Episode 117: Catherine Seaman – The “Back-Pocket” Book
Valuable sales experience can come from the most unlikely of places. From learning how to be a solid competitor as a high school athlete, to challenging yourself to sell your most expensive cocktails as a bartender, sales skills can be both learned and sharpened long before you land your first official sales job.
In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Senior Sales Manager at Infinite Blue, Catherine Seaman recounts the many steps, experiences, and natural qualities that have built up her skillset and enabled her to thrive in her sales career ever since she started at memoryBlue.
Guest-At-A-Glance
💡 Name: Catherine Seaman
💡 What she does: Catherine is a senior sales manager, West Coast at Infinite Blue.
💡 Company: Infinite Blue
💡 Noteworthy: Catherine has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, and she is currently with Infinite Blue, a SaaS-based company offering extensible solutions for Business Continuity, IT Disaster Recovery, Crisis/Incident Management, Mass Notification, and Vendor Management for clients worldwide. Previously she was with memoryBlue, an innovative leader in sales development expertise, execution, and talent. Catherine is the winner of the memoryBlue Phenom award for 2022.
💡 Where to find Catherine: LinkedIn l Website
Key Insights
⚡Natural competitiveness always helps in sales. As a child, Catherine was involved in sports and liked field hockey the most. In addition, she grew up with two older sisters, so it is not surprising that she has always had a competitive spirit. But, as she says, being competitive is a plus in sales. “It’s turning into more of me being competitive with myself and putting something out that I want — whether it’s a prospect, a potential client, or a number on how much I want to make that year — just setting all of myself to achieving that goal. So, competitive: What more can I get? How can I bring the biggest client? I think that’s a good part of a sales organization that a person in sales has that attribute.”
⚡Hospitality is an excellent school for sales jobs. Catherine started working at the age of fifteen because she liked to have her own money and finance herself. She graduated just before the pandemic and started working in the hospitality industry and points out that while working as a bartender, she realized that sales was the right job for her. “It only takes about a hundred plus customers saying, ‘Have you ever thought about getting into sales?’ Then you really do take a step back and be like, ‘Maybe there is some merit here?’ And I even started playing games with myself and my bar manager where I’m like, ‘Okay, what do you want to sell out of tonight?’ And so this was the point that I knew I needed to get my stuff together and get started in a career. And so, I’d start playing games. I’d be like, ‘What do you want to sell out of?’ And it’d be five minutes, and I’d have 14 shots sold of whatever liquor we wanted to sell that night. And so, it was really fun, kind of practicing that way.”
⚡Adopting your own style while doing SDR work can be helpful. Perhaps the most unpleasant part of the SDR job is cold calling. Beginners are most often afraid of rejection, that someone will hang up on them, and they don’t feel comfortable about it. It was the same with Catherine, but she points out that working intensely on her style helped her. “That’s really when I came into my own and was able to start feeling comfortable doing it — when I started trusting my own way of doing things, and my own style of talking to people, my own style of writing emails, my own style of outreach. I came through so much more authentic when I was doing things the way that felt natural to me, and so that’s what allowed me to then start having fun; also, because I didn’t feel like I was an imposter.”
Episode Highlights
memoryBlue as a Springboard
“My time here was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. I was leaving, going home, and immediately pulling open my laptop and finishing my work. And I think that I really came into it knowing that that’s what I was going to do, that this was, ‘I want memoryBlue to serve as my launching pad. I want to get what I can out of it and just fully commit.’ And so that’s how I approached it. And I was lucky to have a really awesome team and also awesome AEs that I was sending the meetings to.”
Catherine’s First Sales Job as a SDR
“I knew what I was getting into in the sense that I was told to prepare for rejection. And so, I definitely prepared, but I don’t think that I knew really what I was getting into in terms of how nervous I’d be talking to people. I’m like, ‘I’m getting into sales because I like talking to people. I find it easy. I talk to people at the grocery store, and at the corner store, and all that.’ And I think that I put a ton of pressure on myself as I do with things I want to do well, but I was so nervous to talk to people.
Once I got through my head, ‘A, it’s totally okay to make a fool out of yourself, and, B, it’s one conversation; if you call them back in three days, they’re never even going to remember that they were talking to you’ — putting it into that perspective helped.”
How Can You Make Your Quota
“I came in with, ‘I’m never going to miss quota.’ That was what my dad told me. ‘You just have to make your quota every single month. That’s your job as a salesperson, to make your quota.’ And so that was tough because we had a very niche industry that we were selling. And the first month, ‘Okay, make ten.’ Then it’s two days before Christmas — it was December 23rd — ‘We upped your quota to 12.’ And then I made it; I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is my first month.’ It turns out my mom’s boyfriend at the time was in IT Compliance, was an actual qualified prospect, so I took the call on Christmas Eve in my upstairs — he was downstairs — and that was a great meeting, a wonderful opportunity, actually a real opportunity, brought to our team. So, I am the queen of back pocket books because I learned my lesson.
It was one time, 4:00 p.m. last [day] of the month. ‘Dad, I need that emergency meeting I talked about; get me on the phone with your IT services guy. I need to talk to him.’ And this guy is getting in the car on a family vacation, but he takes his call because his boss told him he has to.”
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Catherine Seaman: I think putting too much stake on each conversation I had, where once I got through my head, you know, A, it’s totally okay to make a fool out of yourself.
[00:00:08] And B, you know, it’s one conversation. If you call ’em back in three days, they’re never even gonna remember that they were talking to you, you know? So, really putting it into that perspective helped.
[00:00:38] Marc Gonyea: Catherine Seaman in the house.
[00:00:40] Catherine Seaman: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:42] Chris Corcoran: Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:43] Catherine Seaman: Happy to be here.
[00:00:45] Marc Gonyea: memoryBlue 2022 Phenom winner of the year. We’ll talk about that a little bit, but again, thanks for gracing us with your presence today.
[00:00:54] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:00:54] Marc Gonyea: You were here a couple months ago to receive your award and did a fireside with the Virginia office, which we really appreciate.
[00:01:00] Catherine Seaman: It was fun talking to all the employees.
[00:01:02] Chris Corcoran: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:02] Catherine Seaman: Really was.
[00:01:02] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Thank you.
[00:01:03] Chris Corcoran: Saw, we saw your old cube and everything.
[00:01:06] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. It’s changed a bit. Expanded. It looks good in here.
[00:01:09] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:01:09] It’s a little bit bigger, but enough about that. Let’s talk about you, and let’s just go back a little bit, like, just to, so Chris and I get to know you a little better in the audience.
[00:01:19] Tell us little bit about where you’re from, where you grew up, that sort of thing. And we will kind of speed you up, slow you down where it’s…
[00:01:25] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely. I was originally born in New Hampshire. Um, we relocated for my dad’s job to the D.C Area, Maryland. Um, right outside. And I grew up there until I graduated high school.
[00:01:38] Um, and went to the University of Colorado for undergrad.
[00:01:42] Marc Gonyea: Let’s go back.
[00:01:42] What were you like as a kid?
[00:01:44] Catherine Seaman: Competitive.
[00:01:45] Marc Gonyea: Really?
[00:01:46] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:01:46] Marc Gonyea: Tell us more about that.
[00:01:47] Catherine Seaman: Yes. I am the youngest of three girls. My dad wanted nothing more than a boy, but the only thing he wanted less was four kids, I think, so.
[00:01:58] Marc Gonyea: I’ve never heard him say that way before. Okay.
[00:02:00] Catherine Seaman: So, he settled on me. I was always really into sports. My mom has funny stories about watching me play, you know, preschool basketball and the kids, the dads are still running along the sidelines and me just elbowing people on the face and just her being humiliated, um, and, of course, my dad’s loving it. Yeah.
[00:02:21] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Your dad loved it. Yeah, right. He’s like, “Yeah. I love that.”
[00:02:24] Catherine Seaman: Loved it. But definitely always.
[00:02:26] Marc Gonyea: Did you have a favorite sport?
[00:02:27] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:02:27] Marc Gonyea: Did you keep playing sports in the high school?
[00:02:29] Catherine Seaman: I did, yeah.
[00:02:30] Marc Gonyea: What, what was your favorite?
[00:02:30] Catherine Seaman: Field hockey.
[00:02:31] Marc Gonyea: Okay. All right.
[00:02:33] Chris Corcoran: Chicks with sticks.
[00:02:34] Catherine Seaman: Chicks with sticks. Exactly.
[00:02:35] Yep. I played lacrosse too, but field hockey definitely was able to be a part of every play. Um, so always been a go-getter and that was really translated well to field hockey ’cause wherever the ball was, I was.
[00:02:51] Marc Gonyea: Interesting. How does that, we’ll just talk about that real quick. How does that translate into sales? That kind of competitive sports background or, you know, elbow people in the face, maybe?
[00:03:01] That might be helpful.
[00:03:02] Catherine Seaman: I think that definitely the natural competitiveness always helps. It’s translated more into, turning into more me being competitive with myself and really putting something out that I want, whether it’s a prospect or a potential client or a number on how much I wanna make that year, really just setting all of myself to achieving that goal.
[00:03:30] So, competitive. What more can I get? How can I bring the biggest client? How can I, you know, with team? I think that’s a good part of a sales organization, is each person in sales has that sort of attribute, so you play off of it with each other.
[00:03:46] Marc Gonyea: Okay. So, you’re in high school playing sports, doing your thing.
[00:03:49] What, did you do anything else? You, do you work or do you just do mostly school or what?
[00:03:53] Catherine Seaman: I did, I worked, I started working at 15, just hosting at a restaurant. And I found as soon as I started making my own money, how much I loved making money. Um, and having it. And so, it then turned into a full-time nannying.
[00:04:09] I was nannying seven days a week on off seasons from sports.
[00:04:12] Marc Gonyea: Really?
[00:04:13] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. So, I was able to save close to $8,000 before I went to college.
[00:04:19] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:04:20] That might, might as well be like McKenna, are you listening?
[00:04:23] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Which I never should have told my dad though because, of course, I did not get any allowance from that point on.
[00:04:29] Marc Gonyea: That might as well be 50 grand.
[00:04:30] Catherine Seaman: Oh.
[00:04:31] Marc Gonyea: I mean, 100 grand when you’re at 17, 18 years old.
[00:04:33] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, 8 grand.
[00:04:34] Catherine Seaman: All spent in one semester. No, I’m just.
[00:04:40] What? But let’s, let’s just talk about that. ‘Cause I think from doing all these podcast, sports is important.
[00:04:47] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. No, it’s not. It’s not a requirement. It’s just, it’s important helping people’s view, but there’s definitely something about people who have jobs. Chris had this. Chris bought his first car. I remember I lived on the street.
[00:04:55] He bought this white Nissan Pulsar and delivering newspapers.
[00:04:58] Chris Corcoran: ’85.
[00:04:59] Marc Gonyea: 1985.
[00:05:00] Chris Corcoran: ’85 Pulsar.
[00:05:01] Marc Gonyea: It was, just to be clear, it was not 1985, but the car was 1985. And I was like, “How did this guy fucking buy his fucking car? The guy delivering newspaper. I’m making money.” Like, there’s, there, there’s, what do you think it is about being young and making the money?
[00:05:18] Because it’s not, like, when you’re 15, you’re, you’re, like, trying to move up the socioeconomic ladder. Something else about.
[00:05:26] Catherine Seaman: I think for me, it’s power and freedom, really.
[00:05:30] Marc Gonyea: The freedom.
[00:05:31] Catherine Seaman: Is definitely the power is what it felt like in the freedom at that age, you know? It was, I was lucky and blessed enough to have parents who didn’t buy me my first car. But guess what? You gotta put gas in it. So, if it wants to be driven, that’s, you know, “Here’s your car, we bought it for you. But if you wanna go anywhere, you have to figure out how you’re gonna put the gas in it.” So, I think that for me it was, “Okay, I have the money to do this.” And that’s still today, you know? If there’s an opportunity, I like being comfortable enough to say, “I can do that if I want to.”
[00:06:04] Marc Gonyea: There’s something that, that you learned that lesson, it clicks That you can see, “It’s my own money.” And it’s easier even, you know, you’re not that old, you could have easier access to the money.
[00:06:15] Like, now if you’re a kid and you make money, you have direct access or even, not even, you can just get the money easier and then you don’t have to ask people for permission.
[00:06:24] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:06:24] Marc Gonyea: And then you can equate, it’s kind of fascinating. All right, so you, so you had, you were sports, you understand, you’re making money.
[00:06:30] What do you think you wanted to be when you were in high school and you grew up?
[00:06:33] Catherine Seaman: A lawyer. Pretty much a lawyer.
[00:06:35] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Speaking of money.
[00:06:36] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, definitely speaking of money, and I am excellent at winning arguments, so I’ve kind of always gotten.
[00:06:44] Marc Gonyea: Where’d you learn that? You and Chris can argue. We’ll see who wins.
[00:06:47] Catherine Seaman: Oh, good.
[00:06:47] Marc Gonyea: All right. Where’d you learn that?
[00:06:50] Catherine Seaman: I think I’m naturally very self-righteous and I.
[00:06:54] We didn’t get along, we didn’t get along. I’m gonna leave. I’m gonna leave. I always believe in kind of, I have conviction, um, and if I’m wrong, I readily say tail between my legs, I’m wrong. I can say I’m wrong, but I’m just typically not.
[00:07:16] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:07:17] Catherine Seaman: But no, I think that that’s probably, probably where it stemmed, is just she’ll argue her point.
[00:07:23] Chris Corcoran: Well, she likes power, money.
[00:07:27] Marc Gonyea: Freedom.
[00:07:27] Chris Corcoran: Freedom. I mean, that’s all, that’s all kind of plays into that whole law thing, I would think. Being a lawyer.
[00:07:32] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:07:33] Marc Gonyea: Oh, so where did that go?
[00:07:34] Catherine Seaman: So, I was a political science major.
[00:07:37] Marc Gonyea: So, where’d you go to school?
[00:07:38] Catherine Seaman: University of Colorado.
[00:07:39] Okay. And how’d you end up there? My older sister, Brooke.
[00:07:42] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Oh, she was there.
[00:07:43] Catherine Seaman: Um, she went to Boulder.
[00:07:44] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:07:44] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, so she was a, she was in her fourth year when I was in my first. It was really nice. I have had the good fortune of up until most recently in Philadelphia, always living by a family member.
[00:07:58] Which is really nice. So, I’m close with my sisters. It was a natural choice for me once I saw the campus. Um, I fell in love with it. But I got the good advice at one point during my undergrad to shadow a lawyer. To see what their day-to-day was because I think it’s easy to think, “Trial law, I’m gonna be there and my, you know, kitten heels and my pencil skirt and just being a boss,” but that’s really, I learned not a lot of what their day-to-day looks like. So, I.
[00:08:26] Marc Gonyea: What, what do you remember it being, looking like?
[00:08:30] Catherine Seaman: A lot of paperwork. A lot of paperwork. Yep.
[00:08:34] Marc Gonyea: You’re like, “No.”
[00:08:35] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. It’s, it’s not me. I’m a little more talkative, a little more agile, and active for that.
[00:08:44] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Okay. Sound a little more self-righteous.
[00:08:46] Catherine Seaman: Yep.
[00:08:47] Yes.
[00:08:48] Chris Corcoran: So, a little more dynamic. Dynamic.
[00:08:51] Catherine Seaman: I like that word.
[00:08:52] Chris Corcoran: We’ll go with the word dynamic.
[00:08:53] Marc Gonyea: Okay. There you go.
[00:08:54] Marc Gonyea: I appreciate that. So, when that happened, what did you think you were gonna do? So, this, now you’re in college, and what were you doing in college?
[00:09:01] Just going to school, were you?
[00:09:02] Catherine Seaman: Working.
[00:09:03] Marc Gonyea: Working?
[00:09:03] Catherine Seaman: Working.
[00:09:04] Marc Gonyea: Talk about that.
[00:09:05] And so, I, actually, I’m very lucky. I do have supportive parents where I took semesters off here and there for school, so I didn’t do this straight through four years. When I was kind of reevaluating what I wanted to do, I felt it best not to waste a semester, you know, trying to figure that out. And so, I took time off to work. And I worked full-time. And that really allowed me to kind of mature and grow up while kind of reprioritizing what I wanted and how best to get my money’s worth for my education.
[00:09:41] Chris Corcoran: Sure.
[00:09:41] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:09:42] Chris Corcoran: Um, and then I graduated college and…
[00:09:45] Marc Gonyea: What were you doing? What kind of jobs were you working?
[00:09:47] Catherine Seaman: All, all hospitality. So, all food.
[00:09:50] Chris Corcoran: So, no more nannying?
[00:09:51] No more nannying. Nope. It was all bartending, serving tables, cocktail waitressing.
[00:09:57] Chris Corcoran: In Boulder or, or here?
[00:09:59] Catherine Seaman: In Boulder. And then I moved, at one point I spent the summer with my oldest sister, Alex and she was living in Charleston, South Carolina.
[00:10:07] Chris Corcoran: Oh, okay.
[00:10:07] Catherine Seaman: And so, I ended up moving to Charleston, staying enrolled at CU Boulder, so I finished my time at CU Boulder, but online. So, I was living in Charleston. Um, working downtown, going to the beach every weekend, having a blast.
[00:10:24] Catherine Seaman: It was a fun time.
[00:10:25] Marc Gonyea: Financing. You’re financing this, too, right?
[00:10:27] You’re working?
[00:10:28] Catherine Seaman: Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Since I’ve, since I’ve graduated high school, I’ve financed myself other than college.
[00:10:36] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Alright. So, so yeah, you, I mean, yeah. Sometimes Chris and I talk about you, question the merit or the education value of, like, the traditional school four years getting out.
[00:10:47] Maybe working in the summers versus is, like, you, you’re learning all sorts of cool things.
[00:10:51] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:10:52] Marc Gonyea: What, so what did you think you wanted to do though when you got out? ‘Cause we, we kind of, Chris and I kind of have an idea, but, like, just walk, walk us through that path.
[00:10:59] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:10:59] So I.
[00:11:00] Marc Gonyea: Political science degree, but it’s kind of like.
[00:11:02] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:11:03] It almost felt like by the time I graduated it was almost for the sake of checking box, More than escalating on to my next venture. I actually think I had graduated about 8 to 9 months prior, and it was right before the pandemic. And I had given myself, “Okay, you’re only gonna bartend ’till January.” And I’m having blasts, and I was making a lot of money.
[00:11:30] Chris Corcoran: Tough. It’s tough not to get sucked into life.
[00:11:32] Catherine Seaman: It’s really, really tough. And especially Charleston is such a hospitality city. It’s all driven by that. So, most of my friends and almost all of my friends were in food and beverage. And so, it’s not uncommon to have 35-year-old, 40-year-old bartenders who are super successful.
[00:11:49] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:11:49] Catherine Seaman: I mean, you guys would be shocked if you saw my W2s for, for the years I was bartending.
[00:11:54] Marc Gonyea: I wouldn’t. I, I believe it.
[00:11:55] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:56] Marc Gonyea: I believe it. I believe it.
[00:11:57] Catherine Seaman: And so, it’s so tough not in its immediate gratification, it’s cash in your hand every night. And so, I was struggling to really get myself out of that and really get my resume together, figure out what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to be in sales at that point because.
[00:12:17] Marc Gonyea: How’d you know that?
[00:12:18] Catherine Seaman: I think that it only takes about hundred-plus customers saying, “Have you ever thought about getting into sales? Have you ever thought about getting into sales?” Where you really do take a step back and be like, “Maybe there is some merit here.”
[00:12:31] And I even started playing games with myself and my bar manager, where I’m like, “Okay, what do you wanna sell out of tonight?” And so, this was at the point that I knew I needed to get my stuff together and get started in a career. And so, I’d start playing games. I’d be like, “What do you wanna sell out of?”
[00:12:49] And it’d be, like, 5 minutes. I’d have 14 shots sold, or whatever liquor we wanted to sell that night. And so, it was really fun kind of practicing that way with long stakes.
[00:13:01] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.
[00:13:02] And your dad’s in sales? Tech sales.
[00:13:03] Catherine Seaman: He is, yep.
[00:13:04] Chris Corcoran: So, did you ever approach him about, “Hey, this is what I’m thinking,” or no?
[00:13:10] Catherine Seaman: I, I did.
[00:13:11] I definitely did. I think.
[00:13:12] Chris Corcoran: And what’d you hear from him?
[00:13:16] Catherine Seaman: To be blunt, basically, “I don’t believe in you.”
[00:13:19] Chris Corcoran: Wow.
[00:13:19] Catherine Seaman: A little bit.
[00:13:20] Chris Corcoran: Um, and then it’s all over at that point.
[00:13:22] Catherine Seaman: Well, and that propels me, that totally propels me.
[00:13:25] Marc Gonyea: Outcome the elbows.
[00:13:29] Catherine Seaman: Outcome the elbows. That’s exactly right.
[00:13:31] Chris Corcoran: Wow.
[00:13:31] Catherine Seaman: So, yeah.
[00:13:32] Marc Gonyea: People have a different perception.
[00:13:35] Who knows? Maybe fathers. I got, I have three daughters and a son. And, like, what you name, who knows, right?
[00:13:41] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:13:43] Marc Gonyea: But we’ll get, we’ll get back. When was the point, though? Like, the point. So, you’re in Charleston, doing well. It’s a thriving industry down there. And I’m sure you were exceptional at. It sounds like you were.
[00:13:53] What was the point that you’re like, “Okay, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna go more corporate or whatever.”
[00:13:59] Catherine Seaman: Actually, the pandemic.
[00:14:00] Marc Gonyea: The pandemic.
[00:14:00] Catherine Seaman: That was exactly what
[00:14:03] Marc Gonyea: A perfect example of, like, pandemic being not, people quitting work, people changing work.
[00:14:08] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, redirecting, for sure. Because I, I really did, I didn’t know how to, living in Charleston, I think for me was a little bit of just kind of stuck.
[00:14:20] I was so comfortable, and I was having so much fun. And honestly, at that point, I, during the pandemic, I lived with my dad in Florida, unemployed for a while, getting my stuff together and also taking his advice on what to prepare for, places to look, industries, what I wanted to sell. I was going back and forth between tech and pharma for a bit.
[00:14:44] And really just kind of polishing up what I needed to, to apply. But then I moved back to the D.C Area, and it was strange. It really did feel like my drive all of a sudden, like, I had forgotten that part of myself for a while, and that just kicked into overdrive.
[00:15:01] Marc Gonyea: When you moved back here?
[00:15:02] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:15:03] Marc Gonyea: Mm-hmm. Why, why was that?
[00:15:04] Catherine Seaman: I don’t know. I think sometimes it really is environment. I think it really does take a shift. And I moved back here, and I, all of a sudden, was completely aligned with what I wanted.
[00:15:15] Marc Gonyea: So, but it’s funny about your pops. Like, he maybe not have thought of you in tech sales, but it sounds, like, he was prepping you.
[00:15:23] Catherine Seaman: Oh, for sure.
[00:15:24] Marc Gonyea: Obviously.
[00:15:25] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:15:25] Marc Gonyea: And then how did he find out about us?
[00:15:27] Catherine Seaman: So, actually, Steve Williams, who is {Mm-hmm.} A very good fam, family friend.
[00:15:32] Marc Gonyea: Why not?
[00:15:33] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:15:34] Chris Corcoran: Not an alum, but he’s an alum of sorts.
[00:15:37] Catherine Seaman: Especially.
[00:15:37] Chris Corcoran: Right? Former coworker.
[00:15:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, but I mean he was the boss. That was, that was a peon, but, but yeah.
[00:15:45] Catherine Seaman: And a ding ’cause he is retired, so that he is, that’s wonderful for him.
[00:15:49] Marc Gonyea: Retired me.
[00:15:50] Catherine Seaman: I think that’s always the question, right? It’s hard to get people to let go if they’re so good at. But memoryBlue was the first recommended it, it was the first and only place I applied, actually.
[00:16:03] Chris Corcoran: It only takes one.
[00:16:04] Catherine Seaman: Yep, yep. It was the best choice.
[00:16:06] Marc Gonyea: So, talk about that process, though.
[00:16:10] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. It was.
[00:16:11] Marc Gonyea: Not to the interview process, but it was, like, the whole transition.
[00:16:14] Catherine Seaman: Starting? Yeah.
[00:16:15] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:16] Catherine Seaman: I mean, I walked in, and I truly had not used Outlook. I was working off a Mac at home. I really was completely to most everything that you think about in a business sense.
[00:16:29] Scheduling, sending calendar invites, look at, you know, Zoom, the whole thing. I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to Francois Gatsinzi.
[00:16:38] Marc Gonyea: Francois Gatsinzi.
[00:16:39] Catherine Seaman: Yes. It’s another awesome, awesome friend of mine. And he and I just bonded day one and kind of went through it together. He was, I think five years by, you know, younger than me, five years younger than me at that point
[00:16:54] And just finishing school. He’s hip to all of it. And I’m like, “I can’t believe.” First of all, I’m lying about my age ’cause I don’t want anyone to know that I’m not immediately out of college. But no, I, he definitely, I don’t know how I would’ve survived those first couple, you saw Francois probably my whole time.
[00:17:13] Chris Corcoran: Yep.
[00:17:14] Marc Gonyea: That part of the process. We’re trying to get like-minded individuals in here together.
[00:17:18] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:17:19] Marc Gonyea: We’re gonna kind of work with one another and bring each other along and recognize, and it’s a, it’s a lifelong wanting experience, right?
[00:17:25] Catherine Seaman: It really is.
[00:17:26] Marc Gonyea: Because the job, talking about the role, the job’s not easy.
[00:17:29] Catherine Seaman: It’s not easy. No. And to be honest, there was. I think the, my time here was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life, truly. I was leaving, you know, Tyson’s working, going home, and immediately pulling open my laptop and finishing my work. And I think that I really came into it knowing that that’s what I was gonna do.
[00:17:53] That this was, “I want memoryBlue to serve as my launching pad. I want to get what I can out of it, and really just fully commit.” And so, that’s, that’s how I approached it. And I was lucky to have a really awesome team and also awesome AEs that I was sending the meetings to so.
[00:18:15] Chris Corcoran: That’s important.
[00:18:15] Marc Gonyea: Talk about your team.
[00:18:17] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:18:17] Marc Gonyea: Are you talking about your memoryBlue team or?
[00:18:18] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. My, yeah, my memoryBlue team.
[00:18:19] Marc Gonyea: Who’s that?
[00:18:20] Catherine Seaman: So, that was Kevin Schaffer.
[00:18:22] Marc Gonyea: Kevin Schaffer?
[00:18:23] Catherine Seaman: Yep. David Kesick. {Okay.} Josh Mattson.
[00:18:26] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:18:26] Catherine Seaman: Francois.
[00:18:28] Marc Gonyea: Francois.
[00:18:29] Catherine Seaman: Yep.
[00:18:29] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:18:29] Catherine Seaman: Me and then Jen Cedillo. I think that it was all ones.
[00:18:33] Chris Corcoran: That was your crew?
[00:18:34] Catherine Seaman: That was our crew.
[00:18:35] Marc Gonyea: Who was your DM?
[00:18:35] Jen?
[00:18:36] Catherine Seaman: Jen was the DM. Yeah. And she was a newer DM, so she just had the three boys, I think, before Francois and I joined. So, it was the five of us and we.
[00:18:45] Marc Gonyea: That’s a good team.
[00:18:45] Catherine Seaman: I think we tripled by the end, by the time I left. Tripled in size. Yeah. So, it was very cool. And also, our, our client ended up.
[00:18:56] adding more resources, which was a really cool, gratifying thing for Francois and I because, you know, that means they’re liking what you’re doing, so we…
[00:19:03] Marc Gonyea: Absolutely.
[00:19:04] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:19:04] Marc Gonyea: Right?
[00:19:05] Catherine Seaman: Yep.
[00:19:07] Marc Gonyea: What, tell us, talk to us about learning the SDR role.
[00:19:12] Catherine Seaman: Yes. I think that.
[00:19:14] Marc Gonyea: Did you kind of know what you’re getting into from that perspective of the job?
[00:19:19] Even with, like, your pops and, like, Steve kind of like prepping you a little bit, or was it more?
[00:19:24] Catherine Seaman: I think I knew what I was getting into in the sense that I was told to prepare for rejection. And so, I, I definitely prepared.
[00:19:32] Chris Corcoran: Brace yourself.
[00:19:33] Catherine Seaman: Yes, exactly. But I don’t, I don’t think that I knew really what I was getting into in terms of how nervous I’d be talking to people.
[00:19:42] I’m like, “I’m getting into sales because I like talking to people. I find it easy. I talk to people at the grocery store and at the corner store and all that.” And I think I put a ton of pressure on myself as I do with things I wanna do well, adding with, but I was so nervous to talk to people in the beginning.
[00:20:06] Marc Gonyea: Yep. And why? Because, like, the unknown or?
[00:20:08] Catherine Seaman: I think the unknown, also just wanting to do a good job.
[00:20:11] Marc Gonyea: Okay.
[00:20:13] Catherine Seaman: And I think, like, putting so much, too much stake on each conversation I had, where once I got through my head, you know, A, it’s totally okay to make a fool out of yourself.
[00:20:23] And B, you know, it’s one conversation. If you call ’em back in three days, they’re never even gonna remember that they were talking to you, you know? So, really putting it into that perspective helped.
[00:20:34] Chris Corcoran: Good.
[00:20:35] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:20:37] Marc Gonyea: What did you get good at?
[00:20:39] Catherine Seaman: I got really good at my style.
[00:20:43] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about that. ‘Cause we have Academy, and we trained some things, but we like to hear about this part.
[00:20:49] Catherine Seaman: Yes. I think that that’s really when I kind of came into my own and was able to start feeling comfortable doing it, when I started trusting my own way of doing things. And my own style of talking to people, my own style of writing emails. My own style of outreach. It just came, I came through so much more authentic
[00:21:12] When I was doing things the way that felt natural to me. Um, and so that’s really what allowed me to then start having fun also because I didn’t feel like I was kind of an imposter, or, you know, copying pasting emails that I’m like, “I, this would never come out of my mouth.”
[00:21:29] There’s no way that someone’s reading this thinking I wrote it.
[00:21:32] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Yeah. We’re hoping like we’d give you some sort of framework that
[00:21:35] Catherine Seaman: Totally.
[00:21:35] Marc Gonyea: that you adopt your style around the framework.
[00:21:39] Catherine Seaman: That’s exactly right.
[00:21:40] Marc Gonyea: Right?
[00:21:41] Chris Corcoran: Yep.
[00:21:41] Marc Gonyea: And what, and what was your, what, what were you, like, good at? So, that adopting your style and those things that’s like higher level, but there’s, like, some tactical things that maybe you were, like, what were those?
[00:21:52] Catherine Seaman: I was really good at very targeted and specific outreach. And so, I was known to say, “I wanna book, you know, I’m dating a someone who played college football. I wanna book the NFL. I’m going to.” Yeah, and so, like, really just picking companies that I wanted to book and finding a way to do it.
[00:22:14] Marc Gonyea: And then you.
[00:22:15] Chris Corcoran: I love that shit.
[00:22:16] Catherine Seaman: You I love it too. I love it too.
[00:22:18] Chris Corcoran: “I’m, I’m hunting you down.”
[00:22:19] Catherine Seaman: That’s exactly right. It’s done.
[00:22:21] Marc Gonyea: And what, what’s the how? And how would you do that?
[00:22:24] Catherine Seaman: So, I think the how was definitely getting creative. And so, the how that I’ve translated now when I’m actually closing deals is finding the correct individual at the right company that I want to talk to.
[00:22:40] I think with outbound prospecting, you can really find a lot of different individuals who can give you insight. That’s gonna help you get closer to who you wanna talk to. And so, you then say, “I was just talking to your colleague Chris the other day, and he said that you guys have,” you know, and so creating familiarity however you can.
[00:22:58] Catherine Seaman: So, whether you start.
[00:23:01] Chris Corcoran: Softening it up.
[00:23:01] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Link, start connecting with whoever they’re connected to on LinkedIn so that when you send them request, you already have 14 mutual connections. It’s already upping your credibility.
[00:23:12] Marc Gonyea: People underestimate the value in each conversation.
[00:23:16] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:23:17] Marc Gonyea: Just ’cause you’re not gonna put meeting with that individual either because it’s not the right person because it’s clear you’re not going to, there’s still so much you can get out of that.
[00:23:26] Sometimes you won’t get anything, but more if than not, you’ll get something. And all those little things add up.
[00:23:30] Chris Corcoran: Conversational currency.
[00:23:32] Marc Gonyea: Right.
[00:23:33] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Yeah. And, and how much more you get when you realize you’re not looking to get anything outta the conversation.
[00:23:39] Marc Gonyea: When you, when you release, you know?
[00:23:41] Chris Corcoran: Detach yourself from the outcome.
[00:23:43] Catherine Seaman: That’s exactly right.
[00:23:44] Marc Gonyea: Detach yourself from the outcome of, like, booking that meeting. You can reuse that, and it’s almost, you can almost naturally walk into that meeting when you get the NFL person on the phone.
[00:23:52] Catherine Seaman: Yep, yep. Nice.
[00:23:53] Chris Corcoran: Because you just have, it’s like, “I got all these things rolling in my,” I have so much momentum.
[00:23:57] Catherine Seaman: Oh, and I, and I got creative too. I mean, they’re all so, like, tricks. It depends how much, how badly you want the meeting, you know? Like, it really is.
[00:24:04] Chris Corcoran: Let’s, let, let’s, let’s dig into your bag of tricks.
[00:24:07] Catherine Seaman: Yes. Well, so I also came in with, “I’m never gonna miss quota.” That was just.
[00:24:14] Marc Gonyea: What do you mean you came in?
[00:24:15] Catherine Seaman: I came in, that was what my dad told me,
[00:24:17] “You just have to make your quota every single month. That’s your job as a salesperson. Is to make your quota. And so, that was tough because we had a very niche industry that we were selling. And, you know, first month, okay, meet 10, then it’s 2 days before Christmas. It was December 23rd.
[00:24:38] We upped our quoted to 12. I’m like, “How the heck?”
[00:24:43] Chris Corcoran: Well, why, why, why you doing, why you doing your SDRs dirty?
[00:24:46] Marc Gonyea: It’s the 15th of the month. So, you probably decided on the 15th and, “Didn’t tell you guys ’cause you didn’t wanna change it until the 23rd.”
[00:24:51] Catherine Seaman: Well, and then I made it. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this is my first month.
[00:24:54] I have, I’ve already promised.” And so, I actually had, turns out my mom’s boyfriend at the time was in IT compliance, was a, actual qualified prospect, so I took the call on Christmas Eve in my upstairs. He was downstairs and that was a great meeting. Wonderful opportunity, actually a real opportunity brought to our team, so it was great. But that’s, that, so I am queen of back-pocket books. ‘Cause I learned my lesson, I.
[00:25:25] Marc Gonyea: That’s a new one.
[00:25:26] Chris Corcoran: That’s a thing? A pocketbook. What’s a back-pockett book?
[00:25:28] Catherine Seaman: I coined it. It’s, I would have, hey, I mean it was one time 4:00 PM, last of the month, “Dad, I need that emergency meeting I talked about.
[00:25:36] Get me on the phone with your IT services guy. I need to talk to him.” And this guy is getting in the car on a family vacation, but he takes his call because his boss told him he has to. But so, whether it was family members or, and they weren’t.
[00:25:51] Chris Corcoran: Resourceful.
[00:25:52] Catherine Seaman: No nonsense.
[00:25:53] Yes.
[00:25:53] Marc Gonyea: No, no, no, no. You’re, you’re being very clear.
[00:25:55] They were qualified. Like, they’re like, they’re IT compliance. I get it. I was, like, the back-pocket thing with, like, your little kid, they got five bucks in my back pocket.
[00:26:01] Catherine Seaman: That’s, well, it’s like, “Oh, where’d this come from? I’m not sure.”
[00:26:05] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:26:06] But that’s what, what we’re really talking about, is the mentality of whatever it takes.
[00:26:10] Catherine Seaman: Whatever it takes.
[00:26:11] Marc Gonyea: Right?
[00:26:11] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:26:12] Marc Gonyea: Like, my manager dropping, dropping a, a little bomb on my desk saying, “Yeah, I’m not, you think you’re at quota, but you’re not at quota.” And I gotta get 2 by the 30th.
[00:26:22] It’s two days before Christmas. That’s not typically an easy thing to do.
[00:26:25] Chris Corcoran: Merry Christmas.
[00:26:27] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:26:27] Marc Gonyea: And a lot of people would just would, it’s easier to be like, “What? You’re telling me on the 23rd?”
[00:26:34] Catherine Seaman: Right.
[00:26:34] Marc Gonyea: “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This place sucks. I don’t like my manager, blah, blah, blah.” You know? You know, welcome to, welcome to the New Year. So.
[00:27:44] Marc Gonyea: I think just keeping, for me, controlling what you can control and what I wanted to control was meeting my quota every month. So, yeah. Was I, I, my quota was 14 almost the whole time I worked here, which was the, the highest in the company at that time. And I just con, I could, yeah, was I a little frustrated that other people didn’t have that quota? Sure. But at the end of the day, it made me work really, really hard.
[00:28:10] And it challenged me To meet 14 each and every month.
[00:28:16] Marc Gonyea: Awesome.
[00:28:17] So you, so let’s talk about this a little bit ’cause you, your client back then is your employer now?
[00:28:23] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:28:23] Marc Gonyea: Right? So, let’s talk a little bit about learning that too. So, I mean, you just said it yourself, “I had not used Outlook before.”
[00:28:30] I guess is, you probably weren’t reading the Wall Street Journal. I mean, you were, you, you were not in the business classic,
[00:28:35] Catherine Seaman: Totally.
[00:28:36] Marc Gonyea: business since total remove from that world. So, how did you kind of get into that side of it too? Like, that’s kind of a lifestyle change in a way.
[00:28:43] Catherine Seaman: In a way.
[00:28:44] Marc Gonyea: You know, it took me, this is not about me, but, like, from going from watching Sports Center every morning to listening to things that actually impact your life like business. Like that, that took years. But, you know, tell us more about that work. I’ll, we’ll do my, we’ll, at my own podcast, it’s not me, but I have to leave the company first though. So, what are you saying? Go ahead.
[00:29:03] Catherine Seaman: Yes. I think that I was very fortunate to have the team that I work with now that are my coworkers, are.
[00:29:11] Chris Corcoran: Your AEs.
[00:29:12] Catherine Seaman: Right. Exactly. The AEs we were sending meetings to were a, the culture of people we have at Infinite Blue are that’s incredibly important to the organization, is keeping our cultural fit the way it is. Um, and so everyone wants to help everyone. And I think that I came off very genuine in my desire to learn.
[00:29:37] And so, each one of them could tell, “I really wanna know how I can bring better meetings.” I remember I once sent a meeting that was a 10 out of 10. There was nothing. They had budget timeline, right person. This actually did happen to be the meeting with the NFL, but I, it, it was a 9. I got scored a 9, and I was confused.
[00:30:00] Catherine Seaman: I reached out, and I asked, “I’m just wondering how could I improve to make that meeting attempt? How could I have better, i, I thought that we had timeline,” of course, a little bit of it was my ego.
[00:30:13] Marc Gonyea: Sure.
[00:30:13] Catherine Seaman: But a lot of it was, “I wanna know how I can deliver exactly what you want.” And so, I think that was, I know that was very well received from that team where it was, it’s obviously in a constant effort to do better and to improve. And so.
[00:30:28] Chris Corcoran: What’d they tell you?
[00:30:29] Catherine Seaman: Actually, that I deserve the 10 and that they had to rethink why, you know? My coworker came from a teaching background. In tough gray area and he really did rethink it, which was cool though ’cause gives you the opportunity to say, “What more can I do?”
[00:30:48] Marc Gonyea: That’s excellent. How did, so would you were making a transition to memoryBlue and, you know, doing a good job and then ingratiating yourself with the client? How did that call, so you had those experience in certain service industry, let’s not, like, diminish that, like, how did that, how did that also translate into, into this, what you, what you did for us and what you’re doing now?
[00:31:06] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. That is a great point. When I, I remember my first bartending job, when I got the opportunity, I went to my friend Donnie, who was the best bartender I knew. I had worked with him in a restaurant, and I said, “Tell me what makes you good at your job. You are the best person I know. You’re the best bartender I know. What makes you good?” And he said, “You remember people’s names. You remember people in general. You remember things about them.” And that’s something that’s very natural for me. It’s very easy to remember that we were talking about your daughter going to Boulder, and it’s very easy for me to remember that.
[00:31:41] And so, I think those sorts of things I’ve been able to translate into sales where people wanna buy from people, and that’s now just really being a good listener and listening to their business problems. It’s not about the pitch, it’s actually really about what they’re saying. That was a, a lesson for me, was to get out of my mind.
[00:32:04] This, “Let me tell you all the shiny things about our company,” I actually just wanna listen to you because we can do a lot for you. But let me find, what’s gonna make you most successful.
[00:32:17] Marc Gonyea: Fascinating. So, when you’re here doing your thing, who else did you learn, did you learn from being on the phone?
[00:32:23] Did you learn from your client? Did you, there are things, like, when you were here, this, this is a good question I like to ask, you hit here more recently. Who else, besides yourself, who else was a baller and what, what do they do to make them a baller that maybe you learn from in memoryBlue?
[00:32:36] Catherine Seaman: Francois was a baller.
[00:32:38] And he was a baller because he was so calm. He was everything I was not. I was so nervous. I mean, those Cali with the team, I used to, I really truly wanted to die inside of myself. Like, I remember saying that like, “I just want to die.” Having.
[00:32:55] Marc Gonyea: What calls were you talking about? Tell us about those stuff.
[00:32:57] Catherine Seaman: So, when the whole team listens to your recorded call. And so, it’s my entire call with the prospect, and I didn’t really have any good calls at that point. Like, truly none of them. And especially, I’m someone who does not like being listened to. I mean.
[00:33:15] Marc Gonyea: Nobody likes it.
[00:33:16] Catherine Seaman: Everyone on my team knows that I would be, get on a conversation and be down the hall around the corner. Because if I wanted to be normal, I needed no one around me. So, those calls were hard and basically just because I criticize myself a ton, and it is just kind of getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
[00:33:37] Marc Gonyea: When you said the call, “My call, calls weren’t good,” why were they not good, and how, what, how much better did they get?
[00:33:45] Catherine Seaman: Oh yeah.
[00:33:45] Marc Gonyea: Like.
[00:33:46] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. They were so bad because I was so nervous. Uhhuh, like, I relied on LinkedIn books for the, probably a good two months. I was booking most of my meetings over LinkedInin, over LinkedIn with just super friendly people.
[00:34:04] Marc Gonyea: We’ll take, we’ll take, take some of that.
[00:34:06] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Marc Gonyea: Right? But if you wanna get good at the sales part you’re gonna talk to people.
[00:34:10] Catherine Seaman: You have to. Absolutely.
[00:34:11] Marc Gonyea: Engage and those things you were talking about. But yeah. So, what made your calls good? Like, what did you do better at? You were nervous, but, you know?
[00:34:18] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. I just really, honestly, I would put myself on mute. I would listen to them.
[00:34:22] And really just stop putting so much pressure on myself for each call. And that’s where now, and I still cold call. I think I will continue to cold call throughout my entire career because it really works, and.
[00:34:36] Chris Corcoran: You’ll make a lot of money.
[00:34:37] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, it really does. I think I will always sprinkle that in because you learn the value of just catching someone off guard.
[00:34:46] Marc Gonyea: I always think of you doing this more than you go like this.
[00:34:49] Catherine Seaman: And I, I really now just talk to people without the outcome, so I think that’s a big factor without caring about the outcome. I think that’s a huge, huge part of it.
[00:35:00] Marc Gonyea: People can pick up on the desperation if you’re attached to the outcome.
[00:35:03] Catherine Seaman: They sure can.
[00:35:03] Marc Gonyea: The calls. The pro, sales process, the call over.
[00:35:07] Catherine Seaman: Well, and that’s the thing. People can pick up on most everything. And so, you would sometimes, I would sometimes get someone.
[00:35:12] Chris Corcoran: Your pocketbook?
[00:35:13] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Well, like, felt, who felt bad for me, truly, I think that’s how I booked some of my meetings over the phone.
[00:35:19] The sympathy book for sure because they’re like, “This poor girl is probably crying at her desk, like, so nervous, sweating bullets.” But now, I mean, I still like, I still really like cold calling and now, luckily, my conversion. Almost always, I can almost always, uh, turn that into a next step because it’s just the comfortability and the true, not asking for something, just wanting curiosity.
[00:35:49] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about that real quick. Not the conversion, but the, what do you, so you got converted, you got hired by your client, hired out, converted whatever nomenclature you want to use. You, but now you’re closing work, and you still have to make calls as an SDR on the floor. You still have to make cold calls.
[00:36:06] Why? Wait, aren’t you closing now?
[00:36:08] Catherine Seaman: I am closing.
[00:36:09] Marc Gonyea: Why do you have to make cold calls still?
[00:36:11] So, I don’t have to, technically. Secondly, where I came in, I came in with, I’ve come in with empty pipelines, and so for me, you gotta get as much in the funnel as possible. And so, what do you go back to? You go back to what works.
[00:36:27] Catherine Seaman: And so, for me, it’s really cold calling works. That’s the best way to get in front of people, um, immediately.
[00:36:35] Chris Corcoran: I think.
[00:36:36] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.
[00:36:36] It’s always gonna be part of cookbook.
[00:36:38] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:36:38] Marc Gonyea: Since we’re talking about cooking and spicying.
[00:36:41] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:36:41] Marc Gonyea: Right? It’s part, it’s part of the process. And you never stopped doing it.
[00:36:46] Catherine Seaman: No. And some of my biggest deals have been starting over the phone.
[00:36:51] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about them again.
[00:36:52] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:36:52] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about those.
[00:36:53] Catherine Seaman: Yes.
[00:36:53] Marc Gonyea: Some about your biggest deals.
[00:36:55] Catherine Seaman: Sure. So, my first bite and this isn’t my biggest, but this was my first bite at Infinite Blue.
[00:37:03] Marc Gonyea: What a great name. It’s almost.
[00:37:05] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, I know. It’s faith. They, it was a cold call and it was just, “Who’s your provider?”
[00:37:11] It was objection handling. It was all of, “Well, are you interested in doing it with better support and for less expensive?” And so, that was a 13-month sales cycle. Yeah.
[00:37:25] Chris Corcoran: Started with the cold call.
[00:37:26] Catherine Seaman: Started with the cold call. Yep. Started with the cold call and one of my favorites. Definitely one of my favorites and the biggest deal I’ve closed.
[00:37:35] That was a cold call.
[00:37:37] Chris Corcoran: It just tastes better, man.
[00:37:39] Catherine Seaman: They really do. Well, it does feel a little bit like you found it, you grabbed it.
[00:37:44] Marc Gonyea: Because it’s true.
[00:37:45] Catherine Seaman: It’s true. It’s true.
[00:37:48] It really is.
[00:37:48] Chris Corcoran: Take it coast to coast, man.
[00:37:50] Marc Gonyea: The value of that to your business is off the charts. Yeah. It’s almost impossible to quantify, particularly if the business can keep them as a client.
[00:38:01] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:38:02] Marc Gonyea: And, you know, get them to become happy and talk to other people about it and leave where they work and come back. It’s wild that
[00:38:08] I’ll start from the phone call.
[00:38:09] Catherine Seaman: Starting from me grabbing my cereal out of the cabinet in the morning. So, you can put two and two together with who that is, but I’m sure it’s in your pantries too.
[00:38:17] So, a really cool logo to have, too, and a wonderful partner for us. And all starting cold call.
[00:38:24] Marc Gonyea: There you go. What,
[00:38:25] Chris Corcoran: Um, amazing.
[00:38:27] Marc Gonyea: when you’re doing this, was there any time, you know, actually, this can cut that out, so we’ll get out of the, the adversity part and move into the prosperity part. When did you kind of realize like, “Oh, okay, I, I kind of like this,” and did you see yourself doing next?
[00:38:43] Because, you know, you’re memoryBlue, even though you, you were here for a little while. Did you do a tops trip?
[00:38:48] Catherine Seaman: Yep.
[00:38:48] Marc Gonyea: Nice work.
[00:38:49] Catherine Seaman: Thank you.
[00:38:50] But you’re seeing people, like, get promoted, some people getting hired by their clients. Some people join delivery, you know? People getting hired by their client. Did you kind of know what you wanted to do always going in ’cause of your pops or, I don’t know?
[00:39:01] Yes, I did. And I, I think for me, I came in also in a different stage I felt in my life. I came in very deliberately to sales. I knew I wanted to do this. I, I really wanted to be here to get to the next spot. And not that I didn’t love it here and don’t love the culture, but I wanted to play off the business model that I saw on your website.
[00:39:24] In three years, however many percent of our employees are making this money, and I’m like, “Okay, I know I have my 1, 3, 5 goals that I keep, and I know how much money I wanna make in this amount of time. I’m also not 22 years old, coming in with all of my twenties in front of me.
[00:39:43] You know, I wanna make, “I wanna double my salary in a year,” is what I said. And that’s, that was my way of thinking when I came in, was, “I wanna double my salary in a year, and I want to use, really lean into all of the training I’m getting here so that I can be on my, on my way to the next.”
[00:40:04] Marc Gonyea: Which you did.
[00:40:04] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:40:05] Marc Gonyea: So, you, and when you won Phenom, you did a fireside with the SDRs. And when you say, “Lean into the training,” what do you mean by that?
[00:40:13] If you’re talking to that audience?
[00:40:14] Catherine Seaman: Yes. I mean, really, truly listening to each and every person’s individual, how they find success works because it’s not gonna be necessarily how you’re successful, but pulling from each and every person, that allows you to then craft your own style, and kind of take what you want is huge and the discipline is necessary. And that is something I think that was hard to embrace. It naturally is, especially if you’re a sales-minded individual who’s like, “I don’t want to be told what to do at all,” you know? “I wanna do my thing.” The discipline was hard, but it really does work.
[00:40:56] And even when I’m now running my own region, I’m leaning on some of these disciplines for my own team, you know? For how we wanna run things. Because until we have a full fluffy pipeline, we’re gonna be needing to book two to three new meetings, each a week. That’s, just is what it is.
[00:41:15] And we have to cold-call as many time, as many dials as we need to, to get those, so.
[00:41:22] Marc Gonyea: So, how did that happen? How did you end up working for your client?
[00:41:25] Catherine Seaman: So, and this is fantastic, at, at some point when I realized, and it was early on, I realized I loved the product and I more so.
[00:41:36] Marc Gonyea: Which product?
[00:41:38] Catherine Seaman: It’s business continuity and disaster recovery plan.
[00:41:40] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Okay.
[00:41:41] Catherine Seaman: So, enterprise resilience, it’s true. Just keeping your doors open for your business. Um, and preparing.
[00:41:48] Marc Gonyea: That happens, or just in general?
[00:41:50] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, just preparing for any unwanted business disruption. So, whether it’s weather risks, whether it’s compliance, regulations, we most, we work with mostly highly regulated firms.
[00:42:02] Marc Gonyea: Okay. Okay.
[00:42:03] Catherine Seaman: But it is industry-agnostic in terms where we can work with utilities companies, manufacturing, retail. But so, I saw the value of the product and that we’re at a really hot time for this product and the need for every company coming off the tail end of COVID and the unexpected did happen to everyone.
[00:42:25] And so, I realized that it was a great company and the people were awesome and that I was getting more and more confident being able to have these conversations. And so, I realized I was able to qualify. I had one of the AEs, Chris Duffy was awesome and he would say, “Can you book a meeting with this guy?”
[00:42:45] Catherine Seaman: And he was really the only AE who would have me specialize on say, “Find me this person.”
[00:42:52] Marc Gonyea: This person.
[00:42:53] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. And like you said, I love the hunt. And so, I loved that. I was all about it. And I loved being, coming back in an hour saying, “We’re set up next Thursday at 1.” Like, he just loved it. And so, it was actually.
[00:43:05] Chris Corcoran: There’s not an AE on the planet who wouldn’t love that.
[00:43:08] Catherine Seaman: Oh, it’s awesome. And I was like, “This is exactly how I wanna be used.” Because this is what really gets me juiced up.
[00:43:14] Marc Gonyea: That’s the key. Like, how many AEs are gonna take the time to give, he probably give you a little bit more too, like, “This is why we wanna meet with them.” Maybe give you a little bit of color, but you had to do all the heavy-lifting thing.
[00:43:23] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:43:23] Marc Gonyea: Some of AEs won’t do that.
[00:43:25] I don’t know why.
[00:43:26] Catherine Seaman: I don’t know either. And I mean with.
[00:43:29] Chris Corcoran: I know why.
[00:43:30] Marc Gonyea: Go ahead.
[00:43:32] Chris Corcoran: Well, because I mean, it was if I was the AE because I just didn’t have the confidence to be the SDR could do it.
[00:43:38] Marc Gonyea: That’s part of it. But that’s not always true.
[00:43:39] Catherine Seaman: Be a big, that and I, I could see that for sure.
[00:43:41] Chris Corcoran: I know it’s always true.
[00:43:42] Marc Gonyea: That’s always true.
[00:43:43] Catherine Seaman: And, you know, Chris, I did have the good portion. He always believed in me, and he actually is the one who eventually put my name in the ring when they were expanding sales team. Yeah. So, he and our sales ops, that she put my name in, and it was a natural choice for me.
[00:44:00] Chris Corcoran: What does your dad and Steve Williams think about all this?
[00:44:04] Catherine Seaman: I think they’re both really impressed. I.
[00:44:06] Marc Gonyea: They have to listen to this podcast. Yeah.
[00:44:08] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. I think my dad is still somewhat in disbelief and not that he, you know, doesn’t just believe in me ’cause I’m not worthy to be believed in, but.
[00:44:16] Marc Gonyea: Come first job.
[00:44:17] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. Yeah. He’s the dad of three girls, so I think he just naturally is a little more skeptical. But no, he has become a huge, huge mentor to me.
[00:44:26] Marc Gonyea: That’s great.
[00:44:27] Catherine Seaman: Which has been unbelievable because it’s given us a whole new dynamic to our relationship where he’s, you know, it’s kind of badass that I’m doing what I’m doing and trying to be successful the same way he found success.
[00:44:42] Marc Gonyea: Absolutely. All right, so what comes next? So, what are you doing now?
[00:44:47] Catherine Seaman: So, I actually am just on coming off the ends of my first trip out to California. So, I’ve just recently acquired the West Coast region for Infinite Blue. Um, so I will just be kind of spreading my wings in the West, um, and really trying to gain new business.
[00:45:06] Chris Corcoran: And where do you want, is that a new territory?
[00:45:09] Catherine Seaman: It is.
[00:45:09] Chris Corcoran: Or an additional territory?
[00:45:10] Catherine Seaman: So, it’s a new territory.
[00:45:11] Chris Corcoran: So, you switched territories?
[00:45:12] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. So, I was, um, on the East Coast working with, under Carrie Donovan as a sales manager and now I’m officially running my own region in the West Coast.
[00:45:19] Chris Corcoran: You need to move out there?
[00:45:21] Catherine Seaman: I don’t know. I don’t have to move out there.
[00:45:22] Chris Corcoran: Do you want to?
[00:45:23] Catherine Seaman: But I, I don’t know. Now, I was laughing.
[00:45:25] Chris Corcoran: Your dad wouldn’t let you.
[00:45:27] Catherine Seaman: Yeah. No. From all, telling you any of that, but we’ll see.
[00:45:32] Marc Gonyea: And, like, how proud are you? So, you started here, it’ll be in September or November of 2020?
[00:45:39] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, it was in November of 2020.
[00:45:40] Marc Gonyea: 2020. So, it’ll be 3 years, you know. We had 72 applications for Phenom. Right? I think we boiled it down to 5 or 3. 5. And then, Chris and I.
[00:45:50] Chris Corcoran: So, for the listeners, Phenom is an alumni award given to the most impressive alum from memoryBlue, who’s been out of the company for 2 years or less.
[00:46:05] Marc Gonyea: Correct. So, and we have alum of the year, but that’s for 2 years plus for within 2 years we had 72 people apply. The most we’ve ever had.
[00:46:13] Chris Corcoran: That’s a lot.
[00:46:14] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. And Chris and I basically whittled down to 5 and accuse ourselves so people don’t think we’re playing favorites. Some people still think that anyways, but we’re not. And, you know, we haven’t talked in detail about your success, but you’ve had a ton of success since you’ve bounced. How, I mean, you should be really proud of what you’ve done in less than 3 years, right? 2years. 2 years and 2 months?
[00:46:37] Catherine Seaman: Thank you.
[00:46:38] Marc Gonyea: Are you?
[00:46:38] Catherine Seaman: I am really proud. I am really proud and I’ve worked my ass off. I really have and so it.
[00:46:45] Marc Gonyea: You were always at, you were always at your desk working when I was, Chris and I used to sit over there. I’m like, “She’s always working.”
[00:46:52] Catherine Seaman: Yeah, I’m just a very driven individual. I think we all find different things that propel us or motivate us. I’m very self-motivated and I kind of, once I get set my mind to something, I’m all in. And so, I’m definitely proud. Thank you.
[00:47:08] Marc Gonyea: Would you have changed anything?
[00:47:11] Catherine Seaman: Ooh. That’s an interesting question.
[00:47:12] Marc Gonyea: Because you kind of said, “I could start here a little bit late, so I wasn’t, I wasn’t volunteering how old I was.”
[00:47:16] Catherine Seaman: Yeah.
[00:47:16] Marc Gonyea: You’re not, you’re not old. But, like, you’re maybe a little older than you’re, than a Francois.
[00:47:21] Catherine Seaman: Right. Correct.
[00:47:23] Marc Gonyea: Would you have changed any part of your journey?
[00:47:25] Catherine Seaman: Definitely not. And I actually had to think, I’ve had to think about this a lot because I’m like, “Well, if I could have found this success in this short amount of time, what was I doing the last six years of my life not?”
[00:47:38] Marc Gonyea: That’s fair to think.
[00:47:39] The flip side of that is, like, you’re only so successful in this 2years must because of everything you were doing before.
[00:47:44] Catherine Seaman: That’s exactly.
[00:47:45] Marc Gonyea: Potentially. Potentially, but.
[00:47:47] Catherine Seaman: No, and I think that’s true. No, I think that’s exactly true. I think that I have had a lot of time to develop as a human being and, uh, mature as an adult and align with what I want for my life, what I wanna create for myself and really the work it’s gonna take required to get that.
[00:48:07] Chris Corcoran: I mean, I think it’s a little bit different because we see a lot of people 22 come in, and they’re gonna try it. But you came here, and you’re like, “There’s no way out.”
[00:48:17] Catherine Seaman: And that’s right.
[00:48:17] Chris Corcoran: “There is no way out, and I’m gonna make it happen no matter what.” Most 22-year-olds were like, “Eh, it’s kinda harder than I thought. I’m gonna try something else.”
[00:48:25] Catherine Seaman: Totally, totally. And I knew what, you know, I feel blessed to have a light, to be privileged the way I was growing up. I want nothing more than to be able to do that for myself
[00:48:37] And to do that for my family and create that sort of life. And I know it takes a lot of hard work.
[00:48:42] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. Well, you’re rolling your way.
[00:48:44] Catherine Seaman: Thank you.
[00:48:45] Marc Gonyea: You’re welcome. And thank you for being so gracious with your time since you’ve…
[00:48:48] Catherine Seaman: Absolutely.
[00:48:49] Marc Gonyea: Because you, you’ve been very accommodating to us.
[00:48:52] “Hey, come down for Phenom Award winner. Hey, can you stick around for a fireside? Hey, let’s do this podcast.” You live in Philly.
[00:48:59] Catherine Seaman: Yep.
[00:49:00] Marc Gonyea: You live in city center or whatever. Downtown Philly. We’re down here in Virginia, so we appreciate it, and Chris and I are looking forward to seeing what else you get done.
[00:49:10] Catherine Seaman: Thank you. I’m always happy to see you. And really, truly memoryBlue worked for me exactly how I wanted it to. The business model was, really did just completely serve as a launchpad, so thank you both. It really is ’cause of this model.
[00:49:26] Marc Gonyea: You’re welcome. You need a full advantage of it.
[00:49:27] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. We, we need more people like you.
[00:49:30] Marc Gonyea: Sure.
[00:49:31] Yeah. Shoot that girl. Alright.
[00:49:34] Catherine Seaman: Thank you.
[00:49:35] Chris Corcoran: Very good. Well, thank you very much.