Episode 111: Julia Fitzgerald – Searching For The Green Flags

What’s the secret to success in sales? Julia Fitzgerald vows it’s learning how to play off your strengths and play up your personality! Sales doesn’t necessarily favor anyone of a particular background, but it will come more naturally to those who tap into their strongest traits to stay motivated, keep themselves grounded, and subsequently connect more genuinely with prospects.  

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Julia, now a Managing Director at memoryBlue, talks about the power of embracing your personality in your career, how to spot green flags in a job listing, and being motivated by a “reap what you sow” mentality in sales.  

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Julia Fitzgerald

💡 What she does: She’s the managing director at memoryBlue.

💡 Company: memoryBlue

💡 Noteworthy: Julia has been a part of the memoryBlue team for almost three years, starting as an SDR, then quickly transitioning into the client delivery manager position, and now, she is an MD.

💡 Where to find Julia: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ Embrace your personality traits in your career. If you want to get ahead in your career, it’s vital to use your personality to your benefit. So, identify your main personality traits and embrace them. Julia explains, “I actually had this epiphany probably a year into being a DM where I was like, ‘I want to go back to my high school and talk to people about sales,’ because I was not this kid who was hungry or had a business attitude in high school. But there were so many attributes of my personality that I think if teachers and guidance counselors were paying attention, they could have been like, ‘Maybe this would be a good career path for you.’ So, I wish I had that guidance, when I was younger, to explore that because it wasn’t on my radar at all.”

⚡ Look for “green flags” in a job. Just like you should watch out for “red flags” in your career, you should pay equal attention to the “green flags” when you’re looking for a new job opportunity. Julia says, “I’m sure everyone knows what a red flag is. Flipping it, a green flag is a signal that just makes you feel like you’re going in the right direction. So, I think just being as conversational as it was, the interview just felt comfortable. There were so many reasons why it felt like this could be a good path for me.”

⚡ You reap what you sow in sales. The reap-what-you-sow mentality is what sales is all about. So, if you’re a competitive type of person, you should consider choosing sales as your career path. Julia says, “Some of the things that were top of mind were that I love to compete with my coworkers, even if it was just in a restaurant setting. I wanted the section where I thought I could make the most tips. If I wasn’t in that section, I wanted to make sure I was making the most tips. Plus, my friend group in high school was very competitive; we all played sports. So, that was where I was born and bred that competitive edge. But also, with serving and bartending and all of the restaurant industry stuff, I loved that reap-what-you-sow mentality. It’s like I know if I show up on a Saturday night, I can make $300 at least and walk out of here. So, my direct work that I put in is financial gain coming out. And so, I think that sales is one of the most reflective of that same kind of reap-what-you-sow mentality.”

Episode Highlights

Time management is key

“LinkedIn was such a good place to get traction and book meetings. And so, I know time management can be really challenging, especially as people are ramping up in the SDR role, but I was doing a hundred LinkedIn touches a day, making around 150 dials, and sending out tailored emails. A lot of that boiled down to just buckling down and finding ways to manage my time really effectively so I could get it all done.”

Take the hard path

“In your first job after college or even your first job breaking into a new industry like tech sales, it’s okay not to have that immediate success because this is so much about learning and developing and growing. If you’re just handed the easiest campaign in the office, the skills that you have afterward, you’re not going to be as good at problem-solving. You’re not going to be as quick to pivot when you see patterns of maybe not finding success in certain avenues. So, I think it makes you that much more nimble and effective down the road. I really appreciated that I didn’t hit quota my first month, but then when I did, it was that much sweeter. It felt like I really earned it. And once I was cruising, it was a repeatable process. I figured out what worked and what talk tracks I could use and what sounded like me, and so, I didn’t want the easier route.”

Be yourself

“Everyone’s got their own style. memoryBlue teaches you the fundamentals and teaches you industry best practices, but ultimately, prospects recognize when you’re being genuine, and you’re using your own words. And so, finding ways to effectively communicate the client’s message, so I’m not misleading anyone but putting my own spin on it and really being authentically me.”

Be willing to put in the work

“This job is hard. So work ethic is such an important piece of it; you have to be willing to put in the work. Like I was saying, your first job out of college or first job breaking into a new industry, it’s okay to really put your nose to the grindstone because it’s gonna make whatever’s next feel easier.”

Transcript: 

[00:00:00] Julia Fitzgerald: Along my professional development at memoryBlue, I started to observe the people that I admired and the people that were moving forward in their career. And I think it was just kind of this switch of like, “It’s okay to not have the perfect answer, but if you’ve got an idea, share it. Because maybe it is a perfect answer. Maybe it’s at least, like, the best answer.” 

[00:00:46] Marc Gonyea: Julia Fitzgerald not really joining us ’cause it’s her office. Right? We got two managed directors out here, Chris. Julia, thank you for joining us. 

[00:00:55] Julia Fitzgerald: Thanks, Marc. Happy to be here.

[00:00:57] Chris Corcoran: The pride of Wisconsin.

[00:00:59] Julia Fitzgerald: That’s right.

[00:01:01] Marc Gonyea: That’s true. 

[00:01:02] Chris Corcoran: J. Fitz in the house.

[00:01:04] Marc Gonyea: J. Fitz, the house. Let’s get into a J. Fitz. Julia would be great is for us, for the people listening. Right? ‘Cause, you know, how many women Managing Directors do we have? 

[00:01:15] Julia Fitzgerald: We have three now, which is exciting. 

[00:01:18] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, we, we don’t have as many as we, we would always want more, right?

[00:01:22] We always want more, more capable women leading in this company. So, people were listening, they wanna know about you. So, to get started, tell us a little bit about where you’re from, kinda where you grew up, that sort of thing. 

[00:01:31] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, of course. So, as Chris kind of prefaced, Wisconsin in the house. Grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. From there I went to Arizona State for college.

[00:01:42] Marc Gonyea: What were you like as a kid? 

[00:01:44] Julia Fitzgerald: As a kid, I was energetic. Um, had a lot of hobbies. I remember my mom got some feedback about me going over to friends’ houses that I would go from one task to the next and couldn’t sit still and wanted to explore all the different things they had in their house. Yeah, lots of different interests. One younger brother. 

[00:02:04] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, you’re the eldest?

[00:02:05] Julia Fitzgerald: I’m the oldest, yep. He lives in Colorado Springs, so not too far away. 

[00:02:09] Marc Gonyea: Excellent. And what, what were you like when you were in high school? Were you a kid? Did you play sports? Did you have a job? Were you really into school? Something else? 

[00:02:17] Julia Fitzgerald: Played four different sports. Throughout high school. Worked a lot, as well. 

[00:02:21] Do you have a favorite sport? I actually played basketball. Yeah. Point guard as against by the height. Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:02:31] Marc Gonyea: Okay. You were scoring point guard or a pass, pass, passing point guard.

[00:02:34] Julia Fitzgerald: Little bit of both.

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

[00:02:36] Julia Fitzgerald: Not scoring as much as I should have been. 

[00:02:38] Marc Gonyea: Oh, really? Okay. Right, right. 

[00:02:39] Julia Fitzgerald: We were a losing team, but that’s okay. We had grit.

[00:02:42] Marc Gonyea: There you go. And then you said you worked. What did you do? Did you always work in high school, or when’d you start working? 

[00:02:46] Julia Fitzgerald: I started working right when I could.

[00:02:49] So, age 14 in Wisconsin. I worked in the restaurant industry from the very beginning, so. Yeah, when it started, just hosting at restaurants, but in Wisconsin, you can actually start serving at age 16, so I was even waiting tables that early. And young, so. Yeah. 

[00:03:07] Marc Gonyea: What did that job teach you at such a young age? That’s a Chris, and I have a lot of; I was never a server, we have a lot of admiration for people who come from that industry or had those jobs. 

[00:03:17] Julia Fitzgerald: Definitely. It taught me to juggle a lot of tasks at once taught me to be organized. A lot of customer service staff, communication, whether it’s communicating what the customer wants to the kitchen or this issue, or that.

[00:03:31] So, I mean, so many things. 

[00:03:33] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And then, what did you think you wanted to be, or what you wanted to do when you were in high school, you know, when you were all grown up? 

[00:03:39] Julia Fitzgerald: That’s a great question. Um, growing up, I always wanted to actually be a chef. In fact, when I was a kid, my parents joked about making a show, “Julia, the child.” And so, I’ve always been really passionate about cooking, and so, that’s actually kind of what influenced my area of studying in college, which was nutrition and food and management. So.

[00:04:02] Marc Gonyea: Well, quick sidebar. So, my kids watch all those cooking shows with kids, the baking shows, the cooking shows. Do you watch those shows and just say, “Hey, you know what? I should have been born in a different era. I’d be a headliner on one of these shows.” 

[00:04:14] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, I mean, my family, they’re all foodie. So, we would have the food network on all the time. I’d be watching it. I’d be trying to replicate things they were doing. So, that’s definitely, like, a passion of mine.

[00:04:24] But, you know, working in the food service industry quickly realized that when others are playing, you’re working. And so, that lifestyle didn’t really line up with my long-term goals. 

[00:04:37] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Alright. Yeah, we’ll get into that. So, alright, so you’re coming outta Wisconsin. Where’d you, you know, how’d you end up going there, where’d you go to college, and how, how’d you end up going there? 

[00:04:46] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. So, I grew up, like, 10 minutes from UW Madison. So, a bunch of my friends went to college there, but I was like, “I wanna get outta here.” So, you know, growing up in one of the coldest places, I decided, “Let me go to one of the warmest places.”

[00:05:02] So, I chose ASU, you know, big school, big sports, good programs. I also, it was important to me to be in kind of a city. I didn’t wanna be somewhere rural. And so, that was a lot of the things that influenced my choice, which I had a better story of, like, you know, they had the best business school, and I wanted to go there, but it was kind of just the environment I wanted to do.

[00:05:23] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I’d love that to go to the school down there; that would’ve been great. And what did you major in? 

[00:05:29] Julia Fitzgerald: I majored in nutrition. And had a concentration in food system sustainability. 

[00:05:34] Marc Gonyea: All right. And then, what did you think you were gonna do when you coming outta college? Like, when you were in college, what did you think you were gonna go with that?

[00:05:41] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. To be completely honest, like a lot of people, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do going into college. I actually started my; I declared a Spanish major because the undeclared dorms weren’t as nice as the declared the dorms.

[00:05:57] So, I started a Spanish major thinking I was gonna minor in it. ‘Cause I studied Spanish all through high school. Ultimately, figured out along the way that I wasn’t as passionate about learning the high love, you know, ins and outs of the language. But, still, you know, really like the cultural aspect.

[00:06:14] So, I took a step back, talked to my guidance counselor, and shared some of my passions, which were food, travel, Tourism, all of that. And so, they had just created this program that was essentially a nutrition management program with a concentration on tourism management. So, it felt like this perfect combination of all the things I was interested in. Maybe I’m fast-forwarding too much, but after a couple internships, I realized it really wasn’t a combination of the things I was passionate. It was sort of like picking little pieces of it but wasn’t enhancing my passions. 

[00:06:52] Marc Gonyea: Tell us about the internships because I think there are people, well, I’m curious about that. We just had someone on, someone you know, or work for you, and she was talking about her internships ’cause they just help you decide what you don’t wanna do. 

[00:07:04] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, we’ve seen a lot of people come to memoryBlue, do the internship program and then come back and work for us full time.

[00:07:12] And I’m jealous of those people. You know, I wish I had found an internship where it’s like the light bulb is on, and I figure out that’s what I wanna do next. That was not the case. I, one of, I guess the, the bigger internship that was really a segue to a career was essentially working for the National School Lunch Program

[00:07:33] to oversee large school districts and run that for them. Being someone who’s really passionate about food and loves to cook myself. I think it was a combination of a lot of things, but seeing school lunches come out every day wasn’t exactly like, the foodie experience I was looking for.

[00:07:52] But I also just felt like I wasn’t surrounded by hungry, competitive people. It was just, you know, clock in, clock out, do the job, get by. And I felt like there was a lot more that I had to offer than just orchestrating an organization where people just were a number and just went through the motions.

[00:08:12] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s good ’cause, hopefully, some people listen to this podcast or thinking about coming to work here. Who maybe they didn’t even think about sales as a profession before, before they ran into memoryBlue. ‘Cause not everybody’s exposed to that stuff in an undergrad. So, people and, and a lot of people don’t know about it.

[00:08:29] I didn’t know about it as a kid growing up, and lots of people still don’t. So, you can try out these things. Just ’cause you go to school for a certain degree or have a certain internship doesn’t mean you can’t, you know, change what you wanna do. 

[00:08:39] Julia Fitzgerald: Definitely. And I actually had this epiphany like, I don’t know, probably a year into being a DM where I was like, “I wanna go back to my high school and, like, talk to people about sales.”

[00:08:51] Because I was not this kid that was, like, hungry business attitude in high school. But there were so many attributes of my personality that I think, you know, if teachers, guidance counselors were paying attention, they could have been like, you know, “Maybe this would be a good career path for you.”

[00:09:10] And so, I wish I had kind of had that guidance when I was younger to explore that ’cause it wasn’t on my radar at all.

[00:09:17] Julia, yeah. 

[00:09:17] Chris Corcoran: You had me at Point Guard.

[00:09:19] Julia Fitzgerald: That’s it. I should have told my coach 

[00:09:22] Chris Corcoran: Sales.

[00:09:24] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:09:26] Marc Gonyea: It’s, I was putting my finger up, Chris, to make a joke. My wife had that experience in high school, and it changed like her career trajectory. ‘Cause, there are high school counselors if you need to go into sales. Like, most high school counselors, though, I don’t think they know about it as a profession.

[00:09:37] You know? But it’s good ’cause you ended up this for a reason. So, let’s, let’s go that. So, you graduated from school? What’d you do after that? 

[00:09:45] So, I took the summer, and I solo traveled, Southeast Asia. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. I bought a one, well, my graduation gift was a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia. Been working all through college. What’d you do in college when you worked? 

[00:10:05] Julia Fitzgerald: Waiting table, that’s bartending, serving. And then, you know, the internship I was talking about was paid, so that allowed me to do that. And I was in Thailand to Vietnam for three months by myself, staying in hostels, exploring, moving from city to city.

[00:10:21] Marc Gonyea: Did we talk about this? How much money did that cost you, that trip? 

[00:10:25] Julia Fitzgerald: I think in total if we don’t include the flights, I spent $4,000 in the three months I was there. And towards the end, I was being a little bit more cautious with my money. But, I mean, I was, I was able to do all the things I wanted to do.

[00:10:43] Excursions, activities, you know, stay at really nice beautiful hostels that were clean, young. 

[00:10:51] Marc Gonyea: That’s a three-month, three months. 

[00:10:52] Julia Fitzgerald: Three months. 

[00:10:53] Marc Gonyea: That’s amazing. 

[00:10:53] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:10:55] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Then what happened when you came back from this great trip? 

[00:10:58] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. I came back and was not sure exactly what I wanted to do next. You know, I think part of the reason I traveled was like, you know, explore myself, figure out what I love.

[00:11:09] So, I came back, and I was managing a high-volume bar in downtown Madison and having a lot of fun. ‘Cause, it allowed me to take off and travel, and I was saving money ’cause I was living with my family. But it got to a point where after, I don’t know, about a year or so, I was kind of like, “Okay, I can keep doing this.

[00:11:29] I’m having fun. I’m enjoying it. But I’ve been graduated for about a year. Like, it’s time for me to take that next step because I don’t wanna be a career bartender.” You know, for the same reason I didn’t wanna become a chef. It’s like, “I want the stability of a nine-to-five.” So, from there, I was actually deciding between Denver and Austin.

[00:11:51] And, you know, kind of, I think, playing into my adventurous spirit of like, “Just get up and go and travel Southeast Asia.” I was sort of just like, “I’m gonna spend the summer in one of these cities, and whichever one I find a better roommate situation at, faster, I’m gonna move there for the summer. If I love it, I’ll put roots down, I’ll stay.

[00:12:10] And if I don’t, you know, I can try somewhere else.” And so, moved to Denver. I think it was three weeks after I’d made that decision I moved to Denver and found an incredible roommate situation, and I lived with these great people who became, like, family for a couple years. And during that time, decided, you know, Denver’s gonna be home for a little bit.

[00:12:32] And that’s when I started looking at jobs and came to memoryBlue. 

[00:12:36] Marc Gonyea: Wow. I gotta, I wanna segue just real quick. Because we wanna talk about a little later. ‘Cause, you took some cool trips since you’ve been working for us, too. Why, what’s so special about travel to you? 

[00:12:46] Julia Fitzgerald: I think, like, for me, it helps you just realize how small the world is, connect with other people, get unique perspectives.

[00:12:54] You know, that’s one of the great things about Denver, too, is it’s kind of a, it’s a melting pot of people from around the US. It’s a great kind of, like, destination after college, and ASU was similar. So, that among just exploring beautiful places. Um,I think it makes people more well-rounded and able to connect with others in different ways.

[00:13:13] Marc Gonyea: Nice. That’s great. All right. So, you ended up here. How’d you find out about us? So, you ended up in Denver doing your thing. How did memoryBlue even, like?

[00:13:21] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a good question.

[00:13:24] Marc Gonyea: The recruiting team’s not, not, I don’t know, they’re not rolling where you were rolling, I don’t think, but, yeah, how?

[00:13:28] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. So, I had just kind of started my job search, and I’m starting to kind of narrow down, looking at some food and beverage sales roles, really casting a wide net ’cause I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And through that started looking at tech and really didn’t have a strong understanding that this was the direction I wanted to go.

[00:13:49] Yeah. But Andrew Denardo reached out to me on LinkedIn. 

[00:13:53] Marc Gonyea: Unbelievable. Denardo.

[00:13:55] Denardo. And from there, it just was a really unique experience as a candidate because it felt so comfortable. You know, he was a recruiter that was very conversational, very helpful. It didn’t feel like he was feeding me answers, but rather, like, giving me guidance and expertise to kind of navigate conversations as a recent college grad. So, between that and then interviewing with Joey, coming in, seeing the office. Green flags, is that what you call them? 

[00:14:24] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Lots of green flags.

[00:14:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. What, tell us what green flags mean to you? 

[00:14:28] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. So, I’m sure everyone knows what a red flag is.You know, flipping it, it’s, a green flag is like those signals that just make you feel like you’re going in the right direction.

[00:14:40] So, you know, I think just being as conversational as it was, the interview just felt comfortable. There was so many reasons why it felt like this could be a good path for me. For example, you know, all the different career opportunities. You know, the five paths for growth. Seeing Joey come out to Denver from Virginia to open an office, I was really excited about being in with kind of the first round of SDRs in the Denver office.

[00:15:11] Marc Gonyea: Right. Was that a red flag? It was quiet, wasn’t it? When you interviewed here?

[00:15:14] Julia Fitzgerald: It was quiet when I came in, but on my way out of, I think it was my second round interview, I was on my way out, and Nikki Johnston was walking in. 

[00:15:24] Marc Gonyea: Oh no. There you go. Hold on. 

[00:15:28] Julia Fitzgerald: Yep.

[00:15:28] Chris Corcoran: Nikki Johnston the, the one woman party.

[00:15:32] Julia Fitzgerald: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Probably known for doing the warm at tops, and she’s dancing behind on client calls and all that.

[00:15:41] So, on my way out, she was walking in, probably had a pint of ice cream in her hand ’cause that was a common breakfast for her. But she was just like so bubbly and friendly and was gushing about how awesome the company was and how, you know, she’s so excited to meet people in Denver and came out here from Virginia. And, like, you know, I had this great interview with Joey, but then it was kind of like this firsthand authentic SDR working there is telling me all these great things. It just, it really helped make me feel confident that this was a place where people genuinely liked to be. And, you know, I hadn’t had a career job after college. So, just kind of seeing like, “Okay, people show up, and they like to be here. In fact, this girl moved across the country to come help open this office.” It’s like, “They have to be doing something right.” 

[00:16:31] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. Oh, hell yeah, we were. So, sales. So, you had it, but sales was still like, was it ’cause you were like, you know, you played sports in high school, but you were always working, like you’re hustling, right?

[00:16:44] Tips. You left this out, but tips is a, that’s a sales gig. Right? It’s a service sort of service gig. So, and you obviously are smart with your money ’cause you’re spending it on, like, these great things, not video games, right? When did the idea of sales be like, “Okay, I want to get into sales.”

[00:17:00] ‘Cause stupid people don’t think that. You know, if they think of sales is like all about the money or like, I don’t know. Maybe they think it’s not professional. 

[00:17:08] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. I think the kind of turning point for me was just after traveling, after having an internship that I knew that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go.

[00:17:19] Kind of took a step back of, like, you know, “What parts do I like about serving? Who am I as a person? What gets me fired up?” And some of the things that were top of mind were like, you know, I love to compete with my coworkers, even if it was just in a restaurant setting. Like, I wanted the section where I thought I could make the most tips.

[00:17:40] If I wasn’t in that section, I wanted to still make sure I was making the most tips. So, plus, like, my friend group in high school, you know, very competitive. All played sports. So, you know, that was kind of where I was born and bred is just that competitive edge. But I also, with serving and bartending and all of the restaurant industry stuff, I loved that, “Reap what you sow.” Mentality.

[00:18:06] It’s like I know if I show up on a Saturday night, I can make $300 at least and walk outta here. And so, it’s my direct work that I put in is financial gain coming out. And so, sales is, what I think, one of the most reflective of that same kind of, you know, reap what you sow mentality. 

[00:18:27] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Which is all true, so, you, okay. And, but the small office was small. How small was the office when you started?

[00:18:34] Julia Fitzgerald: I think I was the fifth hire in the Denver office.

[00:18:36] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, it was a couple DMs. And was one DM just slash? 

[00:18:41] Julia Fitzgerald: Joey, one. 

[00:18:42] Marc Gonyea: And who else was there?

[00:18:43] Julia Fitzgerald: Slash DM. It was Abby Peters. Nicki Johnston. Morgan Hargett. I got hired with a guy named Gabe, and then it was myself. 

[00:18:55] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Small crew.

[00:18:57] Julia Fitzgerald: Small crew. 

[00:18:58] Marc Gonyea: And, you started, was it remote? Was it? Were we in the office? 

[00:19:03] Julia Fitzgerald: So, I was the last academy cohort to go to HQ before Covid shut down the world. So, went to academy for my, then two days. Came back. I was in the office. 

[00:19:18] Marc Gonyea: Does that count as travel? That’s work travel. That’s not like travel, travel, right? Going to?

[00:19:22] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:23] Traveling for two days. Yeah. And came, I was in the office for seven business days. Yep. We didn’t even have our Zoom room set up or TVs or anything.

[00:19:31] Julia Fitzgerald: ‘Cause the office had opened, you know, weeks before. And so, we got a calendar invite thrown on by Chris, and we were all huddling around Joey’s laptop to hear this company-wide announcement because the TV wasn’t connected or something. And so, I remember, me and my four other coworkers at that point all huddled around, and Chris is on there like, you know, “I hate to, to do this.

[00:19:59] This is disappointing, you know, but we’re being cautious, we’re, everyone’s getting sent home. And definitely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, you know, we wanna keep everyone safe.” And I’m thinking like, “Oh, my Gosh, I just got to know these people. I was so excited for my, like, corporate, you know, first real job.

[00:20:19] And now they’re telling me I have to go sit at my dining room table for the foreseeable future and do this job from there.” And so, that was definitely an interesting start to things. But, what I will say on that vein is like, it, well, I only knew these people for a week or so with the Zoom happy hours, the whiplash, the constant communication.

[00:20:40] I mean, Nikki and me would be on FaceTime while we were blitzing. So, when we finally all met up, I think our first time, like really meeting back in person, was socially distanced at a park. But it felt like I had known these people like we had been in office every day. So, it really helped me through the pandemic with having that kind of closeness and building relationships despite not actually being in the office.

[00:21:02] Marc Gonyea: Chris, she started March of 2020.

[00:21:04] Uh, yeah, that’s what she, that’s what she told me. That’s what she told us.

[00:21:08] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, that’s right when Covid happened. Right. It’s not like you started in February. I mean, you started, right that’s like your first month with us. And then you guys had mid-socially distance at a park outside. 

[00:21:19] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. And that was probably, that had to be maybe even a couple months later.

[00:21:23] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Yeah. ‘Cause, we didn’t know what was gonna happen, exactly, what was going on. We just kinda kept working. And so, you guys kind of formed that, that’s a good common bond to have with a group of people. When you started gig. Particularly when we eventually came back to the office. 

[00:21:37] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, definitely. 

[00:21:38] Marc Gonyea: So, what was the job like? So, you had never done anything like this before? 

[00:21:42] Julia Fitzgerald: I had not. And it was challenging, you know, when the world’s shutting down, not a lot of people wanna explore new technologies. And so, you know, the first month was, it was a lot of ramping up, a lot of getting to know; I worked on a managed security service provider as my first campaign. Which, you know, I mentioned that I really liked Spanish,

[00:22:05] this was a way harder foreign language to learn to me than Spanish. And so, it was not only ramping up on tech sales, but it was ramping up product knowledge and how to speak to these CISOs at huge companies. So, it was an awesome experience, but it, it took some time to get the hang of things.

[00:22:22] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:22:23] What was it like doing that from your, where you were living? 

[00:22:27] Julia Fitzgerald: So, whenever people complain, you know, sometimes people wanna work from home, but I’ll always tell them is like, “There’s a countless reasons why we like having people in office, but I’ve done the remote thing.

[00:22:39] We had to go remote with Covid, and let me tell you, getting hung up on when you’re sitting alone at your kitchen table, working. It hurts a lot more than when you’re in an office.” So, it, you know, the good days and bad, it made me very tenacious, and I think I got a lot grittier through that time. ‘Cause, you just had to bounce back from it.

[00:23:01] Because no one knew what was going on with the world.

[00:23:03] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a, it’s, it is a sad, it’s, that’s a sad hangup when you’re experiencing that by yourself. 

[00:23:10] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, definitely. 

[00:23:11] Marc Gonyea: Dining table versus you’re out on the floor with people, “Shake it off.” Or, “It happened to me twice already today.”

[00:23:16] Julia Fitzgerald: Exactly. Exactly. 

[00:23:18] Marc Gonyea: What, as you’re easing to the job, what did you get good at and when did you come back to the office? 

[00:23:24] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Oh, man, we were doing kind of like a hybrid schedule for a while. Slow limit exposure. So, I think it, there were sort of waves of it because our Denver office grew pretty quickly, so we were on a hybrid, partly ’cause of the size and stuff. So, I honestly, I don’t know.

[00:23:44] Marc Gonyea: It doesn’t matter, I guess. I guess that’s, that’s the wrong question for me. What was it like when you got into the office? When other people were around you?

[00:23:52] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing was just, it felt reenergizing. It became this kind of like, I mean, we were, because it was still pandemic time, so a lot of things were shut down. It wasn’t the same, like, Denver that I knew before. And so, we were a really tightly knit group of going over to people’s houses after work. And planning dinners or going and doing this or that, going hiking together, camping, whatever.

[00:24:20] And so, it was kind of like coming back, and I got a little bit of a friend group back. But not only that, was started to take on mentees, the office was growing. So, I was helping people.

[00:24:31] Who, who were your mentees? Matt Kessler. 

[00:24:33] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Kessler’s gone. 

[00:24:35] Julia Fitzgerald: Yep. He’s great. Ethan Chase. 

[00:24:38] Marc Gonyea: Yes. There you go. He still here?

[00:24:40] Julia Fitzgerald: Yep. Alexa Mcgowan was a mentee. And there are a couple others. 

[00:24:45] Marc Gonyea: So, you, you took on that leader leadership world. Did anybody ask you to do that, or, like, did you just kind of have that happen? 

[00:24:51] You know, memoryBlue has a mentorship program that now is even more robust than it was. But, as we were growing, it was kind of this natural progression of like, “We’ve got people coming on board, and we’ve got people who know what they’re doing.

[00:25:05] Julia Fitzgerald: Let’s pair ’em up and make sure that they’ve got all the tools to be successful.” And so, it was sort of a mix of both. It was Joey recognizing, “Hey, you know, you’re really settling into the role and someone that’s kind of established themselves as a leader on the team. Why don’t you formalize that a little bit more?”

[00:25:22] But also me recognizing, “Hey, you know, I want a little more out of this. I wanna help other people get there.” And even just the exposure to different technologies. You know, that’s one of the big benefits of being a mentor is, you know, you’ve got your retained client; that’s your main focus. But, you know, maybe you’re on a cybersecurity campaign, and you’ve always had a passion for healthcare. And so, that healthcare tech, you know, would be a great fit for you to help that person ramp up on. 

[00:25:49] Marc Gonyea: Oh, that’s a great point. When you were ease into the SDR job, what was something you were good at, as an SDR? What was like, what was superpower? 

[00:25:58] Julia Fitzgerald: I think that the organization and flow of the day, like.

[00:26:03] Marc Gonyea: Oh, tell us about that. 

[00:26:06] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Like, especially with my campaign and everything going on in the world, like, LinkedIn was such a good place to get traction and book meetings. And so I know time management can be really challenging, especially as people are ramping up in the SDR role.

[00:26:25] But I was adding, I was doing a hundred LinkedIn touches a day, making around 150 dials, sending out tailored emails, and a lot of that boiled down to like just, you know, buckling down and finding ways to manage my time really effectively so I could get it all done. Yeah, being focused. Even just like navigating accounts where you’re, you know, using something that this person said in one part of the organization in a call to the C-level person, you know, that kind of surround the castle approach that we talk about. And it’s really hard to do that unless you’re very organized and strategic. And so, you know, even now I, my organization has of course, gotten much better.

[00:27:11] But I was finding kind of creative ways to hold myself accountable, whether it was Excel docs, notebooks, reminders, you know, sort of the whole scope of things to keep myself in check. Because, naturally, being remote, there’s a lot more time where you have flexibility. And so, Joey wasn’t sitting right next to me.

[00:27:33] He wasn’t able to walk the sales floor. And so, in order to be successful, I had to really find ways to make it happen. 

[00:27:41] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, and then you would just would you structure your day a certain way? I know we had the blitzes and those things, but how structured would you have to get, ’cause those are a lot of things going on. 

[00:27:48] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. For me, and everyone’s different, some people like very rigid structure planned out to the minute. For me it was more of like a task list. Of like, “Here are my highest priority items, here are the things that absolutely need to get done today. Here are the couple that can potentially roll over to tomorrow, or even can be more like weekly goals.”

[00:28:09] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And that would just kind of organically happen based on what, what you thought needed to get done?

[00:28:14] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I would keep adding to that list throughout the day and then, you know, reorganize that list. So, it’s kind of this, like, continuous evolution of  this master to-do list. 

[00:28:25] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. You could have a cooking show in a do to do the show. Right? 

[00:28:29] Julia Fitzgerald: You’re right. Exactly. Yeah. 

[00:28:31] Marc Gonyea: How has that style of organization changed as you’ve gone from a DM to an MD? 

[00:28:37] Julia Fitzgerald: There’s a lot more to keep track of in the MD role. Yes. Yeah. 

[00:28:41] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. So, how is it you can keep track of things the same way now? ‘Cause now you’re not an IC. Even as a DM, you were an individual contributor; you’re managing people. 

[00:28:50] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Like, yeah, I think a lot of it does carry over because whether it’s DM or MD, you know, you still, you’ve got the items that fall solely on you, kind of like in IC Wood.

[00:29:02] But then you’ve got all these various moving pieces of delegating this and doing that. And so, you know, I kind of like to segment it a little bit in my head of, like, “Here are the things I need to get done.” And then of the things that are more like group tasks, then that almost falls into like a different category, and those rank in importance.

[00:29:22] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Okay. Got it. Alright. So, going back to the SDR real fast, how, when you were here, and you were doing your thing, who are the people in the office? You’re like, “Man, that person is good.” Or, or maybe who was the best person in the office besides yourself, as an SDR, and why? 

[00:29:39] Julia Fitzgerald: When I, right, when I started?

[00:29:41] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Or did, yeah. When, when you were an SDR, who did you look back on, you like, “Man, that person is good.” 

[00:29:45] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Matt Kessler. 

[00:29:46] Marc Gonyea: Kessler. Okay. 

[00:29:47] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. He, I mean, he came along a little bit after I did, but I think he was like our first hire after the Covid shutdown. And so, I mean, he has a background, like he was a youth pastor or minister, so his ability to communicate, you know, he had this public speaking background and way of just getting people engaged, and it showed when he was on the phones.

[00:30:13]  He was very thorough in his explanation but concise. And he was also working in cybersecurity. So, I could very much appreciate, you know, maybe some of the areas that took me a little longer to develop as an SDR because I didn’t have that background where I was so confident and comfortable speaking to people.

[00:30:31] I picked up in what he was doing, and I was like, “Wow. That’s, that’s a, that’s a good SDR.”

[00:30:38] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, it is. It’s good to hear; that’s the value of learning from your colleagues, right?

[00:30:42] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, definitely. 

[00:30:42] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about that cyber thing real quick. So, a lot of people don’t wanna be on a cyber campaign. 

[00:30:49] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. I’ve got a good story about this, actually. 

[00:30:51] Marc Gonyea: Hook it up. 

[00:30:52] Julia Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:30:53] Marc Gonyea: Corcoran and I love stories, Corcoran love stories. 

[00:30:55] Julia Fitzgerald: This one’s for you, Corcoran. I came into the office and, you know, fourth and fifth hire, me and my colleague that started at the same time as me. The three that had started prior were all on the same campaign. And they were on a client, and this was a robotic digitization client. And I came in, and Joey told me like, “You’re gonna be on a managed cybersecurity service provider campaign.” And I was like, I was like, “Oh.” Yeah. That doesn’t really sound like something I would wanna be working on. And I was like, “Everyone else gets to work on a robot campaign.” Like, that’s so much cooler. I think it’s on cruise robots. Right, exactly. I was thinking, like, exactly. 

[00:31:40] Marc Gonyea: Those robots you see on the internet. Right. They can like walk and talk. 

[00:31:42] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s not what the robot that digitizes paper documents does, but.

[00:31:49] You know, I was kind of in this grass is greener mindset. And they were all on this campaign. I was so jealous of the camaraderie they had. Yep. But as I ramped up, I was, like, so enamored by the cybersecurity industry. Yeah. And I was working with awesome people where my AEs were extremely helpful; they were collaborative, they were encouraging.

[00:32:12] Julia Fitzgerald: And so, that also had a big impact on my experience overall. But, you know, it became this thing where I was like, “I came in not knowing what facet of tech I wanted to be in at all.” And the first one, I kind of initially was like, “Mm, not sure if this is gonna be it for me.” And I ended up, you know, wrapping up that campaign and thinking, you know, whatever I end up doing after memoryBlue, cyber security, it’s a good chance that that could be one of the routes I take.

[00:32:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:32:41] And, and, and, but why do not? Why do some people don’t see it as an opportunity? So, you kind of find everybody’s allowed to have a little bit of venting and, like, looking over at the other side of the fence, like, “Man, that looks kind of good. But like, “Mm-hmm.” Then you kind of come back to reality. But other people don’t see it that way.

[00:32:59] Like, what, your explanation for why you kind of saw it the way you did, how do you try and get people who work for you to look at it that way?

[00:33:06] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen it firsthand as a DM with SDRs on my team is like, memoryBlue sets you up to be successful with what’s next. And oftentimes, the path with more resistance makes you that much better at the next step.

[00:33:25] You know, whether it’s working on multiple campaigns, targeting, you know, lower connection rate industries. All of those things, you know? Sure. Maybe it takes you a couple months more to hit quota. Candidly, I didn’t hit quota my first month. But, you know, your first job after college or even your first job breaking into a new industry like tech sales, it’s okay to not have that immediate success because this is so much about learning and developing and growing. And so, if you’re just handed the easiest campaign in the office, the skills that you have afterwards, you’re not gonna be as good at problem-solving. You’re not gonna be as quick to pivot when you see patterns of maybe not finding success in certain avenues. And so, I think it makes you that much more nimble and effective down the road. And so I really appreciated that I didn’t hit quota my first month, but then when I did, it was that much sweeter. Like, it felt like I really earned it. And once I was cruising, like it was, it was a repeatable process, you know, it, I figured out what worked and what talk tracks I could use and what sounded like me. And so, I didn’t want the easier route. 

[00:34:44] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. What do you mean sounded like you? 

[00:34:46] Julia Fitzgerald: I think everyone’s got their own style. memoryBlue teaches you the fundamentals, teaches you industry best practices. But ultimately, like, prospects do recognize when you’re being genuine, you’re using your own words.

[00:35:02] And so, finding ways to make it, you know, effectively communicate the client’s message, so I’m not misleading anyone, but putting my own spin on it and really being authentically me is kind of that turning point where I went from struggling to book meetings or being nervous about my product knowledge to being like, “Okay, it’s just a conversation.

[00:35:24] I’m here to solve a problem. I’m here to generate interest.” And that’s when I kind of came into my own and started really getting the results I was looking for. 

[00:35:31] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, that’s great. ‘Cause I think people go through this crisis of confidence around their identity as a person. And then what they’re trying to do in its role. ‘Cause the role is so personal. ‘Cause, the rejection is still very personal going through it. So, you gotta figure out how to get through it. How do you try and, like, relay this to people who work for you? 

[00:35:50] Julia Fitzgerald: I think everyone’s different. What is gonna get one person fired up is not gonna get the other person fired up.

[00:35:59] So, really getting to know the people on your team and understanding what it is that excites them, why they’re here, what their goals are because then you can start to make a plan with them. I really like to be a collaborative manager. And so, leveling with the people is like, you know, truly, every new hire lunch, I tell them, “I’m gonna give you 110%.

[00:36:21] I expect the same.” And every time I say that, I mean it, like, truly, to my course.

[00:36:26] Marc Gonyea: What you do?

[00:36:27] Julia Fitzgerald: I’ll do anything to make them successful as long as I’m getting the same in return. 

[00:36:32] 

[00:36:32] Marc Gonyea: When you were next year, you hit a Perfect Quarter, right? Tell everybody what that is, just so you know, and people know, not everybody knows, but this just.

[00:36:39] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Perfect Quarter is hitting quota every single month of the quarter. 

[00:36:44] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And you got to go to Tops.

[00:36:46] Julia Fitzgerald: I did. 

[00:36:46] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. As an SDR, right? Which is great. I mean, people earn it for different ways. That’s, that’s the most difficult way to earn it. Right? I think. Alright, so as you’re an SDR, you’re in the path doing this thing.

[00:36:57] Where’d you think you wanted to go? ‘Cause you’re working, you’re seeing like, some people get converted, some people stick around, some, you know, like you’re hearing about what’s going on at other parts of the company. Where did you think you wanted to go with this? 

[00:37:09] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Like I mentioned, one of the big enticing parts of sales was the reap what you sow. You put in X amount of work; you make this much money. And that was really exciting for me. And so, what lines up most with that is the AE route or, you know, an individual contributor role. So, I came into memoryBlue not really having a clear idea of what facet of tech I wanted to be in, but I was pretty sure that I wanted to come in and close deals.

[00:37:37] Like, that was my goal. In fact, coming in, I don’t think I really had a clear understanding that you can do all these different things outside of become an SDR, and then you move up, and then you close business. Of course throughout the interview process and trainings and stuff, I got a much more clear understanding of that.

[00:37:55] But coming in, I didn’t really realize the full scope of what a sales org.

[00:38:00] Marc Gonyea: It’s hard to ’cause it’s so much. Right?

[00:38:02] Julia Fitzgerald: Right, right. And not having that background and stuff. So, you know, my goal was, “Come in, close million dollar deals for some awesome tech company.” However, I actually, that first cybersecurity company I was working with, they really liked me.

[00:38:16] And they made an offer to bring me on board. And when that happened, it was sort of a moment of like, “Let me pause and think about what it is that I really like about what I’m doing, like about the day-to-day and then maybe where I see myself going next.” And when I took that breath, I realized it wasn’t so much like, “I really wanted to hit quota, get top 10, make all this money.”

[00:38:46] It was more like, “I loved collaborating with my coworkers. I loved being a mentor, you know, giving a piece of advice and seeing that result in someone else booking a meeting.” And so, with that, I came to the conclusion like, “Maybe what I thought I wanted out of this isn’t really what I like about the job.”

[00:39:08] And so, around that time, it was about my three month, Marc. Our office was growing, and Joey, I think it was in a PM huddle, was like, “Listen, I’ve been kind of playing MD and DM because the office is small, but my goal is to keep growing the office and eventually have other people manage teams and then I’ll manage them.” And so, he was, he said, “Come talk to me if this is something you’re interested in.” And so, I think the next day, I went into his office, and I’m like, “Let’s talk about this.” 

[00:39:43] Chris Corcoran: And you did? 

[00:39:44] Julia Fitzgerald: And I did. 

[00:39:44] Chris Corcoran: And you ended up doing it. And then, how long you were, were you a DM?

[00:39:49] Julia Fitzgerald: I was a DM for about a year and a half.

[00:39:53] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Wow. That’s good. And what’s the best thing about that job? 

[00:39:57] Julia Fitzgerald: The team.

[00:39:57] Marc Gonyea: The team?

[00:39:58] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:39:58] Marc Gonyea: What do you mean? 

[00:39:59] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. It’s so cool with memoryBlue that you go through these like different eras of your team. So, like, right when I started as a DM, I had a bunch of new people join my team, and it was kind of, like, six months after that, we were like, “Oh, those were the good old days.”

[00:40:16] And then, another six months after that, we look at the team, and it’s a different group of awesome, unique individuals. And it’s like, “Those were the other good old days.” And so, it really is great to be on a team where you’re helping people get to where they wanna be and watching them grow and, you know, you’re developing as a manager.

[00:40:39] And so, I think just the team culture, all of that is what I really liked about being a DM. Would strategizing, helping people hit their goals. I had someone on my team; a client approached me of, like, “Hey, this person’s underperforming. We want them off the campaign.” And I’d worked with this client for a little bit of time.

[00:41:01] You know, it wasn’t one of these like super long-term clients. But I was like, “Listen, client, give me two weeks.” Like, “I feel so confidently that we can get this person there.” Like, “Gimme a little while to prove it before we make that move.” And the next month, that person hit quota. And it was such a win for me and that individual who, they were a really hard worker.

[00:41:23] There were just certain things that they were missing the mark on. And we finally got them there. 

[00:41:27] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. That’s excellent. That’s exciting. What’s the biggest challenge of that role for the SDRs or students who were thinking about being a Delivery Manager? It’s a very fulfilling job, too, but it’s, it’s, it’s, it has a high degree of difficulty to land those jumps. 

[00:41:41] Julia Fitzgerald: It’s a hard, hard job. There are so many moving pieces of the DM role that it’s almost impossible to be proactive with every single aspect of it. ‘Cause you’ve got a big team, you’ve got a bunch of clients, you know, you’re always recruiting, and you’re a hiring manager. So, there’s just so many moving pieces.

[00:42:03] So, I think just like, at the core of that is like being organized, being proactive, yeah. And it’s a lot of personalities to work with. Like, you have so many different types of people, and everyone’s learning style is different. So, you have to be so adaptable as a DM. 

[00:42:20] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And you have the clients.

[00:42:22] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. That too. 

[00:42:23] Marc Gonyea: Our clients are very demanding. But what you think that job taught you? So, you told me what you liked about it, but what, what are the lessons in that role? 

[00:42:32] Julia Fitzgerald: That’s another one where it’s like, how much time you got?

[00:42:35] Marc Gonyea: We, we have time. People wanna know like they don’t wanna hear Chris and I talk about it. They wanna hear about somebody who’s, who’s ascended the peak. The mountain, I guess. I dunno if you’re gonna send a peak. 

[00:42:46] Julia Fitzgerald: Well, I remember when I started as an SDR, I was talking to my mom about the job, and she was like, “You’re gonna be cold calling? You?” Like, ’cause I, you know? 

[00:42:59] Marc Gonyea: Let me jump in there, real quick, Corcoran, every mom’s worst nightmare, right, that their daughter’s telling ’em, “I’m gonna go into sales and make some cold calls.” 

[00:43:09] Julia Fitzgerald: Well, I think she was just so surprised ’cause she was like, “You’re never like that person. That’s like talking to strangers in the grocery store.” And like, you know, and like, I’m a social person, absolutely. But I’m not like this extreme extrovert that is always the loudest in the room.

[00:43:27] Marc Gonyea: Right. 

[00:43:27] Julia Fitzgerald: So, I think she was.

[00:43:28] Marc Gonyea: And nor do you need to be.

[00:43:29] Julia Fitzgerald: Exactly. 

[00:43:29] Marc Gonyea: But keep going. Sorry. You think?

[00:43:31] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, of course not. But I think she was just so surprised by my decision that this was my choice of all the things I could be doing. I’m choosing to cold call people. And so, from that, you know, I learned so much of just communicating with people. So, from there to DM, there was a bit of a jump. But I think from DM to where I am now is like you learn to communicate with so many different types of people; you learn to be thorough in your communication. So, it’s not just like, “How do I talk to this person?” It’s like, “What do I need to say in order to get them to understand what I’m saying?” I would also add to that is just the confidence. Whether it’s fake, it till you make it, you know, there were some days where I didn’t have the answer, and I had to try to figure out the situation. I think it just made me so much more well-rounded of an individual, both personally and professionally.

[00:44:27] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, absolutely. Right. And, and you were the first DM promoted in Denver office. 

[00:44:32] Julia Fitzgerald: I was, yeah. 

[00:44:33] Marc Gonyea: So, that’s like a nice little claim to fame. 

[00:44:34] Julia Fitzgerald: It is.

[00:44:35] Marc Gonyea: I think it was.

[00:44:36] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. And it’s a, a unique experience because Joey was still managing a team of SDRs. So, whereas now Delivering Managers, their MD’s not running a team outside of the other DMs. So, there was a lot more that I had to just kind of fail forward with and figure out because with a new office there are some growing pains. And so, it taught me kind of independence and problem solving and knowing when I need to go to bring it up the chain if there is a problem. So, so many aspects that just my development skyrocketed.

[00:45:15] Marc Gonyea: Chris and I have talked about that. So, it is more challenging for folks out in the wild or, you know, at the outposts or the offices, in some ways, because this is, you guys here. So, yeah. You were the only DM, the first DM promoted. And you’re right, Joey’s kind of preoccupied doing this thing; he’s good manager.

[00:45:31] But you’re right, it’s a little, it’s a little different. So, that’s why it’s such an amazing job. Right? And then, when you were DM interviewing SDR, you still SDRs now, potentially there’s, what are the things you look for? 

[00:45:43] Julia Fitzgerald: I mean, there are a lot of different things that I look for. I keep defaulting to, “Oh, there’s so many things.” But this job is hard.

[00:45:51] So, work ethic is such an important piece of it, is you have to be willing to put in the work, it, like I was saying, your first job out of college or first job breaking into a new industry, it’s okay to really put your nose to the grindstone because it’s gonna make whatever’s next after that feel easier.

[00:46:14] So, I look for that work ethic. 

[00:46:17] Marc Gonyea: How do you change that?

[00:46:18] Julia Fitzgerald: By the stories people tell. You know, one thing I like to ask is just like, “What’s the biggest goal you’ve set for yourself and achieved?” And then, you know, they may tell me I did X, Y, Z.” Really digging into the steps it took to get there.

[00:46:34] “Why was that such a hard goal?” You know, “What were the obstacles to get there? What work did it really take for you to move from not being able to hit that goal to accomplishing it and feeling great about it?” So, that’s, that’s one way, listening to how they talk about hard work and being competitive and leaning into a challenge.

[00:46:53] But along with that, like, coachability is such an important aspect. And if I had resisted coaching, if I had resisted training and using my resources, I would not be where I am. That, memoryBlue is so great because we hire people from all different walks of life, different backgrounds, and I think everyone has something to learn from the people around them.

[00:47:18] And so, being willing and excited to improve and get better is also such an important part of being an SDR at memoryBlue. 

[00:47:27] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:47:28] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.

[00:47:29] Marc Gonyea: It is.

[00:47:29] Chris Corcoran: What’s the biggest misconception you had about being an SDR?

[00:47:33] Julia Fitzgerald: I really thought it was gonna be super cutthroat. Like, I thought I was gonna come in and hate all the people I worked with because they were trying to steal my leads and step on toes. I had some friends who started as SDRs within other companies, and it sounded intense. Like, you know, there are intense days here, there are days where people are in competition with each other for incentives, et cetera. But, like, I did not think it was gonna be this culture where people really are excited about other people’s wins. And I was so surprised that when I hit quota, everyone was, it seemed like, as stoked or more stoked than I was. So, that was, that was probably the biggest misconception I had.

[00:48:22] Chris Corcoran: What about the biggest misconception about being an SDR leader?

[00:48:25] 

[00:48:25] Julia Fitzgerald: I thought it was gonna be easier. I’ll tell you that much.

[00:48:30] Chris Corcoran: What makes it, what, what made it so hard?

[00:48:32] Julia Fitzgerald: In the beginning, well, for starters, I was in the seat for eight months before I became a DM, which objectively is pretty quick to move into a more leadership role. And so, while I felt really equipped as an SDR, I kind of thought that meant, “Okay, ready for the next step.” That wasn’t the case. I’d mentored a few people. I’d worked on a PPM client for a short amount of time, but I think had I been in the role for more like a year, I would’ve just seen a lot more, whether it’s even just in call evals or call breakdowns or providing feedback to my mentees. I had kind of a narrow scope of what success looked like because I found what worked really well for me and then the people who I was around very frequently. And so, I think one of the hardest things was just not having as much background to make me super equipped, ’cause the fundamentals are gonna be the same across the board, but now it’s like working on a data analytics campaign. I’ve had experience working on a cloud data management company. And so, the talk track and the approach, there’s some similarities there. And so I think just not having as much exposure made it more difficult as I was experiencing new things as a DM.

[00:50:08] Chris Corcoran: What about the biggest misconception of being a leader of leaders?

[00:50:11] Julia Fitzgerald: You’re asking the hard questions, Chris. One thing that I’ve always heard is the higher up you are, like the less control you have and the less involvement you have, sort of at the lower levels and stuff. And maybe it’s just because, at this moment in time, I have the luxury of having a little bit smaller team, but I don’t feel like that’s the case unless I would choose to. Being in office, I love that even at the Managing Director level, I can go pop over to a team and shadow their blitz or sit in a call eval and give them feedback, really get to know the SDRs. So, I think the big misconception was like, you know, “You’re not really gonna be as involved with these people.”

[00:51:02] Sure, I’m not gonna have the same day-to-day involvement with SDR as I do as a DM. But it still feels very in the mix, which is something I wasn’t, I wasn’t sure if that was gonna be the case moving into this role.

[00:51:14] Chris Corcoran: Excellent. Thank you.

[00:51:16] Marc Gonyea: So, how did you take the step to the next role? So, the role you’re currently in now, which is you’re a Managing Director, you have a team of Delivery Managers, you have a team of SDRs. 

[00:51:25] Julia Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So a, typically around the, the two year, Marc, as a Delivery Manager, is when it makes sense to start having some conversations about what’s really next for you.

[00:51:40] You know, you’re starting to kind of master the role at that point, as someone who is always a little itchy to understand what’s next, what’s available. You know, I can see that the growth in this company, and so, I didn’t wanna miss an opportunity. So, I started having these conversations probably more like at the year, Marc. Nothing was necessarily moving at that time. ‘Cause I still had a lot of learning to do in the DM role, but I wanted to make sure that if there were opportunities that I was excited about, that I could at least have the opportunity to put my hat in the ring. And so, Marc, when you were out here, Gosh, I don’t know when probably it was about a year into my DM tenure. We started just kind of floating various ideas and growth paths and what that would look like. Talking about where you see memoryBlue headed and the type of talent you’re looking for to continue growing the company.

[00:52:34] And one of the things we talked about was just, “What would it look like to add another Managing Director at one of our satellite offices?” So, in HQ, we’ve got multiple managing directors, obviously, that’s where the company started. Biggest office. But I didn’t wanna leave Denver. You know, I decided this was home. And so we talked about what the leverage ratio would look like to make sense. And from there, you know, the wheels kind of got turning. And I think it was probably that following week; I had a one-on-one with Joey, who was still my Managing Director at that time. And I was like, “I want to help you grow this office so that we make it so big that it makes sense for me to be your peer.

[00:53:24] Julia Fitzgerald: I wanna be a managing director. I wanna help with that. I wanna be your strategic partner in making this successful.” And so, from there, we started kind of talking about what that would look like, what he would need to see from me, what some of the things that I maybe needed to still develop and how to do that, executing game plans and all that said, the more we talked about it, the more ideas we brought to you, to Kristen and made kind of a business case for why this would make sense.

[00:53:56] Of course, with collaboration from you guys. 

[00:53:58] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, of course. 

[00:53:59] Julia Fitzgerald: Enablement and approval and all of that. But, it was really exciting to see that this idea that maybe hadn’t been done at one of our smaller offices could be executed just based on me raising my hand and presenting a strong reason for us to move this along.

[00:54:19] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’ve been good about vocalizing, like you’re a really good example of someone being their own advocate. And not that you needed it, you’re performing quite nicely, but you’ve always been interested in the next thing and talking about that with us. And I’m always curious about where did that come from, too? Like, that whole concept of making sure you had a seat at the table. 

[00:54:40] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s actually a great question because going back to my mom and her like, “Cold calling. What?” She probably would’ve told you that, like, I don’t advocate enough for myself. And that’s, actually, feedback that I would get from professors, from teachers is like, “You know what you’re talking about, but sometimes you’re not very quick to volunteer that.” And I think along my professional development at memoryBlue I started to observe the people that I admired and the people that were moving forward in their career.

[00:55:16] And I think it was just kind of this switch of like, “It’s okay to not have the perfect answer, but if you’ve got an idea, share it.” You know? Because maybe it is a perfect answer. Maybe it’s at least like the best answer. And if you want a change to happen, you can’t just sit there. You have to advocate for yourself.

[00:55:40] Marc Gonyea: Yes. Yeah. At all levels of the organization. 

[00:55:42] Julia Fitzgerald: Absolutely. 

[00:55:43] Marc Gonyea: Right, right. That’s like a lesson everyone else. To kinda take the heart. And it helps you have an impact on what’s going on. 

[00:55:49] Julia Fitzgerald: Totally. And I was gonna say with kind of the management style that I pride myself on is like, I wanna be a really collaborative team and get other people’s ideas because I know that I’m not always gonna have the best idea. But on the flip flop of that, you know, if I have a boss and they’re looking to the team, it’s okay for me to raise my hand and give my opinion because maybe it’s not the one chosen, but maybe it is, and that is just gonna help us grow. Or maybe that really inspires someone to change their style of outreach, and they, you know, they’re hitting quota because of those changes. And so, I think it’s better to at least share that than to keep quiet if there’s an opportunity for other people to benefit from it. 

[00:56:36] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. So, let’s talk about this real quick. This is a nice little segue ’cause you’re doing a great job as a Managing Director, and there is more and more to come from you, on that, for sure. Just a lot, a lot of chapters in that boat left to be told. Women in tech, right? Or women, you know, we have clients who ask us fairly often, “Hey, we need, we’d like you guys to have some women we can work with.” That sort of thing. And we always try and say, “Yeah, we’re working on that. That’s always the biggest initiative, like diversity and inclusion and backgrounds and genders and so on and so forth.

[00:57:09] But why do you think there, there aren’t more women working in, in tech, even as SDRs, here at the tech companies kind of out there? And you, you kind of like, I don’t wanna say you stumbled into it, but it was a, you only have people who major in sales or minor in sales, and you didn’t have any of that. 

[00:57:26] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, I’m thinking back to my education and what was kind of the obvious paths for women, and of course, there was no, like, clear, like, you know, “Do this.” Or “Don’t do that.” But I don’t think that there’s enough conversation at an early age about the various segments of business.

[00:57:53] Because we see it even with candidates we interview, you know, we interview a lot of marketing majors. And, candidly, marketing didn’t really excite me in high school or college. And sales wasn’t on my radar. So, I think it kind of starts with just the education earlier on about, like, you know, “Maybe you don’t wanna go into marketing, but if you’re competitive and driven and self-starter, here are some other opportunities.” As far as just getting more women into this industry, you know, it, I don’t know. It’s, it’s competitive. I think, like, people have their preconceived ideas of, like, entry-level sales job can be a boys’ club. At memoryBlue, like our Denver office, sure, we’ve got more men than women working here.

[00:58:41] But it’s not that disproportionate. 

[00:58:45] Marc Gonyea: No, it’s not. 

[00:58:45] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. And I think part of it is, just like you said, advocating for yourself. Is like feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable. You know, it’s an industry where you are gonna get shut down. You are gonna get nos, but that’s okay. ‘Cause, it makes you stronger and more tenacious and better at anything you do afterwards.

[00:59:09] So, you know, for all my women listening to this, “Do it. Try it, you know, if it’s not for you, you’re still gonna develop some amazing skills that are gonna help you in the long run. Even if you ultimately decide sales is not where you wanna be long-term.” 

[00:59:25] Marc Gonyea: Yep, exactly. Nice. Spoken like a baller little lady MD, right?

[00:59:30] I mean, ’cause we, we’ve wanna find more Julia Fitzgeralds to come work here and kind of, I don’t climb the corporate ladder. I know that sounds terrible. Like, that word doesn’t associate with a lot of positive, but it’s.

[00:59:40] Chris Corcoran: want her, Marc. We want her. We want, we want these people to come here and run the point.

[00:59:45] Marc Gonyea: Run the point. Run the offense, call the players.

[00:59:48] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. The floor general.

[00:59:50] Marc Gonyea: Tell me where to go on the floor, Marc. I want Julia to tell me, “Marc, don’t you ever shoot the ball. Just play deep, get rebounds. You shoot the ball. I’m gonna pinch you.” Tell Corcoran to run faster. All right. Well, Julia, knowing everything you know now, what would you have told yourself the night before you, I guess, started at the company? 

[01:00:10] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah. Have more confidence. Um, going back to that advocating for yourself is, like, be comfortable with what you’re doing and the way you’re doing it, but with that, you know, be a sponge. memoryBlue has an incredible amount of resources, and one of the things I really admired about one of my coworkers when I was an SDR was she was like, in every facet of memoryBlue, picking people’s brains. Like, she reached out to Tommy Gasman, she reached out to Kristen. She was exploring this and that. And that was just something that, early on in my tenure, I wouldn’t even thought to do. Like, you know, so this is such an amazing and unique company where everyone is really excited about the growth opportunities, and they wanna help you succeed and get better.

[01:01:07] And so, use the expertise of those more senior people because there’s always gonna be something you can learn from it. 

[01:01:15] Marc Gonyea: That’s huge. You just reminded me about something. There’s some Buckys here who have been in my business, who work on your team, who want to sit down and chat in a few minutes.

[01:01:23] Julia Fitzgerald: Awesome. 

[01:01:23] Marc Gonyea: We got obligation to them. Little mini Julias. Right. They wanna know who they’re come in for Corcoran next. 

[01:01:29] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, I probably told ’em that. And they’re like, “I gotta get some time apart.” Pretty soon, your calendars gonna be very filled up.

[01:01:36] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. 

[01:01:36] Julia Fitzgerald: You know it, it also is just exploring the different paths, too.

[01:01:40] You know, my friend who I worked with, she didn’t know if she wanted to go into individual contributor roles, direct sales. She didn’t know if she even wanted to be in a company where it was like selling services and consulting and stuff. So, she was trying to really navigate, you know, “What am I passionate about?

[01:02:01] What are the things I really like about? Tech sales or, you know, managing or whatever?” And so, sometimes, the best way to really uncover that is to connect with people who have been doing it, who have some advice for you. 

[01:02:14] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. I encourage anyone who listens to this to reach out to you, whether they work at memoryBlue or not. 

[01:02:19] Julia Fitzgerald: Yeah, absolutely. Happy to chat. 

[01:02:22] Marc Gonyea: Excellent. Well, Julia, it’s been a great journey so far. I’m looking forward to continuing it. I love coming out this office ’cause what you guys got going on here, it’s strong. It’s got a good vibe. You’ve been a critical part of building the culture. If you think about that, that’s pretty significant.

[01:02:38] Like, you’ve built the culture of these people who’ve come in here, you’ve gotten hired out, who’ve stayed all because of indirectly, directly ’cause of your leadership. So, Chris and I greatly appreciate that.

[01:02:48] Julia Fitzgerald: Denver office is fun. 

[01:02:50] Marc Gonyea: Denver office is awesome. All right, well, that’s it. We’ll, we’ll do this again sometime soon. 

[01:02:55] Julia Fitzgerald: Hope so. 

[01:02:56] Marc Gonyea: Thank you for your time. 

[01:02:57] Chris Corcoran: Thanks, Julia. 

[01:02:58] Julia Fitzgerald: Thanks. 

[01:02:59] Marc Gonyea: We gotta get back to work now. 

[01:03:00] Julia Fitzgerald: All right.