonathan Stevens: Ryan Hasbini and I to the grand opening, the groundbreaking ceremony, sorry, of the very first data center for CyrusOne in north Virginia. 

[00:23:08] Chris Corcoran: Wow. 

[00:23:08] Jonathan Stevens: And 

[00:23:09] Marc Gonyea: You see it all the time. 

[00:23:10] Jonathan Stevens: that is what really did it for me because I was like, this is huge, this, there’s so many important people here, this is, like, has to be a hundred millions of dollars of projects.

[00:23:20] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:23:21] Jonathan Stevens: Whoever sells this is gonna be making a lot of money. And I also just thought it was cool. I mean, the buildings are cool. If you get to go in for the first time, you’ve never been in one, and it’s, they’re enormous, the scale is very tremendously impressive.

[00:23:33] Marc Gonyea: Oh, let’s talk about that though, ’cause, you know, you’re taking a couple things for granted real quick.

[00:23:37] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:23:37] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re on CyrusOne, right?

[00:23:39] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:23:39] Marc Gonyea: And what do they do? 

[00:23:41] Jonathan Stevens: We sell data center space.

[00:23:42] Marc Gonyea: Data center space to who, what does that mean? People don’t know what that means. 

[00:23:46] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. So, we, we outsource companies’ data centers, you know, in our facility. So, like, let’s just say, you know, folks have their server racks, like, have you seen anything like Silicon Valley, that guy with the old badge that looks like something when he was, he took it when he was 25, and he’s been in that server room for 20 years, like, that is what we do as a company, and we just take that, and you can rent the space from us, and we own-operate, we power the building for you, keep it secure, keep it connected to the internet, 

[00:24:13] Marc Gonyea: Keep it cool. 

[00:24:13] Jonathan Stevens: keep it safe, keep it cool, all that. We take all the operational liability off of you and allow you to scale up and down at your own pace; it’s much easier to operate that way, frankly. 

[00:24:23] Marc Gonyea: And people drive by these big buildings 

[00:24:25] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, there are 

[00:24:26] Chris Corcoran: one on there and  

[00:24:27] Jonathan Stevens: They wonder what it is, and a lot of ’em aren’t even labeled, and they wonder what it is, like, it looks like a Costco, but what is that? And it’s a data center. 

[00:24:33] Marc Gonyea: Yes. 

[00:24:34] Jonathan Stevens: So, like, we are, we have sites that are 670,000 square feet, and to give you some context and average, Costco is like 125,000, 150,000 square feet. So, your buildings are three or four size, times the size of a Costco, you know, and it, and they’re just completely filled with servers, 

[00:24:50] Chris Corcoran: Computers from, from floor to ceiling, floor to ceiling racks, racks, racks, racks. 

[00:24:55] Jonathan Stevens: Yep. 

[00:24:55] Marc Gonyea: So, you would the, one of the groundbreaking,

[00:24:56] Jonathan Stevens: I got to go to that. And then, I got to go on a tour of some other ones, and I realized, like, this is, this is what I wanna do. I, I think this is awesome. I can learn about this.

[00:25:04] Chris Corcoran: I think, I think it’s also because you had all this perspective, one at the ERP services company that you worked with prior, then you had the opportunity to be on two different clients. 

[00:25:12] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:25:12] Chris Corcoran: And you saw it very quickly.

[00:25:14] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:25:15] Chris Corcoran: Hey, whoa, this CyrusOne thing is different than the other two, a lot different. I like the people, 

[00:25:20] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:25:20] Chris Corcoran: and I love the solution. 

[00:25:22] Jonathan Stevens: Totally.

[00:26:12] Chris Corcoran: you ended up deciding to leave Northern Virginia. 

[00:26:18] Jonathan Stevens: We did. So.

[00:26:19] Chris Corcoran: Talk a little bit about that and how that whole thing manifested.

[00:26:21] Marc Gonyea: You’re working your job there, but who’s your DM? 

[00:26:24] Jonathan Stevens: My DM was Ben Decowski.

[00:26:25] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:26] Jonathan Stevens: And then, ended up transitioning to Nimit,

[00:26:28] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:26:29] Jonathan Stevens: and that was at the time when memoryBlue, you guys just had one office, and I think sometime in June or July of 2014, there was a, a huddle with the whole company, and Nimit had mentioned that we were gonna be opening a new office in Austin, Texas. And at the time, I was like, “Oh, that’s cool,” for all the people that go out there, like, there’s a bunch of folks that all sat around, me in particular,

[00:26:53] they’re like, “Yeah, I’m going, I’m going, I’m gonna do that, this sounds fun.” None of ’em came. They never, none of them, they all backed out. Every single one of them. But I, my first thing that popped into my head, I was like, “Oh, CyrusOne’s based in Texas.” Like, they have nine facilities out there, and they only have one here,

[00:27:10] you know if I showed some interest in potentially moving there, like, I’ve probably have a much better chance to get hired out there. So, I, I talked to my girlfriend about it, and now my wife, at the time, we’ve been together this whole time, and she actually had an older brother that lived in Austin at one point, had, he didn’t anymore,

[00:27:27] but so, she had been there, and she was already planning to move up from Chesapeake to Northern Virginia. And she, I was like, “Well, what do you think about this?” She was like, “Well, let’s go, let’s try it out. The worst that happens is we don’t like it; we can come back; we’re both from great families; let us live in the basement.” Which is true.

[00:27:42] So, I was like, I went to, to you guys and to Nimit, and said, “I would like to go,” and Cyrus was totally fine with it, they let me go out there, and it worked out awesome, and we moved to Austin about eight years and one month ago from now. So, it’s nuts.

[00:27:59] Marc Gonyea: What a great time to move here. 

[00:28:00] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, it’s changed a lot since then. It’s still awesome. I’m not gonna be one of those people that, oh, the old Austin was way better, it’s still a phenomenal place to live, everyone that’s here now, you’re gonna love it, it’s awesome. Yeah, it was just different, there’s less people, then wasn’t as popular as it is. So, things were easier to do. It was easier to get a reservation. It was easier to get out on the water. It was easier to get a tee time on the weekends, but it’s still tremendously fun now. 

[00:28:23] Chris Corcoran: What was it like opening up the office? 

[00:28:27] Jonathan Stevens: It was different, I mean, there was seven of us, which, how many did we have in HQ back then? 

[00:28:33] Chris Corcoran: 50, maybe.

[00:28:34] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah. Maybe. 

[00:28:35] Jonathan Stevens: And we had, you know, Nimit was only 24 at the time; it wasn’t like he was some old established businessperson. So, for him to command the presence of everybody was not as easy as I think he might’ve anticipated, but we had they only let people go that were established and successful on their account,

[00:28:51] so it wasn’t like anybody could just sign up and get out there, right? But I, you know, I was out there, purpose-driven, I was hoping to eventually get a, get an offer and try a new place to live, and I, you know, I went into with open arms, and it worked out very well.

[00:29:06] Chris Corcoran: And do you remember how did the whole, the whole thing manifest?

[00:29:11] Jonathan Stevens: What do you mean?

[00:29:12] Chris Corcoran: The offer.

[00:29:13] Jonathan Stevens: The offer?

[00:29:14] Marc Gonyea: For Cyrus. Yeah. 

[00:29:16] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. So, I was there; We started in August 2014; they actually left memoryBlue, I think around October or something like that. So, that was a real kick to the, kick to the gut.

[00:29:29] Marc Gonyea: This is this email. 

[00:29:30] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:29:31] Chris Corcoran: This is, so this is October, and you had moved. 

[00:29:34] Jonathan Stevens: I had moved to Austin, you know, thinking, all right, this is why I’m doing it, I’m hoping to work here. 

[00:29:38] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.

[00:29:39] Jonathan Stevens: And I’m in Texas already. And then, the company, the marketing budget gets bold, and they had to leave, they had to leave the,

[00:29:46] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:47] which was devastating for me at the time. I’m like, “Now, what am I doing?” So, I get assigned to a couple other accounts that I’m, again, like, very passive about not really putting in my full effort,

[00:29:56] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. 

[00:29:56] Jonathan Stevens: at all, just because I’m hoping in the back of my head, well, maybe they’ll come back for me type of thing, and, and luckily for me, they did do that, and I started there full-time in January of 2015. 

[00:30:07] Marc Gonyea: I wanna,

[00:30:08] Jonathan Stevens: So, kind of

[00:30:08] Marc Gonyea: I wanna give you a shout-out. So, talk to you real quick. 

[00:30:11] Jonathan Stevens: Go ahead. 

[00:31:05] Marc Gonyea: So, when they left, so, we work in a difficult space, right? We do outbound campaigns for mostly all tech, mostly emerging tech. Even if it’s mature tech, is still very difficult, there sometimes, it doesn’t work. 

[00:31:20] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:31:21] Marc Gonyea: Sometimes clients decide to spend their money elsewhere or come back later, and when these guys left, you wrote, when Sarah spun left, they have to send a cancellation notice in, and this is what I think one of your strengths, ’cause you’re so genuine and sincere, and that shines through, like, you’re committed to something,

[00:31:35] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:31:36] Marc Gonyea: right, you take stuff serious, and I think that’s sincerity is what makes you an effective, probably person and a leader at your company now. You wrote them this epic email about the Chris and I tried to find this morning, you know, you were disappointed they were leaving, but here’s, you know, you knew you, if I could recall, like, was he saying things like, you gave it your all, and you enjoyed working with him, you just wrote a heartfelt legit email that resonated as man, this guy really cared about the work he was doing.

[00:32:07] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:32:08] Marc Gonyea: Like, and most people don’t have that level of commitment to what they’re in, I mean, you were in it, and you’re describing it, but you were in it, you were doing an exceptional job, programs come, and programs go sometimes. 

[00:32:17] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:32:18] Marc Gonyea: And that probably left the mark, too. All the work you did. And then, that note, people don’t get emails like that, and was it, Fred?

[00:32:25] Jonathan Stevens: Fred.

[00:32:26] Marc Gonyea: I’m pretty sure Fred wrote his back and said, “Hey, like, we’re gonna come, we want to come back. We wanna figure out a way to work with you guys again somehow, or” like, do that just, like, you can’t walk away from stuff like that, ignoring it. 

[00:32:37] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:32:37] Marc Gonyea: So, you were doing that, and then, so, so what happened? So, then you were on other work after they left?

[00:32:43] Jonathan Stevens: Oh, I was on other work, and, and then I got a call from Stu that they were, they opened up some headcount for me that, created it out something that didn’t exist, and he had helped convince Fred and the rest of the company that look, we, you know, this is somebody that we just, we foolish not to hire this person, which is weird for me to say, and I don’t, like, talk by myself, but that’s, basically, what, what they had communicated to.

[00:33:03] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. They should probably pass around that email. 

[00:33:05] Marc Gonyea: Well, they saw your work ethic. 

[00:33:07] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:33:07] Marc Gonyea: And your effort and your production and that email about how much you cared. Then you also had, you had Stu. And Stu was happy for you. 

[00:33:13] Jonathan Stevens: I was good. I did a great job for them. I mean, they, I found a couple clients, one, you know, I can talk about that was water burger, that we have all of their infrastructure now in our buildings that came, originated off a cold call for me that, you know, was, ended up being like a 2.5 million deal.

[00:33:27] I thought that was 

[00:33:28] Chris Corcoran: Hold on a second, you had cold call that resulted a deal

[00:33:32] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:33:32] Chris Corcoran: that’s 2.5 million dollars? 

[00:33:34] Jonathan Stevens: Yes. So. 

[00:33:35] Chris Corcoran: That’ll get people’s attention. 

[00:33:36] Jonathan Stevens: It got people’s attention, you know, I wanted to work there, and I was effective, and I knew, I knew that I was effective. So, I, I used my leverage to my advantage, and they came back and created a position for me that, that didn’t exist.

[00:33:48] And I was the youngest person in the sales organization by, like, ten years, 12 years, and I actually still am to this day, and even though I’ve been there for eight years, so it’s, you know, I really did work out pretty nicely for me. I’ll have to say. 

[00:34:02] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. 

[00:34:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:34:03] Chris Corcoran: So, talk to the listeners a little bit about what your job is there. What do you do? 

[00:34:06] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, so I manage everything that we do through partners. So, to simplify it as easily as I can, when you buy or sell a house, you use a real estate agent, and that same person, that same function exists in our business, there’s third parties that their whole purpose as an entity is to represent users in the data center buying process.

[00:34:27] And I go out and solicit those companies, maintain relationships with them, try to get them to bring their clients to CyrusOne; in exchange, we pay them a commission that can has a lot of different levels of variance. 

[00:34:39] Chris Corcoran: Are these agents or they’re?

[00:34:40] Jonathan Stevens: They’re agents, they’re real estate brokers. They can be VA.

[00:34:43] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:34:43] Jonathan Stevens: Traditionally, more real estate brokers than agents. 

[00:34:46] Chris Corcoran: Okay. Okay.

[00:34:46] So, the word channel that people might see this on, you know, a superficial level, an ordinarily means in most software sales that you’re white labeling a service and reselling it under one big umbrella, like a company, like, CDW 

[00:34:58] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:58] Jonathan Stevens: will have hundreds and thousands of different things underneath their portfolio that they resell to end users because they already have MSAs in place, and they just tack on a little fee, 

[00:35:08] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm. 

[00:35:09] Jonathan Stevens: and they make their money that way. For us, it’s different because we’re still contracting directly with the end user, with the customer; we’re just paying this middleman a fee. So, that’s kind of what my job is, 

[00:35:19] Chris Corcoran: I see. 

[00:35:19] Jonathan Stevens: and the hard reality of it is that our, you know, the leaders, our executives, not just at CyrusOne, but everywhere are not particularly fond that this job function exists at all. They would much rather work directly with the customer and not have to pay these sometimes ridiculously high tariffs, but the reality is these people, some of them are very effective at what they do, they’re, they do a great job, and they’re ingrained in the industry, and they’re a reality, and we have to be able to deal with them, and it’s my job to do that, so.

[00:35:49] Chris Corcoran: I got a question for you, so.

[00:35:50] Marc Gonyea: That’s very good articulation. 

[00:35:51] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. It’s very fantastic. So, you, you’ll probably be able to handle this flawlessly, but what if I’m an agent or an end user? What differentiates one data center from the other, right? It’s all, isn’t it just real estate and power and internet?

[00:36:09] Yeah. 

[00:36:09] There got more to it, right? Just explain to it, and because you have to convince it, the agency, you have to convince the end users that there’s some differences, right? 

[00:36:17] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I mean, that really depends, particularly on, on what the customer requirement is,

[00:36:23] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:36:23] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, to answer that, you know, just with a blanket is very difficult,

[00:36:27] Chris Corcoran: Sure. 

[00:36:27] but, you know, we, we specialize in real high-density environments. So, if companies are coming in that are looking to, you know, I’m gonna use much of words that people may not understand,

[00:36:37] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.

[00:36:38] Jonathan Stevens: but if they’re looking to pack a lot of kilowatts into a specific rack, let’s say on an average, we have the amount of that, that’s the amount of power that we’re, that you’re putting into a compute environment,

[00:36:47] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:36:47] Jonathan Stevens: that’s, to give additional context, that’s the main way that ourselves and all of our competitors monetize the business. So, we appraise a deal based on how much power we’re selling to somebody,

[00:36:56] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:36:56] Jonathan Stevens: not necessarily how much space they’re taking, 

[00:36:58] Chris Corcoran: Oh, really?

[00:36:58] Jonathan Stevens: but how much power there is?

[00:37:00] Marc Gonyea: Interesting. 

[00:37:00] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. So, if we’re, let’s say this water bottle heals, here’s a single rack, and we normally put five racks in it, we fill it up with water to about here, our company specializes it in filling it up all the way to the top, and we can stuff 80 racks in, and cool it, and be very productive and efficient.

[00:37:15] And we’re able to keep the PUE, the building down, which is a number for power usage efficiency that we also use to compute what their bill is gonna be each month. So, that number, the lower that PUE is, that factors into the ultimate equation for how we come up with how much we’re gonna get them to spend with us.

[00:37:33] And it’s very effective that way. So, we also have, you know, it can really depend. I think if I had a specific requirement in front of me, I’d be able to tell you, but we have customers that will take one or two racks like this, like these two water bottles, or they’ll take an entire building.

[00:37:49] Jonathan Stevens: They’re taking an entire data hall, they take a whole campus or take multiple campuses, multiple markets. 

[00:37:54] Marc Gonyea: Geez. 

[00:37:54] Jonathan Stevens: So, it’s, it really depends. I mean, our, our size, our sales team is bifurcated into a cloud, and our enterprise team, and our cloud team probably brings in 70% to 80% of the revenue for the company, but it’s only through 25 customers.

[00:38:10] Marc Gonyea: Oh, wow.

[00:38:11] Jonathan Stevens: And it’s all the folks that you guys have all heard of,

[00:38:14] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:38:14] Jonathan Stevens: You know, I can, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, we can talk publicly about this,

[00:38:17] Marc Gonyea: Sure.

[00:38:18] Jonathan Stevens: but they take an enormous amount of space. They’ll buy an entire building. Those companies build their own data centers, but all of the spillover and their quick needs, they have customers of their own that need, so their right away, they’ll come to CyrusOne and our competitors for that,

[00:38:30] and those are the biggest deals in the industry for us, that being said, the rest of it, you know, those other, we have 1200 customers, those other 1175 that we have in the portfolio are still good, valuable deals, right, for more regular salespeople, right? 

[00:38:44] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:38:45] Jonathan Stevens: And that we can make a lot of money off of, so that’s what the rest of us chase, and it’s only, like I said, 30% of the revenue, and we have more sales people on the enterprise team than we do on the other team, but it’s, you know, we can, we have a lot of diversity to go after a lot of different companies,

[00:38:59] Chris Corcoran: I see.

[00:38:59] Jonathan Stevens: in that sense. 

[00:39:00] Chris Corcoran: Interesting.

[00:39:00] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:39:00] Chris Corcoran: And so, these agents and these real estate brokers in these bars, are you doing that in the state of Texas, across North America?

[00:39:06] Jonathan Stevens: I do that nationally for the company and

[00:39:08] Chris Corcoran: Okay. 

[00:39:09] Jonathan Stevens: occasionally in Europe, as well, if we have

[00:39:11] Chris Corcoran: Okay.

[00:39:11] Jonathan Stevens: things that take us there, but I, I do it for, for the whole company. 

[00:39:16] Chris Corcoran: I see. And how do you find out who these people are? These agents and these programs? 

[00:39:19] Jonathan Stevens: Um, a lot, I mean, I, I’ve been there for a while,

[00:39:22] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.

[00:39:22] Jonathan Stevens: and the good ones are, are constantly attached to high dollar opportunities, they have their reputations

[00:39:27] Chris Corcoran: Sure. 

[00:39:27] Jonathan Stevens: that are, that make them valuable, but I think part of what makes me effective is that the other side of that, the agents that are working with, maybe up star companies that are, that have potential to, to grow into large customers one day, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of

[00:39:43] gray area, and, and there’s some looseness with how we accept the registration, which for the listeners, our registration is our commitment to compensate somebody in exchange for a deal. Once we give a registration out, that’s our word, like, okay, we’re gonna pay you on this,

[00:39:58] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:58] Jonathan Stevens: no matter what happens. So, once I say that, I can’t really go back on it,

[00:40:02] Chris Corcoran: Right. 

[00:40:02] Jonathan Stevens: and I’m, I’ve done a good job being very careful and in how we deliver those, but there’s a lot of, you know, some people are nefarious, some are honest, you really have to kind of evaluate each person and use your best judgment to figure out 

[00:40:16] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:17] Jonathan Stevens: is this person really connected to this account, or do they just hear about this at a cocktail party, and they’re trying to get paid on it, 

[00:40:22] Chris Corcoran: Right. 

[00:40:22] Jonathan Stevens: like, so, you never know, unless you learn through experience, but I, that’s, definitely, a major part of my role is just evaluating that and making sure that the integrity of the company is protected and we’re making the right choice.

[00:40:33] Chris Corcoran: Wow. Okay. 

[00:40:34] Marc Gonyea: I gotta think, you’ve been doing it so long, you have to, so, and you’re so passionate about it, you have so much knowledge. 

[00:40:40] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:40:41] Marc Gonyea: The space. 

[00:40:41] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I do, I mean, negotiate the agreements with our legal team, like I, I know where we’re pliable and where we’re not, you know, where we have vulnerabilities where we can maybe offer a little bit more, and what our company wants to try to protect for ourselves, which is what we’ll give up what we want. So, yeah, it’s just things that I’ve learned over the years, right, that would be tough, which has also kind of insulated me and make me stay at the company because I have all this knowledge that won’t be immediately useful elsewhere. I’m sure it could, would eventually translate, but that’s kind of where it is today; hopefully, that all makes sense for you guys.

[00:41:15] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. I’m, I’m fascinated with the space ’cause I kind of got my start in kind of the hosting 

[00:41:21] Jonathan Stevens: Mm-hmm. 

[00:41:21] Chris Corcoran: internet space would, 

[00:41:23] Marc Gonyea: Fractional T1’s. 

[00:41:24] Chris Corcoran: yeah, and a lot of the, my coworkers at the time have gravitated to this space, and what I’ve found is that man, once people are in this space, like you and you start, have put a couple years in that space, it’s very rare that people get outta that business. 

[00:41:38] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:41:38] Chris Corcoran: Talk a little bit why do you think that is.

[00:41:40] Jonathan Stevens: I think because, I mean, just to be honest, it’s just, the deals are worth a lot of money. 

[00:41:45] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. 

[00:41:45] Jonathan Stevens: So, you can get paid very well, and once you know what you’re doing, then everyone else wants you to work there as well because it’s, takes so long to train somebody and have them learn how the business works. So, you’re kind of just, you’re protected from that sense; you’re in a cocoon that is allowing you to stay in the industry because you have all this knowledge, and it’s not, I mean, a lot of it is very physical, too, I mean, I can walk through the buildings and explain all the different elements, the power elements, the, where exactly the water’s coming from that is used to cool the sites,

[00:42:15] Chris Corcoran: Yep. 

[00:42:16] Jonathan Stevens: and all these things that just, like, takes a long time to learn, but ultimately it comes down to, you know, these deals are worth a lot of money, and it’s nice to be attached to that. And then, your buyers will stay at the same place or will go to new companies, and you have that relationship, 

[00:42:30] Chris Corcoran: Yep.

[00:42:30] Jonathan Stevens: and now I think things that you guys likely preach, I mean, people buy from folks who they can trust at the end of the day that are, you know, and for us that’s, that trust gets tested to the absolute max, it’s, you know, we are giving you the crown jewels of our business to make sure you can keep this on and connected,

[00:42:47] and nobody comes in, you know, that’s the ultimate sign of trust, right? So, we, 

[00:42:52] Marc Gonyea: Sure.

[00:42:52] Jonathan Stevens: you know, that’s what it is, and we prove and deliver on that, that we can keep it, while it’s easy to get repeat business, it’s easy to get them to expand in different markets, 

[00:43:00] Marc Gonyea: You shouldn’t say easy.

[00:43:01] It’s,

[00:43:02] Marc Gonyea: If you do all these things and it’s easier,

[00:43:04] Jonathan Stevens: it’s easier.

[00:43:05] Chris Corcoran: And not to mention, I mean, the whole data center’s space has been expanding so rapidly, and I don’t see it slowing down. Data is exploding. 

[00:43:14] Jonathan Stevens: No, it’s not gonna slow down. 

[00:43:15] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Right. 

[00:43:16] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I don’t, I mean, I don’t know, it’s utility at this point, 

[00:43:18] Chris Corcoran: Right.

[00:43:19] Jonathan Stevens: right, so it’s, at the end of the day, the internet is a very physical place, you know, we, we make the internet happen, us and our peers in the space, that’s really what it is, I mean, the internet is connected underground, I mean, there’s cables that are, go across the ocean to connect to London, I mean, it’s not just magic. 

[00:43:37] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. 

[00:43:37] Jonathan Stevens: So, if anyone’s out there and wants to burn some YouTube rabbit holes, go watch “transatlantic cable repair” on YouTube and see how cool that is. Some of you might laugh at me for that, but others are gonna think it’s pretty fun.

[00:43:48] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. It’s pretty impressive how they go down to the depths of the ocean and just repair a yard that’s broken, that’s not able to, to connect anymore, but yeah, and that kind of all just wraps envelopes, how it, how I feel about it, it’s just super interesting to me, and it’s fun, and I, that’s, I think, fueled my motivation and allowed me to find a little bit of success here. 

[00:44:09] Very good. What about, what do you think about the channel? How do you like the channel? 

[00:44:13] Jonathan Stevens: I mean, the channel is a interesting, you know, for me, it’s different. I like the amount of responsibility that I have, particularly in this job. I think direct sales is probably better for most people, you, you, you have more responsibility, and you’re, you’re paid better. You are counted on to provide direct revenue, but there’s also a lot more pressure. So, keep that in mind, as well. I’ve just kind of found my way into this by accident

[00:44:37] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, really?

[00:44:37] Jonathan Stevens: because I started that way. 

[00:44:38] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. It’s not like they invented a position there. 

[00:44:39] Jonathan Stevens: No, they, they can, they created a spot for me on an existing team, and that’s really all I’ve known in my career to this point. 

[00:44:46] Chris Corcoran: Yep. 

[00:44:46] Jonathan Stevens: Do I think I can move into that job? Yes. I’ve had opportunities to do that, but this has allowed me to participate on things all over the country, and with a lot of different varieties of accounts, I’ve been able to learn a lot as opposed to just sticking to one specific territory that could have been very lucrative, right? If we get, we have some major customers that, you know, a lot of our folks are great, and, but some of the times, you know, they just get a call, “Hey, we wanna buy another building,” you know, it’s not like they did a whole lot for that, but okay.

[00:45:13] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, well, here we go.

[00:45:16] Chris Corcoran: I’m not gonna say no.

[00:45:17] Jonathan Stevens: You can really, you know, you can convince somebody, you can knock on someone’s door and convince them that they need a vacuum cleaner, and you can convince them to buy from you, but creating a data center need out of thin air is very difficult.

[00:45:27] Chris Corcoran: Right.

[00:45:27] You can convince somebody to buy things out of scarcity, you know, right, if you can say that this space is not gonna be here, then it’s not gonna be available next year. So, you might need it for that standpoint, but you can’t just convince them that to have a need that they don’t have.

[00:45:40] Chris Corcoran: Right. 

[00:45:41] Jonathan Stevens: It has to be something within the foundation of the company that creates it, but we’ve done a really good job positioning ourselves to be available when those notifications come out. 

[00:45:49] Marc Gonyea: Wow. Yeah. So, you’ve been doing this basically since you got outta school, right?

[00:45:54] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, basically, I mean, it’s really the only job I’ve had, so.

[00:45:58] Marc Gonyea: Wild, versus a little intern break from when they left, when they converted you.

[00:46:02] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:46:02] Marc Gonyea: What type of advice would you have for yourself? You know, knowing what you know now, like the night before you started at memoryBlue, or maybe the night before you started at the ERP-related firm?

[00:46:12] Jonathan Stevens: You know, advice for myself, 

[00:46:14] Marc Gonyea: The John.

[00:46:14] Jonathan Stevens: I, I can’t pretend like I, I ever thought this would’ve happened to me. So, I don’t think I would change anything, very fortunate in that sense, you know, I never would’ve ever expected to be able to make the type of money that I’ve made at my age, or even be involved in, like, have a valuable position like this, where people have a lot of respect for me.

[00:46:35] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:35] Jonathan Stevens: At this age, it’s, you know, so I, I can’t, there’s nothing I would point to, like, I wish I did this different, ’cause it all kind of worked out how I hoped,

[00:46:43] which hadn’t happened really that many times at all in my life to that point.

[00:46:46] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:47] Jonathan Stevens: So, this is an example that I can actually say, alright, I really, I really busted my ass for this.

[00:46:51] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[00:46:51] Jonathan Stevens: I wanted it, and I got it, and it’s worked out as well as I could’ve hoped for, but I, I mean, advice for other folks, I would definitely say, just take chances and use the company for what it’s designed for.

[00:47:04] So, if you wanna, if you’re here just to make a couple of dollars and have fun and do that, you can do that, but if you wanna find a career that you might not have known existed at all, this is the place to come, I think that’s more for folks that are considering

[00:47:17] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm. 

[00:47:17] Jonathan Stevens: coming here that might not already be here. I think a lot of the folks now, especially memoryBlue’s bland brand is very well known now, compared to what it was eight years ago when I was there,

[00:47:26] Marc Gonyea: Right. 

[00:47:26] Jonathan Stevens: people understand, but for the folks that are on the fence, deciding whether to come here, go work for Oracle, or something like that, you know, you have a lot more opportunity to learn what you might be interested in, here,

[00:47:38] and you can get a real springboard to something that’s very lucrative quickly. So, that, that would be my advice is just to follow that, you know, if you go work for a big shop, you’re competing with so many folks, and that’s another thing with this, like, I, I don’t really have a lot of internal competition, you know, it’s not hard to separate yourself when you’re one of one, right, I’m the first and last at any given point,

[00:47:58] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm. 

[00:47:59] Jonathan Stevens: but when you work at a big shop, like Oracle or Microsoft, or something that, and you’re on one of those teams, SAP, and there’s 1500 salespeople, all of a sudden, it’s a lot more difficult to separate yourself, I’m not saying it’s not impossible, but it’s certainly a lot more difficult.

[00:48:14] Whereas you come to memoryBlue and you have a couple of, you’re competing with a couple folks internally on your same account, you know, you can be the best out of four or five or ten, or even if you’re not the best, sometimes they hire all four people, right? 

[00:48:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:48:26] Jonathan Stevens: So, it’s, it’s a really great place, and obviously, that’s evidenced by how successful you guys have been in the last eight years. 

[00:48:32] Marc Gonyea: Thank you for saying that. 

[00:48:33] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:48:33] Curiosity, you know, it definitely sounds like when you’re engaged with something, you learn about it, like, what do you do now to kind of learn about space? 

[00:48:41] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I constantly listen to Data Center Podcast or just surround myself with smart people and try to figure out. I think the best advice I would give is, “ Try to figure out the people in your company.” That, for one reason or another, are the ones that just know things first, that know when things are gonna change and what things might be coming, positively or negatively. And that person doesn’t always wear the same mask, they could be somebody in accounting, and they could be somebody in this, on the sales team, on the engineering team,

[00:49:15] you know, people have different levels of impacting the success of a company, and they can come from different places, but those high-impact people are typically the ones that get ideas bounced off of them first. And if you’re close to those folks, then you can know what’s coming down the pipe and how to position yourself, and it’s really useful. 

[00:49:32] Chris Corcoran: So, what da, data center podcasts, or is there one or two, like?

[00:49:35] Jonathan Stevens: Data Center Knowledge is one, Data Center World, there’s, if you just search data center in. Yeah. 

[00:49:43] No, I have a question for you. So, do you work with solutions engineers, or 

[00:49:46] Jonathan Stevens: Yes.

[00:49:47] Chris Corcoran: you do,

[00:49:47] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:49:47] Chris Corcoran: in, in, in, talk about how you work with those folks in, how you may not be as reliant on them as you may be now that you’ve got so much experience.

[00:49:57] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, I mean, that’s a great example of the folks I was talking about there, I mean, the, the solution engineers, a lot of the times, the good ones are gonna be the ones that are aware of changes, especially for us, for inventory is the biggest thing in all data center companies right now, we’re really constrained by the supply chain.

[00:50:11] Our ability to deliver new space is impacted because all the mechanical equipment that we need to deliver that is, you know, 2, 3, 4 years down the line where it would be typically. 

[00:50:23] Chris Corcoran: Wow.

[00:50:23] Jonathan Stevens: So, we’re waiting, and that’s created a, a market. 

[00:50:27] Marc Gonyea: Years?

[00:50:27] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, some of it. 

[00:50:28] Marc Gonyea: Wow. 

[00:50:29] Jonathan Stevens: So, it’s gonna be a challenging next couple of years, definitely. 

[00:50:34] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, but I, I think those solutions engineers, if you wanna be on their good sides, like they, they need to see that you’re trying to do as much as you possibly can by yourself before you ask them for help. 

[00:50:43] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. That’s it. 

[00:50:44] Marc Gonyea: I mean, that’s kind of what it comes down to, and is, if they,

[00:50:46] Chris Corcoran: Very well said.

[00:50:46] Marc Gonyea: if they see that you’re appreciating, that you’re putting in the effort and, like, wanna learn and not, you know, if they’re explaining something to you or completing component in RFP that you’ve never done before if it’s obvious that you’re listening to them and trying to learn, so the next time this happens, you can do it yourself, they will put in so much more effort for you, and they’re much more likely to help you from them when you need an unrelated favor at a later point. 

[00:51:09] Yep.

[00:51:09] So, that, that is what I would say, like, take their advice, like, like it’s school, and you’re gonna learn, okay, you’re gonna teach me this once, I might come back with you a couple questions, but if you just get a document from somebody and forward it along and ask them to fill out things that they’ve done for you on your last four RFPs, they’re not gonna be too excited about working with you,

[00:51:28] and they’re gonna talk behind your back, and you’re gonna hear, “Oh, why does it take me two weeks to get this response back from Tom, when Carl gets it in three days,” like, that type of stuff happens, be, and that all comes back, I think circles around the likable factor, like, if you’re a likable person and you remember things about them, and you ask them about their life and treat them like a human,

[00:51:48] it’s gonna work out for you. They’re gonna be able to return that for you. You’re gonna be able to deliver things the way that you say you are, and you learn more, and they’re gonna want to help you, enable you to get more done.

[00:51:57] Chris Corcoran: And all those learnings through all those experiences, now, seven, eight years in, you’re far less reliant, I would think.

[00:52:03] Jonathan Stevens: Definitely far less reliant, but things are always changing. Sure. You always get a question. 

[00:52:08] Chris Corcoran: Your credibility has gotta be all close now with your agents and your brokers,

[00:52:12] Jonathan Stevens: For sure. 

[00:52:12] Chris Corcoran: your end users, because of all those experiences. 

[00:52:15] Jonathan Stevens: Yes. Yeah, it is; I would say it is. And I also have a lot of autonomy to make my own decisions, you know, authoritative decisions on things that we’re gonna do that, you know, in the past, I might have had to go to Fred, who’s still my boss, who’s our VP of Enterprise Sales. He trusts me to make, you know, decisions on behalf of the company or agrees agreements, you know, things that we might agree to or not agree to that he allows me to decide on, and, you know, that’s all from the experience, the empirical experience I’ve gained, as you mentioned.

[00:52:46] Chris Corcoran: Very good. 

[00:52:47] Marc Gonyea: So, where are you gonna go with this? Where’s this go? Where’s this? Tell us about the how’s the song gonna continue. 

[00:52:53] Jonathan Stevens: You know, I’m just in it for, I, I’m not really sure, I think I’ve developed a, an impressive network to this point, I know a lot of folks within the industry, and this job originally just kind of found me, and I knew that it was the right thing to do, and I think I could be here for another ten years, who knows? And it,

[00:53:13] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:13] but whatever I do next, I think, is literally something that I’ll just know when it’s there. I’m not really seeking it out unless something crazy happens to me, which I don’t, I don’t, I’m not particularly, don’t really think it would, but if it does, then I, I think I would couple phone calls and I would be able to find something, but I don’t have like a specific

[00:53:31] Jonathan Stevens: ambition, I mean, I, it’s just gonna work out for me, I don’t really know how to say it otherwise, like, if I find it if something’s gonna come to me and I’ll just know, alright, yeah, I think I’m gonna do that, I, that’s.

[00:53:43] Chris Corcoran: There’s like, you like, you like being quarterback of the buck ears,

[00:53:46] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:53:46] Chris Corcoran: right, you know, being the national channel guy.

[00:53:49] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:53:50] Chris Corcoran: Great.

[00:53:50] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. I mean, I run the channel for the whole company already, so it’s not, like, could I have some more people working underneath of us? Yeah. But we’re, I get to do a lot, and I don’t have a lot of responsibility of managing people underneath and that kind of get trusted to handle stuff, and it’s, we’re very lean sales staff as it is,

[00:54:05] we have only, like, eight or nine enterprise reps right now, which is uncharacteristically low, but it’s still, you know, we’re a lean company. Yeah, so I don’t, that’s a tough; I think about it a lot, but I, and I’m also like most people at my agent, don’t have this job, so it’s, it’s hard for me to compare at that point.

[00:54:23] Marc Gonyea: I mean, sure. 

[00:54:24] Jonathan Stevens: My peers at, uh, so much at other companies are, you know, much older. So, it’s, yeah. I don’t really know what to say, how to answer that one. 

[00:54:33] Marc Gonyea: No, no. I mean, 

[00:54:35] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:54:35] Marc Gonyea: You’re doing you’re, you’re doing your thing, right? You’re looking at the, what does Belichick say? We’re onto Cincinnati?

[00:54:42] Chris Corcoran: On Cincinnati.

[00:54:42] Marc Gonyea: On Cincinnati. Like, you’re on to, you know, to Cincinnati, you’re focused on getting things done for your company and doing as good a job as possible, again, that’s the best way to leads you down the road,

[00:54:51] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah.

[00:54:51] Marc Gonyea: people, right, that’s trying how we operate the business, right?

[00:54:55] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, I mean, it’s been really good to me, the work-life balance is great, the, the company is fantastic, we have a great brand, they’ve paid very well, I, I, I mean, when I initially started, it’s kind of slowed down since COVID, but I got to travel all over the country, I

[00:55:08] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm.

[00:55:09] Jonathan Stevens: only been on a plane a handful of times before I started. Now, I’ve been everywhere in the US. It was so fun, to begin with. So, it’s, and it’s still, you know, a lot of that’s still there, but I just kind of know what I’m doing a little bit more so I can be effective, but it’s, it’s been great. So, it’s amazing to see, you know, how far memoryBlue has come. In the same time, though, it’s, it was wild to walk in here today, to see this many people, it’s 

[00:55:32] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, it’s a nice office, huh?

[00:55:33] Jonathan Stevens: It is a nice office.

[00:55:34] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. It’s not as hot as the 

[00:55:35] Jonathan Stevens: Great location, too. 

[00:55:36] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:55:37] Jonathan Stevens: Even, even closer to downtown. It’s a nice spot right off of main road. Very cool. 

[00:55:41] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Very good. 

[00:55:42] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah. 

[00:55:42] Marc Gonyea: Thanks for coming his job. 

[00:55:44] Jonathan Stevens: Yeah, sure thing. 

[00:55:44] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, this was great, Mr. Stevens. We really appreciate it. 

[00:55:47] Jonathan Stevens: Thank you guys so much for having me.

[00:55:48] Chris Corcoran: Thank you, appreciate it.