Episode 110: Caroline Myers – Do What Others Won’t

While sales representative positions are considered entry-level jobs, that by no means makes them easy. Caroline Myers, now a successful account executive at ManagedMethods, can still attest to the challenges that come with playing such a critical role in the sales funnel. 

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Caroline shares her insights on navigating deeper conversations with prospects, her initial fear of the phone, and her experiences with working both remotely and in-person.  

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Caroline Myers

💡 What she does: Caroline is an account executive at ManagedMethods.

💡 Company: ManagedMethods

💡 Noteworthy: Caroline graduated from Virginia Tech, where she did a little bit of PR, then switched to marketing, and finally joined the sales program. Even before she went to college, Caroline did a few internships, and her first sales internship was at a home healthcare company called First Choice. In her senior year at college, Caroline came across memoryBlue at the sales career fair and started working as an SDR. She became a delivery manager and then moved to ManagedMethods, where she is an account executive.

💡 Where to find Caroline: Linkedin l Website

Key Insights

⚡Repeating the client’s words leads to a deeper conversation. SDRs are responsible for developing new business by contacting potential customers. SDRs usually contact prospects through email, LinkedIn, and cold calling. Every SDR has their own way of keeping the client connected, and Caroline points out that her superpower was active listening. “I got really good at just parroting back what people are saying. It seems easy to do, but I think it’s super underrated, and people forget to do it. It’s literally using their words against them. […] All you have to do is say what was just said to you. And it seems like anybody can repeat something, but that takes the conversation into a whole other route because that’s going to get them to talk more. So saying, ‘Oh, I don’t have time for this right now.’ When you say, ‘You don’t have time for that,’ and then ask a question, they’re going to go back into that conversation.”

⚡The sales force should work in the office. After realizing that she did not want to work in the healthcare or marketing industry, Caroline entered the technology industry and took a job as an SDR at memoryBlue. This was during the pandemic, and initially, she had to work from home. As she says, this job is not easy to do from home. “I was fully remote my first six months. It was difficult transitioning to that; it was the first time the world had been like that, but the support that I had through my teammates, my mentors, my manager — everybody was checking in on me throughout the day, so I never felt stranded on an island. But then once I moved to Denver, and we started coming back in the office, I was like, ‘This is the energy that the sales force needs.'”

⚡ As an account executive, you’re on the phone daily. From the role of a delivery manager at memoryBlue, Caroline moved to the role of an account executive at ManagedMethods. As she notes, coming out of the management role, the hardest thing for her was making daily calls. “That phone fear stays with you — there are just like day-to-day ups and downs — so getting back into it. But I think the biggest thing I took away is the consistency that memoryBlue taught me. memoryBlue doesn’t just teach you how to sell or how to be an AE; they teach you what it takes to be a great one because nobody’s doing what we’re doing. So while I’m not hammering out 150 dials anymore because I have other things to do, I’m still on the phone, daily, making sure I get things done.” 

Episode Highlights

The Delivery Manager Role

“It is the most fun, challenging role you could probably have. I learned so much. I learned how to have tough conversations; I learned what people do and do not like from a management perspective. It was just like going from the hiring process — I’d never hired anybody — to watching them get promoted. That was what I wanted to do. […]

A huge thing for me was creating a diverse team with different types of people, backgrounds, everything so that they could learn from each other. I didn’t want just one way to do something. While my way worked for me and the groundwork worked for everybody else, they still had their little nuances of how they wanted to do it, and I was there to support and encourage and kind of shine a light on that.”

What Is Caroline Looking for in an SDR?

“I’m looking for competition. So, we talk to a lot of athletes, but if you’re not athletic, were you fighting with your siblings for the middle seat? That’s a common story we got. I look for the toughest goal. Is it graduating college? And if that’s the case, why was that such a tough goal for you? Coming out of Northern Virginia, it’s almost expected for people to graduate and everything. So just understanding where people are coming from is huge. And then, I look for work ethic. Is this your first job? Is this your 10th job in a year? Like, what’s going on there? So, looking at the resume and figuring out why they want to do this.”

From memoryBlue to ManagedMethods

“In the delivery manager role, you’re looking at up to ten different clients at a time. As an SDR, I worked on three in ten months, so I wanted to be a DM to learn more about the industries that we can work with. And then my first client ManagedMethods came in, and worked tough, and had a goal and everything. I was able to produce good work for them, and a spot opened up on their team for me to be closer, and I was like, ‘I think I’m ready for this.’ My team has been promoted or hired out; I pretty much turned them all over in the year that I was here; so, it seemed a natural progression. […]

I’m selling a cybersecurity platform to public schools, and my territory is California. Basically, we’re looking at ways to prevent data loss and keep people safe online based on the files that they have; making sure social security numbers don’t get out; [and that there are] no adult images in school domains. Student safety is huge too, and that spoke volumes to me. I was working with all these different clients who were helping people on a day-to-day basis, but this was something that I could get really passionate about and get behind. And so now I’m basically a glorified SDR. I’m making my dials; I’m getting on the phone; I’m doing cold outbounds, but then I get to see it all the way through to that close.”

Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Caroline Myers: So, I would actually like get on the phones with my friends and see how my cadence was with them and talk to them like 10 minutes before blitz and then try to just keep that energy instead of like, “Hi, this is so and so. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

[00:00:13] That’s not how I talk. I’d be like, “Hey, this is Caroline. How are you today?” Like it just changes everything having an up tone or different inflections ’cause you are reading, but you don’t wanna seem like it. 

[00:00:25] Marc Gonyea: Caroline Myers back in the memoryBlue Denver office where it all began. 

[00:00:50] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:00:50] Marc Gonyea: In the great state of Colorado for you and for us. No. DC.

[00:00:54] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, the, she… the pride of Loudon County.

[00:00:58] Marc Gonyea: That’s right, you’re local. I didn’t know that. That I knew. Okay. A little jet lag still, you know, elevations getting through my head. 

[00:01:04] Caroline Myers: Yeah. 

[00:01:05] Marc Gonyea: Well, let’s kind of get into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself, for us and for the purposes of the listeners. 

[00:01:11] Caroline Myers: Mm-hmm. So my name is Caroline. I graduated from Virginia Tech. 

[00:01:15] Marc Gonyea: And where did you grow up? Talk about that. 

[00:01:16] Caroline Myers: Oh, I grew up in Fairfax and Loudon County. I moved in between middle school. I was a cheerleader throughout high school.

[00:01:24] So that’s kind of where I got my competitive energy. 

[00:01:26] Marc Gonyea: Competitive cheer, right? Yes? 

[00:01:28] Caroline Myers: High school and competitive. 

[00:01:29] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. People don’t know that. It’s legit.

[00:01:33] Caroline Myers: It’s a lot, it’s a lot. So, 

[00:01:35] I learned how to hustle from that. And then, I went to Virginia Tech. 

[00:01:39] Marc Gonyea: Well, what were you like? Let’s go back from this like so 

[00:01:41] siblings?

[00:01:42] Caroline Myers: Yes. I have an older sister who just had a baby making me an aunt for the first time. 

[00:01:47] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You were back in town for that. Get you to come by the office and do a fireside with the, with the SDRs. 

[00:01:54] Caroline Myers: And I’m always happy to hop back over there, so. 

[00:01:56] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. I know you go back to Virginia fairly often.

[00:01:58] But, and so, but you and a sister? 

[00:02:00] Caroline Myers: I have an older sister and a younger brother. 

[00:02:02] Marc Gonyea: Okay, so you’re the middle child? 

[00:02:04] Caroline Myers: I am the middle. 

[00:02:04] Marc Gonyea: Did you? Were you a competitive kid? What you think you wanted to be growing up when you were in high school? Where did you go to high school? 

[00:02:09] Caroline Myers: I went to Stone Bridge High School.

[00:02:10] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Okay. I got it. The Bulldogs, the go Bulldogs. There you go. 

[00:02:14] Caroline Myers: What did I wanna be? 

[00:02:16] What did you think you wanted to be? I wanted to be in a leadership position, and I wanted to make money. That was the goal 

[00:02:25] for me. 

[00:02:26] Marc Gonyea: Oh, okay. And, but you didn’t know… 

[00:02:28] Caroline Myers: But I didn’t know what that meant.

[00:02:30] Marc Gonyea: Anyone in tech sales growing up? 

[00:02:32] Caroline Myers: My dad works at Oracle. Um, so he was like on the sales engineering side. And then he just switched into hardware sales.

[00:02:41] I saw…

[00:02:42] Marc Gonyea: Recently or when you were growing up? 

[00:02:43] Caroline Myers: Recently. 

[00:02:44] Marc Gonyea: Oh, okay. Got it. Okay. So he joined, joined the dark side. 

[00:02:46] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:02:47] Marc Gonyea: Right. Okay. He probably has more credibility than all the sales guys.

[00:02:49] Right? ‘Cause he was in sales there before. Okay. Right. So you, but you weren’t sure on sales, you just knew… 

[00:02:55] Caroline Myers: I wasn’t sure. I went into college undecided. I was business minded. 

[00:02:59] Marc Gonyea: And where did you go to school? 

[00:03:01] Caroline Myers: Virginia Tech. 

[00:03:02] Marc Gonyea: Virginia Tech. Yes. Corcoran, talking about. 

[00:03:04] Caroline Myers: So I’m a hokey. I went in undecided. Did like a communications route, did a little bit of PR, and was like, “This isn’t it for me.” So I switched into marketing. So that was in the pamphlet school of business, um, and that’s where I wanted to get my degree from. And then, I was sitting in my marketing class, and Brian Collins came in, the sales professor there.

[00:03:25] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:03:26] And Chris, tell us about Brian Collins for the listeners.

[00:03:28] Chris Corcoran: Legend.

[00:03:29] Marc Gonyea: Legend. 

[00:03:30] Caroline Myers: One word. Legend. 

[00:03:33] What year was this of college? 

[00:03:34] Caroline Myers: This was my junior year. 

[00:03:36] Marc Gonyea: So, and you’re sitting in a general business class or a marketing class? 

[00:03:39] Caroline Myers: Yep. 

[00:03:39] Marc Gonyea: So, junior year fall or junior year spring? 

[00:03:41] Caroline Myers: Fall. 

[00:03:41] Marc Gonyea: Fall of junior year. So Brian Collins runs a sales program… 

[00:03:45] Caroline Myers: And he’s like, “80% of you are gonna end up in sales anyways.

[00:03:49] Let me show you how to do it.” Yes, that’s the stat. 80% of marketing majors end up in sales. He told me they had 100% job placement rate. They told me they were gonna find me a job in the tech industry, so I literally switched my classes in my marketing class that day to join the sales program. 

[00:04:07] Marc Gonyea: Much to this grant.

[00:04:08] I don’t know if the marketing professors care about that or not, but, but, it’s like the guy coming in, just taking, I guess it’s true. 

[00:04:16] Caroline Myers: It is. Yeah. I mean, I’ve even had SDRs come here, and they’re like, “I want to get into marketing.” I’m like, “You’re gonna learn that here. So stay in this, and then you’re gonna move on to the position that you want.”

[00:04:28] Marc Gonyea: This, let’s zoom in on that a little bit. Tell us what that means. You’re gonna learn about marketing ’cause a lot of people, you can’t get a tech job. You can’t get a, it’s very difficult, it’s very hard to get a market entry-level market job at a tech company coming out. But, so, but you’ve used, you run into somebody who’s a junior tech who wants to, or senior at tech, but dive into that.

[00:04:48] Caroline Myers: I mean, going into marketing, you’re probably gonna start in sales anyways ’cause, like you said, that entry-level role just doesn’t really exist.

[00:04:55] So coming in as an SDR, you’re gonna see how the marketing team and the sales team works together. And then you can make a more educated decision on do you wanna go to marketing or do you wanna go to sales. I was the sales route. I was like, “I don’t really care about pushing out graphics and things like that.”

[00:05:13] That’s not what like gets me going. I like to talk to people. I like the game of it.” So that’s why I lean towards sales. 

[00:05:19] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:05:19] It’s very valuable. You don’t see a lot of people from marketing come into the SDR world, but you see people from the SDR world go into marketing. Couldn’t give someone street credit in the position. 

[00:05:30] Caroline Myers: One of the hardest positions, and you can really do anything after it if you can get through this. 

[00:05:35] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Right. If you can get through it, you’ve got experience getting people through it, which we’ll get to. We had someone on the podcast yesterday, and I remember when you were here about your board.

[00:05:43] Oh, well, we’ll talk about that how you run your teams around your team. Okay. Right. So did you decide that moment in time that you were gonna switch? Colin just walked out of the room or did you have to think about it or? 

[00:05:55] Caroline Myers: I literally had switched my classes before he left the room. 

[00:05:58] Marc Gonyea: Before he left the room?

[00:05:59] Caroline Myers: Yeah. I was on like in our portal switching to the sales concentration. Which means my last year and a half was just like 18 credits of sales classes back to that to get that concentration. 

[00:06:13] Marc Gonyea: Wow, that’s so cool that even exists. Chris and I were there back in the stone age. What was that like taking those sales classes?

[00:06:20] Like, I don’t even know. 

[00:06:21] Caroline Myers: It’s super surface level of like, “Here’s typically how sales processes work. You’re gonna be making cold calls. This is what it looks like.” I mean, the program was new when I went through it. So I’m sure it’s gotten even more robust now, and like doing more role-plays and hands-on things.

[00:06:38] But I was just learning the basics of it and what it actually meant to be in a sales role, any industry really… 

[00:06:44] Marc Gonyea: Would you do it again? 

[00:06:46] Caroline Myers: 100%. Yeah. 

[00:06:47] Marc Gonyea: A hundred percent, yeah. Okay. How, so how, so you’re, you’re in your junior year, getting into your senior year doing all the fun things you do in Blacksburg.

[00:06:54] What did you think you were gonna do? Where you gonna work? 

[00:06:57] Caroline Myers: I wasn’t sure. I was trying to figure out industries. I was like, “I could go med device. I could go tech.” I, there’s so many, right? But I met memoryBlue at the Sales Career Fair day, my senior year in the fall. 

[00:07:14] Marc Gonyea: You, okay, got it. So, okay, got it.

[00:07:17] Chris Corcoran: So, so Caroline, before you pass your intern, you had an internship, right?

[00:07:21] Caroline Myers: I had quite a few internships. Yes.

[00:07:24] Chris Corcoran: So tell us, did you have a sales internship?

[00:07:26] Caroline Myers: Yeah. So my first sales internship was a home healthcare company called First Choice. It was super small. I had met the owner of that through a previous internship. I had internships even before I went to college. I was just working every summer to get some cash going in. And so that was my first time

[00:07:47] I was like on the road going to doctor’s offices, bringing them lunches, seeing how people sell that way, which is very kind of like on the ground, boots on the ground selling style. Then I took that experience and flipped it. So have, Frito-Lay give me an internship in Charlotte, North Carolina. So I was on a chip truck delivering chips from 2:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

[00:08:11] Marc Gonyea: Really? 

[00:08:11] Caroline Myers: Yes. And that was the sales rep role for that industry. 

[00:08:17] Marc Gonyea: How did you get that internship? 

[00:08:18] Caroline Myers: I met them through Virginia Tech. And then I wanted to live not in Virginia for the summer, and they had a Charlotte location. 

[00:08:27] Marc Gonyea: What was that like? 

[00:08:29] Caroline Myers: It was very interesting. It was a lot of hard work. I didn’t really understand like what that sales role would look like because going from healthcare to food and beverage and then tech is a whole nother whirlwind of it.

[00:08:44] So yeah, that was, again, boots on the ground, long hours and just seeing like a whole nother side of the universe that I didn’t know existed.

[00:08:51] Chris Corcoran: Was that more like delivery and merchandising?

[00:08:55] Caroline Myers: So we were popping and lacing chips and gas stations.

[00:09:00] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, I did something similar for Pepsi. So going through that, did you say, did that show you, “Hey, I know I don’t wanna do this,” or did you think about pursuing it?

[00:09:09] Caroline Myers: That I knew I didn’t wanna do. Not that there’s anything wrong with the food and BEV sales world, I just wanted to be more strategic, more like business oriented with it, almost like a consultant. I didn’t just wanna have a transactional day-to-day. 

[00:09:25] Chris Corcoran: But good experience nevertheless.

[00:09:27] Caroline Myers: Great experience. All my internships taught me what I did and did not want to do.

[00:09:32] So I would do it again if I had the opportunity.

[00:09:35] Chris Corcoran: That’s great.

[00:09:36] Marc Gonyea: How did you know to do all these internships? I mean, I totally glossed over this so, you…

[00:09:41] Chris Corcoran: Well, she, Marc, she, she told you her dad worked for Oracle, so I mean, obviously, she’s getting good advice.

[00:09:46] Caroline Myers: Both my parents. My mom, she worked at Fannie Mae and she was always like, being a woman you need to have your own money. And to get your own money, you are gonna have to work harder. So I was in offices asking for internships before I even started my freshman year. I did get my first one through like my friend’s dad, who just hired me on a whim.

[00:10:09] But that led into like so many other opportunities. 

[00:10:13] Marc Gonyea: That’s great, ’cause when you have one or two of these things, you get to ball roll in. 

[00:10:16] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:10:16] Marc Gonyea: Right? ‘Cause you can talk about these internships in the interviews with the other internships. What do you bet your mom and your mom’s woman’s gotta have their own money?

[00:10:24] Caroline Myers: Tell me about that. I mean, we’re one of the first generations that can do this, you know? Like I moved out 1500 miles away on my own. It didn’t exist before 20 years ago, really. People had to get married to be living the life that they wanted to. And she just wanted me to be independent and on my own and have everything that I need

[00:10:49] because of myself, and not rely on other people. 

[00:10:52] Marc Gonyea: That’s great advice. So you’re rocking…

[00:10:54] Chris Corcoran: Hey, hey, Caroline. So the key is to make sure a guy doesn’t become reliant on you?

[00:10:59] Caroline Myers: Yeah.

[00:11:00] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, ’cause that’s, that’s the latest move of society.

[00:11:03] Marc Gonyea: Really? How to get one of those moves? Someone teach me that move. Okay. Wow. So you had this wealth of experience. Did that alter what you wanted to do when you went into the career fairs?

[00:11:17] Like, did you, so you kind of had an idea, but you were still kind of open-minded to things?

[00:11:21] Caroline Myers: Yeah, super open mind. I knew I didn’t wanna be on a chip truck. That was really what I got. I knew I didn’t wanna be in the healthcare industry, after my experience with that. I even had a like, marketing internship, and that’s kind of where I learned that I’m not super passionate about this.

[00:11:38] So, going into the career fairs, I was like, “What else is there?” And saw the big elephant on a table and walked up, and they were like, “We’re in the tech industry.” And I was like, “I haven’t done that yet. What you got for me? “And that’s kind of how it all started. 

[00:11:52] Caroline Myers: And what do you remember from that? I was talking to Libby Galatis, who was my recruiter. And we just kind of like clicked instantly.

[00:12:02] She was like super outgoing, super well-spoken, and told me that she thinks that I would be good at this. Let’s continue a conversation. So I said, “Great.” Took my little poker chip with her number on it, went about my day, and then the next day was the big Business Horizons career fair. So I went back to memoryBlue,

[00:12:22] met even more people I don’t even remember at this point who was there, but loved everybody that I spoke to. Everybody had great things to say about the company. Then we went to a happy hour and, you know, memoryBlue happy hours in Blacksburg. Super fun. At top of the stairs, getting drinks with everybody.

[00:12:38] Um, and everybody was super transparent. Like, “This is gonna be hard, but here’s what you’re gonna learn and you’re gonna have the support for it.” And I was like, “That’s what I need in a first job.” 

[00:12:47] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Wow. That’s exactly what you needed. So you started with, was this during COVID, right? What was that like?

[00:12:53] So you ended up working, coming to work, but how was your experience different? 

[00:12:56] Caroline Myers: I was fully remote my first six months. So it was difficult transitioning to that. I was the first time the world had been like, but the support that I had through my teammates, my mentors, my manager, everybody was checking in on me throughout the day.

[00:13:12] So I never felt like stranded on an island. But then once I moved to Denver, and we started coming back in the office, I was like, “This is the energy that the sales force needs, ’cause it is such a different ballgame.” 

[00:13:23] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So we’ll get to this. You started in Virginia. Who was your dm? 

[00:13:26] Caroline Myers: Stacey. 

[00:13:27] Marc Gonyea: Stacey was a wow…

[00:13:28] Yes. 

[00:13:29] Chris Corcoran: Lucky you.

[00:13:30] Caroline Myers: Oh wow.

[00:13:32] Chris Corcoran: She’s tough.

[00:13:33] Caroline Myers: She’s tough, but she’s knowledgeable. She holds you accountable to what you say you’re gonna do. Like I’m the one that’s bringing my goals to her, so of course, I have to hit them. Why wouldn’t I? She’s the one making sure I do. 

[00:13:47] Marc Gonyea: I wish it was that simple all the time. So then what, tell me about your team. So you, you had a virtual team, right?

[00:13:55] Caroline Myers: Virtual team. 

[00:13:56] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Who, who was on your squad? 

[00:13:58] Caroline Myers: Oh my gosh. Bianca Beres, Austin Redin, Shannon Pierce.

[00:14:04] Sydney Seol. 

[00:14:06] Jake Voorhees. Ooh, Emily Prendergast ended up joining after me. I don’t wanna miss anybody. 

[00:14:15] Marc Gonyea: That’s alright. You can come back, you hit them up. You give a shout-out when you post this on LinkedIn.

[00:14:20] Talk to us about the learning the roles. You had some sales experience. Talk about being an SDR. What was that like? 

[00:14:27] Caroline Myers: It was jarring at first, who picks up the phone and calls a hundred strangers a day. But they really just like throw you in and give you the coaching to get better every single day.

[00:14:38] I literally remember my first phone call my first C-WEB. 

[00:14:41] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about what client was it for. 

Caroline Myers: I was on BlackBerry AtHoc. I called this guy named Rich at a police station somewhere. I had no idea what was going on, and Stacey was teasing me the whole time. I don’t even remember what I said, but it was an 11-minute conversation, and I ended up booking it.

[00:14:58] So I had no experience, didn’t even know what I was saying, but with the coaching, the support, got the meeting. 

[00:15:05] Marc Gonyea: Wow. What, what did you get good at in the role? Like, so you’re working for Stacey, working virtually, working on BlackBerry AtHoc, that was like the prompt, right? What, as you’re learning this kind of, what became a superpower for you? 

[00:15:19] Caroline Myers: I think mine was active listening. Like I got really good at just parroting back what people are saying. It seems easy to do, but I think it’s super underrated, and people forget to do it. Literally using their words against them, not only over the phone, but I got really good at it over email and LinkedIn too. 

[00:15:37] Marc Gonyea: Tell us, dig into that. So what do you mean, people, it’s easy to do, but people will do it? Like why don’t, why don’t? 

[00:15:43] Caroline Myers: Well, all you have to do is say what was just said to you, right? And it seems like anybody can just repeat something, but that takes the conversation into a whole nother route because that’s gonna get them to talk more.

[00:15:58] So saying, “Oh, I don’t have time for this right now.” Well, you said you don’t have time for that, and then asking a question, they’re gonna go back into that conversation. 

[00:16:07] Marc Gonyea: And why don’t you think people do more of it? ‘Cause I know, I remember, maybe not we listening the calls and people forget that

[00:16:12] use what the prospects saying to help, you know, accelerate the conversation. 

[00:16:20] Caroline Myers: I mean new SDRs, new to the industry, every organization has their own dictionary of acronyms. You’re just inundated with information, and I think you’re just constantly thinking about what’s the next thing to say. Just taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and repeating what somebody said back to you is gonna get that conversation going regardless of what you do or do not know at that point in time.

[00:16:45] So that was just, “I don’t know what to say next. I’m gonna say what you just said to me,” and it always led to a deeper conversation. 

[00:16:52] Marc Gonyea: That’s a good tactic. And then, person, you can master it, that can be so influential in conversations, right? Do you use that now? We’ll get to this, but now you’re closing.

[00:17:02] Right? Do you use that as well? 

[00:17:04] Caroline Myers: Almost all my calls, all my emails. I’m taking notes during discovery calls, and I’m putting the words that they say in my follow-up emails and my cadences later on. “You said this was important, so why don’t we do this now?” All of those are skills that I learned here.

[00:17:21] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, exactly. And sometimes I wonder if the prospects even know you’re using their words. Sometimes when you say it like you did, they do, but other times you can use some of the terminology they use and you paired a bag or, or you interweave it into your conversational speak. There’s gotta be the connection there.

[00:17:36] So sometimes I wonder. Okay, so you, how did else, did you learn when you were virtual? Like, did you learn from other people? Like how, how did you kind of progress? ‘Cause part of the value is like seeing you named all these people, so you, how did you learn from them and who was probably the best of that group besides yourself? 

[00:17:51] Caroline Myers: Oh, the best of the group?

[00:17:53] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Called you out. 

[00:17:55] Caroline Myers: We were all by the end of it. 

[00:17:59] Marc Gonyea: But, but, but who, who was that? Who do you remember being like, this was good? 

[00:18:03] Caroline Myers: The most like passionate people were Shannon and Austin. They had an energy that was just like, “We’re not gonna let you sink.

[00:18:12] We’re gonna pick you up. Let’s do this.” And I was filling Austin’s shoes. He had been top 10 on the DHR on a long-standing client. I don’t wanna come in and mess this up. So I got to learn from him by shadowing and listening virtually. Bianca Beres was not my… is it Beres? 

[00:18:31] Marc Gonyea: I think so.

[00:18:31] Caroline Myers: Okay. That’s, she wasn’t my mentor, but she was constantly on the phone with me, like, “You up today? Why not?” Like asking me those questions that Stacey would ask. And then Aaron McCann was my mentor, and he’s awesome, goofy guy. I learned so much of just like how to be yourself from him because it works for him.

[00:18:53] So I don’t know, everybody just had their own little tips and tricks for me, and I just tried to absorb it as best I could. 

[00:19:00] Marc Gonyea: When you’re an SDR, learn this outbound part, right? A hundred calls, calling strangers, and we’re trying to teach you these tactics, but you also, I think sometimes people get lost in who they are as a person when they’re trying to, maybe they’re trying to do something that they’re not on the call or like, you know, all the psychological shock and trauma of being it.

[00:19:18] How important is it to be yourself? What you kind of get acclimated into the tactics, right? ‘Cause you don’t, you learn that tactic, the parrot, or to repeat, but talk about that, ’cause I think that’s a, that’s a path for people going out when I do the dip session with people. 

[00:19:33] Caroline Myers: That was like a big struggle for me is I was too strict and like business, and I wasn’t being fun on the phones.

[00:19:42] And it was hurting my conversations. 

[00:19:45] Marc Gonyea: Interesting. 

[00:19:45] Caroline Myers: Um, so I would actually like get on the phones with my friends and see how my cadence was with them and talk to them like 10 minutes before blitz and then try to just keep that energy going into my calls instead of like, “Hi, this is so and so. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

[00:20:01] That’s not how I talk. I’d be like, “Hey, this is Caroline. How are you today?” Like it just changes everything, having an up tone or different inflections, ’cause you are reading, but you don’t wanna seem like it. 

[00:20:13] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And you’re only reading for a little bit ’cause once you get good at it, but so that’s fascinating. I tried to do that with Corcoran when I first heard my sales career. He didn’t want to help me, you know? So, so you would call friends before the blitz to try and make sure you didn’t get into like robot mode.

[00:20:31] Caroline Myers: I was either blasting Cardi B or I was on the phone with friends. 

[00:20:37] Marc Gonyea: Cardi B is just your, that’s your theme song.

[00:20:39] Okay. 

[00:20:39] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:20:40] Marc Gonyea: That’s so helpful. And that was that kind allowed you kind of get into, not character, but get into the mindset and like kind of be confident. Yeah. And it gets better the more you do it. Right? 

[00:20:50] Caroline Myers: It allowed me to get out of character almost. I’m not an SDR on the phone, I’m just a person chatting with you about your day.

[00:20:58] Chris Corcoran: Mark, we’re listening to someone who takes their profession seriously, someone who’s warming up before game time, right? Some people drink like coffee or tea to kind of loosen up their vocal cords. You’re out there actually conversating to, to warm up your vocal cords, so you can bring that conversational tone right into your calls.

[00:21:17] A lot of people just are like, “Hey, just, I’ll start talking when it’s time to start talking, but you showed up ready to play.” And that makes a huge difference.

[00:21:24] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. ‘ Cause it gets you in the mindset. 

[00:21:27] Caroline Myers: Yeah. I mean, that’s something I preach to my team all the time is you’re professionals, and memoryBlue tends to hire athletes and backgrounds of competitive spirits. So getting in there and making sure that you’re treating this like a profession is important.

[00:21:44] You’re not just playing work today, you know?

[00:21:47] Chris Corcoran: So I got a question for you. This moves more into kind of a leadership perspective. So why do you think that you’re sharing something, a best practice that has worked for you, and you’ve proven that it works? Why do so many people hear it and ignore?

[00:22:03] Caroline Myers: It’s just an extra step. Nobody wants to do more work. It’s one more thing to think about. I have 10 minutes before to do this. I, I could go and scroll through Instagram, or I could get my game face on to book a meeting. People don’t wanna do the extra step. So that’s something I always tell my SDRs, “Do what others won’t, and that’s what’s gonna set you apart.” 

[00:22:28] Marc Gonyea: Spoken like a delivery manager at memoryBlue.

[00:22:32] Chris Corcoran: A leader.

[00:22:33] Marc Gonyea: People don’t wanna do the extra work, Chris. So let’s keep progressing. So you’re doing your thing. What did you think you wanted to do? ‘Cause you were living in Virginia. And, and talk about the transition you made. And how, how did you identify that and where did you think you’re wanting to go with, with yourself as you kind of settle into the role working with Stacey, working with the team? 

[00:23:46] Caroline Myers: Yeah, so I was remote, right, and living in DC there’s not a lot of things to do outside. So I was like, “Okay, I’ve lived here my whole life. What else is there? MemoryBlue had just opened the office. I talked to Nikki, who ended up being my roommate.” 

[00:24:05] Chris Corcoran: Oh, oh, oh. We’re not just 

[00:24:06] gonna walk that pass. We’ll get into that, I’m sure.

[00:24:13] Caroline Myers: Yeah. 

[00:24:14] Marc Gonyea: Come back to that. 

[00:24:16] Caroline Myers: So I had like talked to some of the people, and it was great, and then Stacey was like, “I’m gonna support you.” Like memoryBlue gave me all the support to do this. My parents gave me the support, so my mom and I packed up everything I owned, put my dog in the car, and drove across the country for a couple days.

[00:24:32] And then, once I got here, I was working East Coast hours, still on Stacey’s team. But then she ended up transitioning out, and I was like, “This is perfect.” Then Denver started coming back into the office, and then I transitioned to Julia’s team, new team, new client, knew everything pretty much. 

[00:24:48] Marc Gonyea: Are you glad you made the move? 

[00:24:50] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:24:50] Marc Gonyea: Yeah? What do you like the, the most about living out here in Colorado? 

[00:24:54] I mean, the views, the mountains, the skiing, of course. But I’ve really found like lifelong friends here. I’ve lived with memoryBlue people. I hang out with memoryBlue people on a daily basis pretty much.

[00:25:07] And then everybody just has like their own network of friends, so I’ve just like really created a life out here for myself, which was obviously the goal, but I wasn’t sure of how everything was gonna turn out. 

[00:25:19] Marc Gonyea: Turns out, turned out pretty well. 

[00:25:20] Caroline Myers: Yeah, it worked out. 

[00:25:22] Marc Gonyea: So when you’re out here, what was it like coming back into the office? What was that like? 

[00:25:25] Caroline Myers: I mean, it’s a lot getting up every day and you’re not just like rolling out of bed and logging on your computer. Once you get here, the energy on the floor dialing with the people next to you, it really changes everything.

[00:25:39] I always told my SDRs getting hung up on, and my parents’ basement was a lot sadder than getting hung up on, sure, and being able to laugh about it with people. So then it turned into a game, like how many times can I get hung up on just ’cause I asked too many questions? And just started like gamifying the whole experience to keep myself interested.

[00:26:00] Marc Gonyea: That’s a, that’s an epic quote. Getting hung up on your, in your parents’ basement, is a lot more sad when you’re in your parents’ basement than it’s when you’re in an office. But it’s true. So, how long were you out here before you became a DM, and what inspired you to wanna be a DM? A delivery manager or a sales development manager for people listening.

[00:26:20] So I was in office here from January to May and that is when I made my transition to have my own team. And honestly like watching Stacey build up her team around me and all these people getting hired out and promoted and just great people getting great things for themselves. I wanted to give that back because I would’ve never found memoryBlue if it wasn’t for honestly, Libby, Stacey, and Simone, who were recruiting and selling me on everything and telling me I’d be great, but also it’s gonna be hard work.

[00:26:54] Caroline Myers: So I just, I wanted to be that person for somebody else. 

[00:26:58] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And that, and so did you know you wanted to be them before you came out to Colorado, or did it happen when you were here? 

[00:27:04] Caroline Myers: it happened when I was here because the office was growing, the opportunity popped up, and I was honestly ready for it.

[00:27:11] Um, I’d, I’d been in SDR for about 10 months, which obviously isn’t a long time, but I kind of been there, done that on some campaigns, and was 

[00:27:18] itching for my next… 

[00:27:19] Marc Gonyea: The, itching for your next big thing. So you became a delivery manager. Talk about that role. 

[00:27:24] It is the most fun, challenging

[00:27:29] Caroline Myers: A role you could probably have.

[00:27:31] Marc Gonyea: It’s a very difficult role. But you learned so much. 

[00:27:34] Caroline Myers: I learned so much. I learned how to have tough conversations. I learned what people do and do not like from a management perspective. It was just like going from the hiring process. I’d never hired anybody to watching them get promoted. That was what I wanted to do.

[00:27:53] Marc Gonyea: It’s fulfilling. 

[00:27:54] Caroline Myers: Yeah. 

[00:27:55] Marc Gonyea: Talk to about how you ran your team though day-to-day. I think this is really impressive. 

[00:28:00] So my team dubbed themselves the Meyers Militia by the end of my… 

[00:28:05] Marc Gonyea: The Myers Militia. I hope that’s just, Militia is an okay word for me to use on a podcast. I don’t know who went upset. You used it. It’s not a bad… keep going. 

[00:28:12] Caroline Myers: Yeah. And it’s because we came in, and we were structured with our day, and everybody took their shit seriously, for lack of a better term. It was getting in here at eight o’clock, warming up. I had my SDRs not do what I did because nobody wants to blast Cardi B with me.

[00:28:29] But doing their own version of that. And then getting on the phones, dialing their entire time through. “You booked a meeting, great. When’s the best time to get a next one? After your first one.” So that was kind of like the idea of it. And everybody knew exactly what they had to get done that day to have a successful day.

[00:28:47] So by the end of it, they were running themselves, and I was just like, “Good job.”

[00:28:53] Marc Gonyea: They were running themselves by the end of it. And what do you mean? So if people were here at eight, did they have to answer to you or?

[00:29:00] Caroline Myers: What do you mean? 

[00:29:01] Marc Gonyea: What if somebody holding at 8.25? 

[00:29:03] Caroline Myers: Oh, you got extra dials.

[00:29:04] Marc Gonyea: Okay, so it’s a consequence. 

[00:29:06] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:29:07] So you’re one minute late to blitz, would you be one minute late for your client call? Nope. All right. Then why are you doing it here? Those are the types of conversations of like, “Don’t do it. Do what you want for your client, even if you won’t do it for yourself.”

[00:29:22] If that makes sense. 

[00:29:23] Marc Gonyea: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. What was it like learning to interview people? 

[00:29:28] Caroline Myers: I think I could have been friends with so many people, and that’s who you kind of wanna hire, but that didn’t always end up being the best person for the position. A huge thing for me was creating a diverse team of different types of people, backgrounds, everything,

[00:29:44] so that they could learn from each other. I didn’t want just one way to do something while my way worked for me, and the groundwork worked for everybody else. They all still had their little nuances of how they wanted to do it, and I was there to support and encourage and kind of shine a light on that.

[00:29:59] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. How do you, knowing you want a diverse team, which is important for all sorts of reasons, like technique on the phone, email have built the job, but also life too? How did you try and assign people for achievement? 

[00:30:13] Caroline Myers: I looked at…

[00:30:14] Marc Gonyea: ‘Cause these clients are relentless, right? Clients want results.

[00:30:19] Caroline Myers: I mean, we asked the question, “What’s the toughest goal you’ve ever achieved? And that said a lot about how high are you setting your goals. And then, if you didn’t achieve it, can you tell me why and like, is that valid?” So really digging into those ones. And then the other question that I loved is, “What’s the biggest misconception that people have about you?” That’s like interview one question, and so many people will just say that they’re not that great and not have a reason why they can’t be great. So, yeah, it’s like catching these little things through our question flow to show like, “Are you gonna come in and put your head down and work for me, or is it not gonna work out?”

[00:31:06] Chris Corcoran: Caroline, what’s the biggest misconception people have about you?

[00:31:09] Caroline Myers: That I’m mean.

[00:31:14] I’m not mean. I’m strict. I want the best for everybody. Even if that’s not what you feel like doing today, I know it’s gonna get you to where you want to be. So I’m gonna be that voice of reason. And I think being a woman in a leadership position, too, it’s easy to get put in with a group of angry women.

[00:31:34] That’s not the case. 

[00:31:36] Marc Gonyea: Excuse. 

[00:31:37] Chris Corcoran: Who’s, who’s, who’s more strict, you or Stacey?

[00:31:40] Caroline Myers: Ooh. I would say Stacey.

[00:31:44] Chris Corcoran: Okay. Well, I, but I, she, she would be who I would want to, I’d want her to be my DM.

[00:31:50] Caroline Myers: I mean, I, I was lucky to have her as a DM. I would not change anything about it. I think when I took over the role, though, I was like, “Okay, what as an SDR did I need a little more of, a little less of?” And just kind of took her mentality and made it for my team. 

[00:32:07] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You want the strength. 

[00:32:09] Chris Corcoran: Why do you think so many, from what I’ve seen is there’s a lot of sales leaders that aren’t strict and, and don’t hold their team accountable, because it’s not easy. So what was it about it that you were able to rise above, taking the easy route to hold people accountable?

[00:32:23] I didn’t like punish anybody for not doing their work. It comes back to selling them on their own reasons for why. And that’s just asking question. Why are you coming in late? Don’t you wanna hit quota, or you at quota yet? Well, then, what’s going on here? So I’m not actually like, “This is what you need to do.”

[00:32:44] Caroline Myers: I’m getting my SDRs to tell me what they think they need to do, and then holding them accountable to it. So, yes, I had a framework, but it went so much deeper than that for like each individual. 

[00:32:57] Marc Gonyea: That’s good. So people think you’re mean, but you’re not mean. You’re strict. Sounds like you care about people getting to where they want to go. 

[00:33:04] Everybody needs to be, you’re holding people accountable to those things you find out. 

[00:33:08] Caroline Myers: If you tell me you’re gonna do something, I expect it to be done. And I don’t think I’m crazy for that. 

[00:33:14] Marc Gonyea: No, you’re not. Not at all. You’re not crazy for that. And they remember, they just forget sometimes. 

[00:33:20] Chris Corcoran: Caroline. Caroline, what, so what do you, when you’re interviewing, what do you look for in an SDR?

[00:33:24] I’m looking for competition. So we talked to a lot of athletes, but if you’re not athletic, were you fighting with your siblings for like the middle seat? That’s a common story we got. I looked for the toughest goal. Is it graduating college? And if that’s the case, why was that such a tough goal for you?

[00:33:45] Caroline Myers: I think coming out of Northern Virginia, it’s almost like expected for people to graduate and everything. So just understanding where people are coming from is huge. And then, I looked for work ethic. Is this your first job? Is this your 10th job in a year? Like, what’s going on there? So looking at the resume and figuring out why they want to do this. 

[00:34:07] Marc Gonyea: Excellent. So you’re doing your thing, you’re delivery manager successful one, helping the office grow. And then you have a client that you work for now. Talk about kind of where you thought you wanted to go next as you were a delivery manager and what you wanted to accomplish professionally and why. 

[00:34:23] Caroline Myers: So I came to memoryBlue wanting a closing role. I wanted the thrill of closing a deal, saying I did that. And I just took a different path, I guess. But in the delivery manager role, you’re looking at up to 10 different clients at a time. As an SDR, I worked on three in 10 months. So I wanted to be a DM to learn more about the industries that we can work with.

[00:34:48] And then my first client ManagedMethods, they came in and were tough and had a goal and everything. Um, but I was able to produce good work for them and a spot opened up on their team for me to be a closer. And I was like, “I think I’m ready for this.” My team has been promoted or hired out.

[00:35:07] I pretty much turned them all over in the year that I was here. So it kind of seemed like a natural progression. 

[00:35:12] Marc Gonyea: Absolutely. And a current memoryBlue client, ManagedMethods predated you. You brought, brought them, kept working with them, right? You left, they came back. It’s amazing. What, so what are you doing now and tell us about what the company does so people can understand what you’re selling?

[00:35:26] Caroline Myers: Yeah. So I’m selling cybersecurity platform to public schools. And, well, my territory is California specifically. So basically we’re looking at ways to prevent data loss and keeping people face online based on the files that they have. So making sure social security numbers don’t get out.

[00:35:44] No adult images in school domains. Student safety is huge too. And that spoke volumes to me. I was working with all these different clients that yes, they were helping people on a day-to-day basis, but this was something that I could get really passionate about and get behind. And so now I’m

[00:36:01] basically a glorified SDR. I’m making my dials, I’m getting on the phone, I’m doing cold outbounds, but then I get to see it all the way through to that close. So once I get that first meeting, I’m running the demo, doing discovery, and then getting them to a free trial, working through all that. And then I’m also doing trade shows now. So running my own boots at 24 is kind of daunting, but it’s been a really fun experience getting to travel back and forth for all that. 

[00:36:31] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So you’re taking the SDR skills you’ve developed in the sad basement of your parents’ house, only sad for people to hang up on you to, you know, take in it to Colorado to manage some people.

[00:36:42] And you’re now, you’re closing, which is great, but you still got to pick up your own stuff. 

[00:36:45] Caroline Myers: Right. I’m building my own business in California. That’s trying how I’m trying to treat it.

[00:36:50] Marc Gonyea: How long have you had that as territory? 

[00:36:53] Caroline Myers: Since I started, so about six months now. 

[00:36:55] Marc Gonyea: Six months now. Okay. And what’s been the biggest muscle you’ve had to develop coming out of the SDR role into a role now you’re responsible for the whole cradle to grave? 

[00:37:04] Caroline Myers: Well, I guess coming out of the management role is getting back on the phones daily. That phone fear, it stays with you. There’s just like day-to-day ups and downs. So getting back into it. But I think the biggest thing I took away is the consistency that memoryBlue taught me. MemoryBlue doesn’t just teach you how to sell or how to be an AE,

[00:37:26] they teach you what it takes to be a great one ’cause nobody’s doing what we’re doing. So while I’m not hammering out 150 dials anymore, ’cause I have other things to do, I’m still on the phone daily making sure I get things done. 

[00:37:42] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Walk us through one of your days. So people don’t know, what’s the daily life like for someone who’s closing in that type of role?

[00:37:48] Caroline Myers: So I’m on the phones, since I’m calling West Coast, I’ll probably start dialing around 9.30, 10, dial for an hour. Then I’m following up with all this people that I just called, same as an SDR. But then I’m doing small touch points of people that I’ve already gotten in a free trial, making sure they’re doing well. I’m building new names still because you have to have people to call the next day. Big on LinkedIn outreach, even though I’ve gotten banned a couple times. 

[00:38:17] Marc Gonyea: Just temporarily. 

[00:38:18] Caroline Myers: Just temporarily. And then just building quotes and like learning how to do demos of technology as a whole muscle to flex.

[00:38:26] So just learning. 

[00:38:29] Marc Gonyea: Do you have a favorite win, a deal that you, uh, memorable? 

[00:38:32] Caroline Myers: I do. So… 

[00:38:33] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about it. 

[00:38:34] Caroline Myers: My first quarter, I’m on a ramp quota was only $65,000, but I’m obviously, I’m coming in with nothing. I’m in California with David and waiting. 

[00:38:46] Marc Gonyea: David was the CEO? 

[00:38:47] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:38:47] Marc Gonyea: Yep. And you’re at a call or a? 

[00:38:49] Caroline Myers: We’re at lunch ’cause we had just gone to like a customer visit, and we’re waiting for this one PO that we’ve been talking about for weeks now. And then I get one that comes in, and it was only $3,600, but it was my first one and I sourced the meeting. So like that was the big win. And then the next day, maybe a couple days later, we got the PO for the big one I was waiting for, and that was 75K for my first, for my first big one. 

[00:39:16] Yeah. 

[00:39:17] Marc Gonyea: What about did that got away? What, what lessons have you learned from, like, from things? So you got some wins, but what are some things you’ve learned as a professional, sales, you know, tech sales professional about deals? 

[00:39:29] Caroline Myers: Yeah. Everybody has their own timeline and you can’t be too pushy with it. While it’s the end of our quarter, they don’t actually care. Um, so… 

[00:39:40] Marc Gonyea: They don’t, they don’t care. 

[00:39:42] Caroline Myers: I wouldn’t say I’ve lost this deal yet, but there was definitely a moment where I was like, “Oh, maybe that was a little too many phone calls that week or just a little too much.” ‘Cause here we’re hammering it out.

[00:39:55] Right? But it’s totally different once you’re like talking to ’em a few times. 

[00:39:59] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. I had a question for you. Women in sales. We hit on this a little bit earlier with your mom telling you, look, you’re part of a new generation of young women in life and in business. We talked to clients quite a bit, and you know, other people said, “You guys gotta get some more women into tech sales world.”

[00:40:16] So why do you think there are less, and how do you think we can get more? 

[00:40:19] I mean, sales is risky. And I think women tend to be a little more risk averse, trying to think more logically. “Okay, yes, I could make a 100K, but I could also make 50.”

[00:40:32] Caroline Myers: What’s, what does that actually look like? Um, so I think it’s just a learning curve of what it means to be in sales. Like I had no idea until Libby, and I sat down, and then Stacey and I sat down. And then how can we get more educating if the issue is lack of knowledge? Going to campuses, telling ’em that like, ” Yes. It’s risky, but people have been doing this for a long time. People that don’t have the talent that you do, so you should get into this.” I just… 

[00:41:01] Marc Gonyea: It’s exposing it. So educate… 

[00:41:03] Caroline Myers: Yeah. I don’t think it’s a conversation that people have.

[00:41:05] Chris Corcoran: Hey, Myers, so I mean, my stance on this whole thing is number one, these university sales programs. So first off, there’s more women graduating from college than there are men, number one. Number two, if you talk to Brian Collins and you talk to the other professors that are working within these sales programs, if you ask them who are their strongest students, by far and away, it’s the females.

[00:41:29] So just convincing them to get into the sales program and getting that education, I think that’s part of, of what needs to start to happen. And like it kind of accidentally happened to Caroline.

[00:41:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You had people kind in and around sales. You took these internships, but that more like business experience, they tend to be more sales internships properly than other ones. Maybe may take you on this, the technical ones, but, but even then, it still wasn’t like something that you were sure.

[00:41:57] So it’s a combination of things. Chris, why do you think all the best students are women typically?

[00:42:02] Chris Corcoran: I mean.

[00:42:03] Marc Gonyea: What do you think, Caroline? That’s

[00:42:04] Chris Corcoran: I, I, well, I, well, no, I mean, I think, I think women treat schools more serious than men, by and large, they’re not as reckless. I mean, all, all the things that, that you see that I’ve seen with my kids and I’ve seen with people in society and, and growing up. And that’s why do you think all of our clients want more women?

[00:42:21] They’re like steady, and they’re stronger, so that’s why.

[00:42:25] Well, it’s something you said with like Brian Collins saying that women are his strongest. I’m a huge Shark Tank fan. And Mark Cuban said that all of his best businesses that he’s invested in are run by women. And I think it’s because we have a little more at stake, and we’re a little bit more empathetic too.

[00:42:47] Caroline Myers: So we’re gonna go the distance, and we’re gonna be listening to people, and that’s where that like consultative comes in. I don’t wanna just sell you chips off of a truck, I wanna make sure that your store looks great, and making sure that we have the most space possible. Like looking for those different opportunities that I think kind of just get lost sometimes.

[00:43:06] Marc Gonyea: The empathy potentially. Yeah. If you’re good at…

[00:43:09] Chris Corcoran: Another thing is women, I think they play so much, a lot less video games.

[00:43:14] I think women understand that, and guys don’t realize that.

[00:43:18] TV too. Like I know all my girlfriends, we are talking about books we’re reading. I don’t hear that conversation amongst men often. And like the biggest thing that I have on that is like, Lamborghini commercials don’t exist,

[00:43:34] Caroline Myers: because the people that own Lamborghini don’t watch TV. So what are you… 

[00:43:40] Marc Gonyea: That’s the truth bomb. That’s so good. That’s so good. 

[00:43:48] Caroline Myers: Could be in video games, like great, that’s not what’s gonna make you money. 

[00:43:54] Marc Gonyea: Where are you gonna go from here,

[00:43:55] Marc Gonyea: you think? We, we got a couple more questions for you before we let you go, but like, where do you see yourself kind of down the road through progression? 

[00:44:02] Caroline Myers: As far as ManagedMethods goes, I might move out to Cali, since that’s my territory.

[00:44:09] Marc Gonyea: Oh no. 

[00:44:10] Caroline Myers: Yep. 

[00:44:11] Marc Gonyea: That’s a great state. 

[00:44:12] Caroline Myers: I’m like loving traveling out there. I’m going and running a show at the end of this month. So get to explore a little bit. But I ultimately want to manage closers. And then make enough money to retire early. 

[00:44:27] Marc Gonyea: Okay. That’d be great too. 

[00:44:28] Caroline Myers: Yeah. So that’s the end goal.

[00:44:31] Yeah. You’d be a great sales manager.

[00:44:33] Chris Corcoran: Caroline, you’ve already, what’s great is that time served as a, a delivery manager. That’s gonna really come into place when you’re managing closers. So that was a phenomenal decision on your part to get that experience.

[00:44:46] Caroline Myers: It definitely was part of my decision. I was like, “How many 24-year-olds have managed a team of 14, eight different clients, and is now a field sales rep?” 

[00:44:59] Chris Corcoran: Right. 

[00:44:59] Caroline Myers: That happen, and so now when I’m sitting next to my counterpart, maybe we have the same numbers, and we’re at the top of the leaderboard,

[00:45:07] I have this experience on whoever that person is. 

[00:45:10] Marc Gonyea: Man, I’m gonna come work for you. 

[00:45:12] Caroline Myers: When I have my business, yeah. 

[00:45:14] Marc Gonyea: Please, let me know. I cannot moving to California though that much. If you could go back in time to, uh, the night before you woke up and went downstairs to the basement, your first day memoryBlue,

[00:45:25] what advice would you have for yourself knowing kind of where things are now with everything? 

[00:45:30] Caroline Myers: Patience. Be patient with yourself. Be patient with people around you. Be patient with your clients. Like we get to memoryBlue being sold on this idea that you’re gonna get this experience and get out, but the longer you stay here, the more you’re gonna learn. And whatever capacity, a role that is.

[00:45:47] And then the patience with yourself is you’re gonna mess up. You’re gonna trip up on the phone or even get hung up on, take a deep breath, and move on to the next one. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’re all learning. 

[00:46:00] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. We’re all learning. Exactly. All of us. 

[00:46:02] Caroline Myers: All of us. 

[00:46:03] Marc Gonyea: Right? 

[00:46:03] Caroline Myers: Yes. 

[00:46:04] Marc Gonyea: And, I think that’s great advice, particularly, my people are sometimes in a big rush to get out and go work for the tech company and that that’s not a bad move, but sometimes you might wanna stick around a little bit longer.

[00:46:14] Caroline Myers: Totally. 

[00:46:15] Marc Gonyea: Right, for all sorts of reasons. Yeah, and surely be patient with yourself. That’s kind of, that was the kind of advice to you to yourself versus…

[00:46:21] Caroline Myers: That was, yeah, my daily mantra. “Slow down. The money is coming.” 

[00:46:25] Marc Gonyea: It does. Right. Yeah. Excellent work. Well, this has been very, very good session, I think. Chris.

[00:46:34] Chris Corcoran: Lots of wisdom. Very informative. Great examples. We appreciate you sharing it all with us.

[00:46:39] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Thanks for having me. No, we appreciate you. We’ll do this again. It’s down the road. 

[00:46:45] Caroline Myers: Yeah. Maybe in DC. 

[00:46:46] Marc Gonyea: Maybe in DC. Right? Maybe come back for a couple niece, couple nephews. 

[00:46:49] More kids, you know?

[00:46:51] Chris Corcoran: Caroline, you can drive your Lamborghini.

[00:46:53] Caroline Myers: Yes. I’ll be there in a Lambo.

[00:46:55] Chris Corcoran: There you go.