Tech Sales is for Hustlers Podcast

Episode 56: Libby Galatis – The Queen of Recruitment

Life turns dramatically on a few pivotal moments. For Libby Galatis, the clock almost struck midnight on the idea of working at memoryBlue when her recruiter came through in the clutch.

Libby, now the 5th most tenured employee in the company, was minutes away from accepting another job offer before landing her initial memoryBlue role. She can only be fittingly described as the undisputed Queen of Recruiting at memoryBlue. Libby has personally sourced, recruited, hired, and influenced hundreds of current and former employees to launch their professional high-tech sales careers through these halls. But she is no stranger to the struggles of sales, having started as an SDR before finding her calling as a recruiter. And it’s precisely that personal experience which makes her such an effective advocate for the rewards of a professional sales career.

Company Co-Founders Chris Corcoran and Marc Gonyea catch up with Libby, Manager of Internal Recruitment at memoryBlue, in the latest episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers. You’ll hear Libby explain why she’s extremely honest with recruits on the challenges of sales, how she thrives in a highly competitive recruiting landscape, and why the skills people build at memoryBlue will create a solid foundation for professional success.

Guest-At-A-Glance

Name: Libby Galatis

What she does: Manager, Internal Recruiting at memoryBlue

Company: memoryBlue

Noteworthy: Libby went to Christopher Newport University. She majored in Communication and minored in Business Administration. Libby spearheads one of memoryBlue’s internal recruiting teams.

Where to find Libby: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ Thrive whatever you do. Libby remembers her school days and points out that working hard is a must, even if you don’t know where life will take you. Planning can be good, but some people don’t plan; they just do and wait for the right opportunity. “I think that I had never really been future-focused. I’m not a planner. Anybody that knows me knows that I’m not the one to put something on the calendar and organize. That’s just never really been in my nature. I didn’t really know what I was working towards outside of just getting a degree. Just being a student, that was my full-time job. Then I got really good grades all throughout high school and all throughout college as well. It was just my focus. My parents put me through school, and that was my job. Just to get good grades.” 

⚡ Sales is about helping people. Libby explains the difference between working with individuals and companies. She thinks that these two approaches are very different, but, in the end, it is all about assistance and understanding. “Selling is more than just connecting with people, especially when you’re selling on a B2B scale. You’re not helping an individual with the need that they personally have. You’re helping their department with an issue that they’re experiencing, or you’re helping that business with a problem that they don’t have a solution to. You’re helping an entire entity versus helping an individual, which again if you go super micro, you can define if this experience is hurting that individual you’re speaking with or if they’re banging their head on their desk because the problem sucks so bad. Yes, you’re helping them. But again, the solution is for the entity of the business as a whole.”

⚡ Recruiting is easy when you know where to look. Libby explains what the crucial part of recruiting people to certain roles is. She notes that making a healthy connection and sending a clear message to a candidate will help them decide if a job is the right fit for them. “It was a connection that I made with my candidates. I think my personality style [is that] I can work with just about anybody, and I got really good at it. Being straight up when I knew that the candidate wasn’t a fit for this position, that’s another huge part of recruiting here. You can’t force a square peg into a circle hole. If they’re not a fit for sales, you’re setting them up for failure, pushing them, and selling them too hard for a role. They could accept the job, but those are the people that will start a few months and quit. They’ll leave just because they’re not built for this current environment. I became really good at identifying the talent on the front end of individuals that I knew would really love this job, and do really well here, and presented the information that they needed to have.”

Episode Highlights

Rookie’s biggest challenge

“I had call avoidance. I think it was extreme for me. […] I think a lot of it just had to do with not really understanding fully what my role is and how important it was. [I was] feeling very small. I think it’s a common misconception about the sales development representative role. The interrupts begin here thinking that they’re bottom of the food chain, which, if you’re looking at the food chain as a whole, yes you are, but this role that we’re doing is so important. Without fully understanding the impact that this role specifically has on businesses, that value is lost. I always saw myself as somebody that was bothering the people I was calling. I didn’t really have a purpose. I didn’t have a ‘Why,’ and that was something that was challenging when I first started. Once I grasped the ‘Why,’ that’s when the confidence started to build up, and I saw my production raise. I think that’s why it was challenging at first, just not really understanding and comprehending fully the impact that sales development role has on businesses.”

Developing confidence is the biggest win

“I think this is part of what I loved the most about working on the campus recruiting side of things. A lot of people don’t realize how essential the skills are that you build in a sales role – developing confidence, being able to speak concisely, and get your point across to individuals that may not be at the same level of seniority as you, knowing your worth. I think if you talk and speak like you know what you’re talking about, people are more likely to believe that you do know what you’re talking about, even if you don’t. There’s a lot of value to that skill. Projecting yourself comfortably and confidently, I would say, is the number one skill set that you would get working in this kind of environment. You’d be surprised the number of people if you put them on the spot, they can’t answer a question concisely, or they speak in such a roundabout way that you’d have to reframe the question and ask them again. Having confidence and projecting yourself and speaking in front of a group, and pride. […] It’s universal regardless of what path you’re in, whether you’re in sales, long-term management, if you move into marketing, if you move into consulting, that confidence is something that you would build.”

Recognizing and motivating salespeople

“I like to say that there are certain qualities that you can’t teach somebody. There are certain qualities that you either have or don’t, and that’s work ethic drive, your proactivity wanting to seek out and pursue goals that you have in place for yourself, competitive nature. You can’t teach somebody to be competitive, but if you can point to specific experiences on their resume, that might also point to those qualities. That’s what I sought out. People that were working in jobs that I knew were a grind. Topgolf – at the time, working in that guest services role was a grind. Standing, talking, selling, pitching, a lot of serving jobs, they’re juggling a lot all at once. There’s a wide range, which is why sourcing was fun for this role. Hiring for this role is fun, too, because I know with confidence whether or not somebody has the qualities to do well here and really thrive. It’s a matter of getting them to understand and receive that as well, and feel confident in it too. It was always a challenge, but it was one that I believed in. The better I got at it, the quicker I was able to get somebody excited about sales, even if they had never considered it before.” 

Choosing a career isn’t straightforward anymore

“Campus recruiting is changing, especially in professional sales. I think that this is an incredible job for any recent graduate, regardless of the path that they choose to take long-term. It’s offering the opportunity to establish a set of skills that a lot of companies haven’t quite been able to figure out how to build and establish. It applies to all learning styles. That’s something that resonates a lot with students. They […] don’t know 100% where they want to see themselves long-term. If you ask any senior in college, ‘Where are you seeing yourself in your career moving into? What job do you want to commit to forever?’ Anybody that says that they know with confidence, what they want to do forever, they’re either lying or they’re going to change it after they actually started that role. memoryBlue is different than other opportunities because it provides a platform to establish those skills through experience and actual exposure to different environments, opportunities, different companies. […] I was able to define recruiting as the path that is the best fit for me. Once I was able to define that, I’ve been there, and that’s the opportunity I seek to give out students. If you’re not 100% sure, try this out and get really good at it and see how many doors open up for you as a result of that skillset.”

Transcript: 

[00:00:43] Marc Gonyea: Well, well, well. We have the fifth most tenured employee with us today, Chris. 

[00:00:58] Chris Corcoran: Amazing. 

[00:00:59] Marc Gonyea: [00:01:00] Libby Galatis in the house. 

[00:01:04] Libby Galatis: What’s up? Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. 

[00:01:11] Chris Corcoran: Thanks for sticking with us. 

[00:01:12] Libby Galatis: Of course. 

[00:01:13] Chris Corcoran: Through highs and lows, trial and error. If you don’t like it, wait a minute. 

[00:01:19] Libby Galatis: That is the truth.

[00:01:21] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about that. We’ll get to that. But for the people listening, even for me and for Chris to a certain point, tell us a little bit about yourself. So where you grew up, that sort of thing. 

[00:01:31] Libby Galatis: All right. So I’m born and raised in Northern Virginia. Nova for life. I actually went to the same high school that my dad did.

[00:01:39] Yeah. Edison High School. There has been a Galatis at Edison High School for the better part of 25, 30 years. 

[00:01:47] Chris Corcoran: The curtain closed on that. 

[00:01:49] Libby Galatis: My youngest brother, Xander just graduated. Shout-out Xander. And I went to Christopher Newport University. 

[00:01:57] Marc Gonyea: Wait, just real quick, real quick, real quickly. How many people from your family were in the same high school for how long?

[00:02:05] Libby Galatis: I think we have, I think Xander was the 11th Galatis to graduate from Edison High School. And my aunt actually taught there for a long time. She was teacher of the year for Fairfax County Public Schools. Yeah. So, there was just always a Galatis somewhere on the Edison High School roster and yearbook.

[00:02:20] Marc Gonyea: And did you like, was it concurrent or do you know? 

[00:02:24] Libby Galatis: It was a lot of overlaps. My dad and all of my aunts and uncles went there. They played soccer there and then my aunt started teaching there. Both of my older cousins went through Edison. And then once they transitioned out they were a couple of years older.

[00:02:37] That’s when my brother Stephen, myself, Julia we’re all really close in age, so the three of us overlapped at Edison. And then, my youngest siblings, Xander and Caroline, they were at Edison together. So filtered through. 

[00:02:52] Marc Gonyea: All right. And what, what kind of kid were you like in high school? 

[00:02:55] Libby Galatis: I was, I was always the friend that was grounded for most of high school.

[00:03:02] My older brother didn’t really get into too much stuff and I was the first one to go to parties and get in trouble and get caught. I was the experimenter and it’s just funny watching my younger siblings go through high school. Even my sister Julia, only 15 months younger, got away with a lot more than I did.

[00:03:20] Yeah. So I was always grounded, but I learned a lot and I had a great relationship with my parents. I was really honest with them and yeah, that’s that was me. 

[00:03:29] Marc Gonyea: Did you see, well, we’ll get to Christopher Newport in a second though, but did you see any of what you do now for us and tell us what you do now for us, for the firm, for the company.

[00:03:40] Any of that in you, when you’re in high school, did you kind of have any inkling what you wanted to do, going into college? 

[00:03:45] Libby Galatis: I, I talk about this with my candidates all the time. So I’m now the Manager of the Internal Recruitment team. And I started off in the sales role, moved into recruiting seven, eight months in to being an SDR.

[00:03:58] And I had no idea when I was in high school what I wanted to do. Absolutely none. Both my parents, my mom is a hairstylist at a five-star salon in old town. My dad’s worked for Otis Elevator for pushing over 30 years at this point. Neither went to a four year university. So I think that I had never really been future-focused.

[00:04:19] I was, I’m not a planner. Anybody that knows me knows that I’m not, I’m not the one to put something on the calendar and organize. That, that’s just never really been in my nature. So, no, I didn’t really know what I was working towards outside of just getting a degree. Just being a student that was my full-time job.

[00:04:33] And then I got really good grades all throughout high school and all throughout college as well. It was just my focus. My parents put me through school and that was my job. Just to get good grades. 

[00:04:42] Marc Gonyea: There you go. 

[00:04:43] And then, so, all right. So you went to Christopher Newport, which is like the up and I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s completely different school than when you and I were in high school.

[00:04:53] Chris Corcoran: It was a college when were in high school. Christopher Newport college. It’s as a community college. 

[00:04:57] Libby Galatis: It was at one point. 

[00:04:59] Chris Corcoran: Then there you go. [00:05:00] 

[00:05:00] Libby Galatis: Yeah. They’ve grown quite a bit. 

[00:05:02] Marc Gonyea: We’ve got, 

[00:05:02] we’ve got a lot of your brother in that, the company, right? So, so what was it like going to school there? 

[00:05:08] And what’d your major? So I majored in Communication and I minored in Business Administration.

[00:05:13] Libby Galatis: And it was a, it’s a smaller university. There was a lot of construction going on, which is interesting because when I was at Edison High School they were renovating everything. So we were in trailers for most of my time in high school. Went to college thinking that it would be Super Ross County public schools.

[00:05:31] And now, I mean, Edison High School is beautiful. I mean, the school itself is gorgeous, but going to CNU, there was so much construction going on there as well that we didn’t really get to take advantage of what the campus is today. So there was always construction going on. We were waking up at eight in the morning to, you know, construction workers banging on stuff and new buildings popping up everywhere.

[00:05:50] So it was, it was a smaller school, so a little bit of a different experience than the larger universities out there. But I was in a sorority, super social, tried doing club lacrosse and [00:06:00] that really didn’t get off the ground while I was in college. But it was fun, it was a good time. You know, I was really eager to get out of my parents’ house and be independent.

[00:06:08] I was just ready as far as…

[00:06:09] Marc Gonyea: What was your major in? 

[00:06:11] I was a co-major. 

[00:06:13] Chris Corcoran: Okay. What does that mean? So what did you study?

[00:06:16] Libby Galatis: It was a lot of like interpersonal communication, learning non-verbals how to concisely, you know, speak about different subjects. It was a lot of a lot. It was a very broad major and I picked it intentionally because knowing that I didn’t really have an end goal in mind. I wanted to keep the doors opened regardless.

[00:06:34] So I had that business minor, took a lot of business classes, learned, learned so much. And I think I, I graduated with just a well-rounded understanding of a lot of things. And a lot of what I learned in college, I definitely was able to apply because it was so versatile. So. 

[00:06:49] Marc Gonyea: And what did you think what you’re going to do when you were coming out of Christopher Newport, like with a communication degree? I know you’ve worked at Topgolf, right? You worked with, what’d you do for them a little bit for a while?

[00:07:00] Libby Galatis: I worked in guest services at the original and first Topgolf in the United States in Alexandria, Virginia. And… 

[00:07:07] Marc Gonyea: The first one was that one in Alexandria, was it the first one?

[00:07:10] Libby Galatis: Yes, it was the first one and everything was manual. So, all the beautiful Topgolf set exists now where everything is automated and you don’t really have to talk to somebody to get set up. I was the person behind the front desk selling memberships, explaining the game while the, the line was out the door.

[00:07:24] So we stood, you know, for the full shift and that’s what I did and that’s how I spent my summers, just kind of earning money. But yep, got a lot of experience at Topgolf. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. 

[00:07:34] Marc Gonyea: That was the first one. Okay. So then you came out. What did you think you were gonna do? 

[00:07:38] Libby Galatis: I had no idea what I wanted to do.

[00:07:40] I spent some time with my grandmother in Charlottesville and I was thinking about moving to Charlottesville because my aunt, Lizzie, she works for a company called Brightstar and she’s in tech sales. She’s the director of business development there. She was the one that sat me down and I was talking to her about what I wanted to do in the future.

[00:07:59] And she was the person that initially introduced sales as a potential path. She gave me a lot of really great advice. She was like, “If you’re going to pursue sales, you’ve got to learn how to golf.” And I was like, “Oh, I know how to taught golf.” And that’s kind of where, so my job search started I was considering a couple of really small startups in Charlottesville. And fortunately, or unfortunately at the time, none of them had quite panned out.

[00:08:21] I got all the way through the interview processes, they just weren’t ready to bring on onboard people, because they were so new. And then I found memoryBlue through mutual friend. So I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just kind of went with my aunt suggested, which is sales and I figured it would just be a good starting point to begin.

[00:08:37] Marc Gonyea: And who was the mutual friend? 

[00:08:38] Anybody that worked here?

[00:08:40] Libby Galatis: Yeah. So, no, actually, so the mutual friend that connected me to my recruiter was Janiqua Davis and she’s one of my best friends. I met her in college. We were in Alpha Phi together and she’s crushing it right now. She’s one of my, I would say professional mentors almost because she’s just been around the block.

[00:08:56] She works in recruiting as well. And she actually connected me to the recruiter that I worked with throughout memoryBlue’s recruitment process. And that was Courtney White. 

[00:09:04] Marc Gonyea: Courtney White. She’s another Christopher Newport person. 

[00:09:08] Libby Galatis: She is, and a memoryBlue alumni. Yeah. 

[00:09:11] Marc Gonyea: Recently married. No, not recently married, recently baby. 

[00:09:14] Libby Galatis: Recently both. 

[00:09:15] Marc Gonyea: Recently both baby and marriage. All right, man.

[00:09:17] Libby Galatis: And she’s also doing incredible things with her currently leader and her quite a bit. 

[00:09:23] Marc Gonyea: So she reached out to you and said, “Hey,…?” 

[00:09:25] Libby Galatis: Well, so Janiqua reached out to me and was like, “I want you to meet Courtney. She works at a sales firm.” And I knew nothing about memoryBlue at the time.

[00:09:34] And she and I had our first conversation and realized that we had actually a bunch of mutual friends. We had never really crossed paths while we were at CNU. So our friendship really developed after that initial introduction when I was going through the process here. 

[00:09:48] Marc Gonyea: And what was it like?

[00:09:49] Libby Galatis: I remember I was living at my parents’ house, which, you know, anybody listening that has it started their full-time job post-grad if you can live at home, take advantage of it, save up money. It’s it’s really,… Not everybody gets to do that, but if you can, I would say that that’s one of the best decisions that I made it set me up to be able to move out.

[00:10:07] But… 

[00:10:07] Marc Gonyea: Why don’t people not like stacking chips? 

[00:10:09] Libby Galatis: That’s a good question. I think a lot of people are just eager at that immediate gratification, get me out. I’m working and making money. I want to pay for things on my own. It’s great in theory, but in practice you don’t realize once you start a job, you don’t actually get paid for two weeks after you start. And you have to have something in the bank to be able to supplement for the cost of moving and moving out.

[00:10:29] Marc Gonyea: You hear probably the expert of the company went talking to about those things, right before they come work here or any place else, really. 

[00:10:37] Libby Galatis: Yeah, definitely. And that just sounds really demographic that we hire being mostly recent grads transitioning from, you know, college life into the real world. So there’s a lot that most people don’t consider and think about a lot of factors until it’s time to think about it.

[00:10:52] And then at that point you should have had your wheels turning a lot sooner. So, I was fortunate. I, when I went through a memoryBlue process, I was at my parent’s house. I didn’t really have anybody consulting me throughout. I had never interviewed at a real job before outside of the handful of startups that were super informal when I was living in Charlottesville.

[00:11:09] But, you know, I met with a couple of the hiring managers and they spoke and acted very similar. I remember Ben Decowski. Remember him and I can’t remember. I think Nick, I can’t…

[00:11:24] Marc Gonyea: Nick D’Aleandro. 

[00:11:27] That’s the bizz I sent to. Nick D. Nick D was hawking the… Did you pull him off the street? He had a job door to door selling copiers and what not. 

[00:11:35] Chris Corcoran: Yeah.  He tried to sell it, he tried to sell us office supplies. I convinced him to come quit that and come work at memoryBlue. And we switched to his company to get office supplies. 

[00:11:44] Marc Gonyea: We’ll track him down. 

[00:11:45] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, we did. 

[00:11:46] Marc Gonyea: He’s along in good standing. 

[00:11:47] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. 

[00:11:48] Marc Gonyea: Nick D. Yeah. 

[00:11:50] Libby Galatis: So I met with both of them. I remember preparing for the role-play, but not really knowing what I was preparing for.

[00:11:57] And then I remember, I was also [00:12:00] interviewing at another company, George Mason Mortgage, and they had sent me an offer in Arlington. And I had a deadline on this offer. I just finished memoryBlue, memoryBlue’s process. And I was like, “Courtney, I need, I need an answer. You know, I got this offer on the table, it’s going to expire.”

[00:12:16] And she was like, “Give me a references.” And it was super rushed at the end of process on the edge of my seat and genuinely an hour before that George Mason offer expired was when I got the call from Courtney that I actually got the offer at memoryBlue. And I accepted and started my journey here.

[00:12:32] Marc Gonyea: Excellent. All right. So you didn’t know what you’re doing then though? 

[00:12:36] Libby Galatis: Absolutely not. I knew nothing about what I was getting myself into. I couldn’t have explained to anybody what sales development was, what memoryBlue was. And that’s something that we come across often too with a lot of candidates that have never worked in this kind of environment before, or are unfamiliar with sales in general.

[00:12:52] My parents were a hundred percent certain that memoryBlue was a pyramid scheme. You know, so I’m explaining to them [00:13:00] like all the different aspects and, and I’m digging myself in a hole because I’m not able to expand on most event. And they left being like, “All right, well, it sounds like the company you’re going to go work for isn’t real.”

[00:13:10] So… 

[00:13:11] Marc Gonyea: The website isn’t terrible, right? 

[00:13:15] Libby Galatis: Yeah. Yeah. So,… 

[00:13:18] Marc Gonyea: All right. 

[00:13:18] So you started in a, what was that like? Who did you start with? 

[00:13:22] Libby Galatis: 2015 August. My client was MarkLogic, which was like the Mac Daddy client at the time. I think he had seven SDRs working on that team. Yep. I remember a Annette Cole, Connor Beebe, Mike Conti, Jay Holt and Wess who I’m going to butcher his last name. 

[00:13:45] Marc Gonyea: Robinson baseball.

[00:13:49] Once we get you on. 

[00:13:53] Who was the DM? 

[00:13:54] Libby Galatis: Yeah. So that’s actually a funny story too, because Ben Decowski was originally my idea. And he was introduced to [00:14:00] me as my DM. And then right before I started, was when I got a call from both Ben and Frank. They were both on the phone. I didn’t know Frank, I hadn’t met him yet.

[00:14:09] And Frank Taylor, FT3 introduced himself to me over the phone. I was walking out of a Chipotle, I’ll never forget it. And he was like, “Hey, by the way, like, you’re going to join the MarkLogic team and I’m going to be your manager and I’ll work with you throughout your time here.” And he was our fearless leader. Frank Taylor.

[00:14:23] Marc Gonyea: That’s great. And they get 

[00:14:24] out ahead of it. There, you know, you haven’t even started yet? 

[00:14:28] Libby Galatis: I had started 

[00:14:29] and then they gave me a call and that was my team. We had a great squad. All of us were separated into territories and they were very participative. Like the MarkLogic account executives, I remember having a great relationship with them.

[00:14:43] They invited us on site multiple times. So our experience was was the memoryBlue experience that we sell now in our process. The relationship, the exposure that you get to this other business, familiarity with the technology itself. So, I was really fortunate for that client and I [00:15:00] gained a lot of really great experience and a lot of lifelong friends there too.

[00:15:03] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, definitely. What was it like learning the job? 

[00:15:06] Libby Galatis: So memoryBlue’s training back then was not what it is today. Yeah, everything was in paper packets, a lot of checklists. That sounds pretty good to me. 

[00:15:14] So we had like the small cohorts. I remember that we would start with a small group but, I think it was the first 42, 42 days.

[00:15:23] I leaned heavily on my mentor. Javan was my mentor. 

[00:15:27] Marc Gonyea: All right.

[00:15:29] Libby Galatis: Yeah. You moved to micro-strategy soon. Great. Actually ran into him at the MicroStrategy Christmas party that I went to with Michelle… as well. So, I think I got the most learning actually on the sales floor. Wess was somebody that really supported me as far as understanding MarkLogic’s technology, getting a lemonade statement down, how to, how to pitch it, all that stuff.

[00:15:50] He was, he was excellent on the phone. Just sounded really great and was really helpful. 

[00:15:54] Marc Gonyea: How were you on the phone? 

[00:15:56] Libby Galatis: I had call avoidance. I was,… yeah. I [00:16:00] mean, I think it was extreme for me. I couldn’t tell you, I just, I think a lot of it just had to do with not really understanding fully what my role is and how important it was.

[00:16:09] So feeling very small, I think is a common misconception to the sales development representative role. The interrupts begin here, thinking that they’re bottom of the food chain, which, you know, if you’re looking at the food chain as a whole, yes you are, but I mean, this, this role that we’re doing is so important. And there and without fully understanding the impact that this role specifically has on businesses, that value is lost.

[00:16:33] And so I just kind of, you know, I always saw myself as somebody that was bothering, you know, the people I was calling. I didn’t really have a purpose. I didn’t, I didn’t have a why and that was something that was challenging when I first started. But once I grasped the why, that’s when the confidence started to build up and I saw, you know, my production raise.

[00:16:49] So, I think that’s why it was challenging at first, just not really understanding and comprehending fully, you know, the impact that sales development role has on businesses. So… 

[00:16:59] Marc Gonyea: [00:17:00] Yeah. 

[00:17:00] I can see that puppet with many people’s minds, as far as if they call avoidance type of deal. It was very difficult. What were you good at?

[00:17:08] Libby Galatis: Yeah, so I wasn’t the best sales development representative. I’ll be the first one to admit that. Frank Taylor can probably point to that as well. Some of it was territory driven. I was calling on people in Florida. I was working in the south east of the United States. And so a lot of people. They don’t like, they don’t like Libby and they’re not really super tech savvy.

[00:17:28] There weren’t many really productive conversations that I got into as an SDR. And this client, I mean, we were, we were building lists for this client. We had warm leads. So they were on marketing, you know, passed over to us, which a lot of people would argue, “What a cakewalk.” Right? Like that’s supposed to be so easy, but if those leads aren’t properly qualified or if they’re not actually good, you’re given a dead list of people and you’re kind of stuck, which is where I found myself.

[00:17:52] So I was calling, I had all the metrics were up, I was working really hard and I would turn to Frank frustrated because I wasn’t [00:18:00] producing. And he just kind of pointed to the fact that we have to focus on the controllables, which is the number of dollars that you’re making trying to make the most out of conversations.

[00:18:09] There was a lot out of my control, I think, but I will take ownership that I just wasn’t, you know… sales didn’t come naturally to me in a way that I thought that it would. In a way, I think a lot of most people that start this role think that it would. 

[00:18:21] Marc Gonyea: What do people think that, ’cause that’s not true at all?

[00:18:23] Libby Galatis: Well sales, a lot of people think sales is easy.

[00:18:26] And just talking to people. The number of times the candidates telling me the reason why I’m pursuing sales is because I love talking to people. I love people. “You love people, you should not be in sales.” You talk to more people that don’t want to talk to you, then people that actually want to have a conversation with you.

[00:18:41] If you love people, you maybe HR, maybe you work for nonprofits and you’ve got a really high altruist. I think that you can, you can, you can frame this role in, in a way that points to it helping people, but it’s businesses, you know. Businesses don’t love you back, people love you back, right? So if you’re working in [00:19:00] a role where you’re looking to connect with people on a personal level and support them and help them, recruiting is a great space to go into, which is where I ultimately ended up.

[00:19:07] Or I would say HR, you know, it’s a pretty good one too. 

[00:19:11] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. She threw me off there with that. No, no, that’s good though. That’s good for people to hear. So people or candidates will tell you, “I want to go into sales, because I’m good with people.” And what’s your retort… 

[00:19:21] Libby Galatis: Well, it goes far beyond, you know, selling. And selling is more than just connecting with people, especially when you’re selling on a B2B scale, because you’re not helping an individual with the need that they personally have.

[00:19:32] You’re helping their department with an issue that they’re experiencing or you’re helping that business with a problem that they don’t have a solution to. So you’re helping an entire entity versus helping an individual, which again, if you go super micro you can define if this, if this experience is, is hurting that individual you’re speaking with or if they’re banging their head on their desk, because the problem sucks so bad.

[00:19:54] Yes, you’re helping them. But again, the solution is for the entity of the business as a whole. So that the disconnect [00:20:00] I think is you’re not helping one-to-one individuals, you’re helping entire businesses. And in turn that like the secondary help is to the individual that you’re talking to. 

[00:20:10] Marc Gonyea: So who, what, what is the reason to get into the sales?

[00:20:13] When a candidate says, “Hey, Libby, why should I do this?” Because you may say, “Well, it’s not… that’s great, you’re a people person, but let me tell you why.” 

[00:20:21] Libby Galatis: Absolutely. 

[00:20:21] I think this is part of what I loved the most while working on the campus recruiting size, because or side of things, because a lot of people don’t realize how essential the skills are that you build in a sales role. Developing confidence, being able to speak concisely and get your point across to individuals that may not be at the same level of seniority as you. Knowing your worth.

[00:20:42] I think if you, if you talk and speak like you know what you’re talking about, people are more likely to believe that you do know what you’re talking about, even if you don’t. And there’s a lot of value to that skill. Projecting yourself comfortably and confidently, I would say is the number one kind of skill set that you would get [00:21:00] working in this kind of environment.

[00:21:01] But a lot, you’d be surprised the number of people, if you put them on the spot, they can’t answer a question concisely or they speak in such a roundabout way that you’d have to reframe the question and ask them again. So I think, just having confidence in, in projecting yourself and speaking in front of a group

[00:21:15] and pride and, and the way that you’re, you’re projecting yourself I think is something that’s… It’s universal regardless of what path you’re in, whether you’re in sales long-term management, if you move into marketing, if you move into consulting, that confidence is something that you would build.

[00:21:31] Marc Gonyea: How has when you started the people you recruit now, how has working at the company changes for an SDR? 

[00:21:38] Libby Galatis: The support, it’s the biggest thing. I mean, the company that I work for now, of course it’s memoryBlue, but it looks nothing like it did back in 2015 in the best way. The resources that we have available to the sales reps, the support system as far as the management team, the formal mentorship program that we have, the onboarding process, memoryBlue academy itself is [00:22:00] just an incredible tool for any person.

[00:22:03] And that’s why it it’s… There’s a lot of value there now and it’s tangible value that we can point to where I think it didn’t exist back in 2015. So that’s, that’s definitely something that’s changed. But from an experience standpoint, I think most of it points to the resources given from the training standpoint, the exec vision and the front spin, call recordings, being able to break down those calls, get active feedback from all members of, of memoryBlue.

[00:22:29] That’s something that we didn’t really have back in that day. 

[00:22:32] Marc Gonyea: Not at all. 

[00:22:32] What to say me back real quick. Who else, so you talked about the MarkLogic people. Who else did you work with kind of over the time since you’ve been here? 

[00:22:40] Libby Galatis: Oh, God. 

[00:22:41] Marc Gonyea: SDRs, when you were in SDR or maybe otherwise. 

[00:22:44] Libby Galatis: Will Foreman. 

[00:22:49] Yeah, he was great.

[00:22:50] And I mean, over my time… Josh Crippen. 

[00:22:54] Marc Gonyea: Crippen. 

[00:22:54] Mr. 

[00:22:54] Tampa by himself. 

[00:22:55] So is he Captain America? 

[00:22:58] Libby Galatis: Jesse Matthews. I mean, a lot of my friends [00:23:00] that I established class. Yeah. We had, we had a great group. At one point all the managers it was Jesse, Joey, Jeremy, Josh. And there was like three Joeys at the company, but they all were managers at HQ.

[00:23:12] So you, you know how your mom will go through the entire list of your siblings names before she gets to yours and that’s, that’s my experience, “Libby, Stephen, Julia, Caroline up.” You know, that’s how it felt talking to the DMs, which was kind of fun. 

[00:23:24] Marc Gonyea: Okay. 

[00:23:24] Libby Galatis: Yeah. 

[00:23:26] Chris Corcoran: All right. So Libby, so you were an SDR. How long were you in SDR ?

[00:23:30] Libby Galatis: Seven, eight months.

[00:23:32] Seven and a half months. 

[00:23:33] Chris Corcoran: Pushing eight months. And then what happened? 

[00:23:36] Libby Galatis: So then Frank Taylor pulled me aside and we had our weekly one-on-ones where they ask you, “Where do you see yourself? What’s working, what’s not working? How can I help you?” And an email had just gone out to the team because Kristen Wisdorf had started a few.

[00:23:50] I think I beat, she beat me by a couple of weeks. She started memoryBlue just before I was, I started as an SDR. So at this point she was just over six months into [00:24:00] her role as the director of talent. And she sent an email out saying that she was expanding the recruiting team and for those interests she wanted to meet with them.

[00:24:08] So then I talked to Frank and I told him that I was interested in that. And he made sure that I had a defined reason why, you know, why do I want to make that transition? There was a lot of like personal reflection that came along with that, because something that I wanted to be very clear about was that I wasn’t looking to run from sales or get out of sales necessarily.

[00:24:30] I just felt that my talents and the gratification that I was seeking from my career, knowing that you spend most of your week in, in a job. I wasn’t finding that fulfillment from the sales position, which is, you know, in hindsight it’s kind of hard to,… Like if you’re looking to get fulfillment out of an SDR job, you can be fulfilled, but you’re not gonna seek, you’re not going to have that full well-rounded fulfillment until you reach later stages of your career.

[00:24:54] So that’s what I was seeking. And I didn’t see myself pursuing sales longterm, being onsite with [00:25:00] MarkLogic and getting to know those account executives. I saw a lot of my peers moving towards that path as well and there’s just a disconnect. So I felt that recruiting would be a better fit. I loved the friends that I had made on the sales floor, a lot of which I’m still really close with now and connected to.

[00:25:15] And I saw the value of the opportunity ’cause I saw the growth that was happening to those that I was working with. So I remember sitting down with Kristen and that’s exactly what I told her, “You know, I want to be clear, I’m not running from sales. I just feel that this is the best next step for me.”

[00:25:29] I’m also a nurturer by nature. I love a lot of supporting and helping and consulting. I was the first of my immediate family to graduate from the four-year university. And that was really a whole new experience in my household and my siblings all looked up to me for that. So I helped them with that transition.

[00:25:46] So it was just, it, it just made sense. That next step just made sense 

[00:25:50] at the time. 

[00:25:51] Chris Corcoran: And so what’d you do? 

[00:25:53] Libby Galatis: I started sourcing. Kristen hired me. I started sourcing. 

[00:25:58] Chris Corcoran: What did the team look like when you joined [00:26:00] it? 

[00:26:00] Libby Galatis: So we had one other sourcer, Devin Cushing. 

[00:26:03] Chris Corcoran: Devin. 

[00:26:05] Libby Galatis: And the team was Courtney White and Tiana Bell, myself

[00:26:09] and…

[00:26:12] Chris Corcoran: Wow. Okay. And so you were sourcing, so were you paired up with Tiana? 

[00:26:17] Libby Galatis: I kind of what… I learned from both Tiana and from Courtney. So Devin and I were in charge of seeking out talent, finding individuals that would be open to memoryBlue. We weren’t, I mean, inbound applications were gold. You know what, we didn’t have access to those because we had approved that we could actually find the talent and identify the talent and then we’d set up interviews for Courtney or for Tiana based off the territory that they were in.

[00:26:41] So it was cool because I had that initial screening call where I felt the person was strong and was able to kind of point to reasons why they would be a fit. I’d pass them over to Tiana, who we all know, is she’s very critical and very proud of the work that she does. So I learned a lot from the feedback that she gave me and I was eager to [00:27:00] receive it in the same way that Courtney was also extremely helpful in giving feedback too.

[00:27:04] But that’s, that’s where I started, bottom of bottom of the totem pole there and slowly worked my way up towards full cycle as a company grew. There was just a stronger need for and I took advantage of that. So jumped up the full desk, full cycle, recruited a lot of sales reps over the years. And then, then you know, the transition to campus recruiting happened.

[00:27:23] So,… 

[00:27:24] Chris Corcoran: So we’ll 

[00:27:24] talk about when you were sourcing, what, what would, what does good look like? What would be a good candidate for a sales development rep? 

[00:27:31] Libby Galatis: So I think something that is unique about sourcing for this role specifically is most people, especially back in 2015 less so now, because there’s more exposure to professional sales when, when individuals are kind of younger in their career. But yeah,

[00:27:45] most people that I was sourcing had never considered sales before, they weren’t actively or proactively seeking out sales. And it was up to me to look at their profile or look at their resume and pinpoint intangible qualities that they could have had [00:28:00] from the experiences that were listed. And basically build a case for myself for why they could be a fit here and somehow identify those qualities so that it resonates with the candidate I’m talking to and get them to buy into pursuing this role.

[00:28:14] So, you know, people that show that they could time manage a lot of student athletes working full time, you know, or those that worked while they went to school and put themselves through school. I like to say that there are certain qualities that you can teach somebody. There’s certain qualities that you either have or your don’t and that’s work ethic drive. You know, proactivity wanting to seek out and target and, and pursue goals that you have in place for yourself.

[00:28:34] Competitive nature. You can’t teach somebody to be competitive, but if you can point to specific experiences on their resume that might also point to those, those qualities. So that’s what I sought out, people that were working in jobs that I knew were a grind. Topgolf, at the time working in that guest services role was a grind, standing, talking, selling, pitching. A lot of serving jobs.

[00:28:56] You know, they’re juggling a lot all at once. There, I mean, it it’s really, there’s a [00:29:00] wide range, which is why sourcing was fun for this, this role. And hiring for this role is fun too, because I know with confidence whether or not somebody has the qualities to do well here and really thrive, it’s a matter of getting them to understand and receive that as well and feel confident in it too.

[00:29:15] So it was always a challenge, but it was one that I believed in and that, you know, the better I got at it, the quicker I was able to get somebody excited about sales, even if they had never considered it before. 

[00:29:27] Chris Corcoran: How long did you source? 

[00:29:29] Libby Galatis: I sourced about eight months. Just so over less than a year before jumping into full cycle.

[00:29:33] Chris Corcoran: So roughly eight months as an SDR, roughly eight months as a sourcer and then you became a full-on recruiter? So talk about the difference between sourcing and recruiting. 

[00:29:43] Libby Galatis: So sourcing is the identification of the talent. So seeking out passive people that didn’t apply for the job, but showcase or show what you typically look for and what you’ve seen as far as top performers go. And you can go on anybody’s LinkedIn that has worked at memoryBlue and see their [00:30:00] experience

[00:30:00] and there’s, there’s pretty evident similarities. So once you’re able to identify the talent, I mean, we have different steps. You have to take the hiring survey, which is a great added layer of security and confidence. You know, “Hey candidate, I know that you’d be a good fit for this role, based off your assessment results.

[00:30:16] It also points to you being a good fit for this role. Let’s discuss the position in more detail.” Sourcing is kind of like being an SDR for recruiters. And, and so then moving into the full cycle position I would carry the conversation further, get to know the candidate more in depth and sell memoryBlue and pitch pitch what we did. And get them bought into it.

[00:30:35] So, carrying people throughout the entire recruitment process, multiple interviews, there’s a role play exercise they have to do. I think it was great to be able to speak to my own experience doing that. I mean, most, most people had never done a role play prior to this exercise that memoryBlue makes them do.

[00:30:50] And it’s more of a testament to their preparation and how dedicated they are committed to this opportunity. But it’s it’s an interesting process to see [00:31:00] it through all the way and then how gratifying it is to get them, not only the the company bought in and sold on this candidate, but to have the candidate have that mutual connection as well.

[00:31:07] So that’s what I found really gratifying. And then to see my reps, you know, a lot of which are now leaders within the company that I found or, you know, sourced on campus or are brought in here that worked their way up. So it, it, it gave me further confidence that I knew what I was doing and that I knew what good talent looked like for this company.

[00:31:24] Marc Gonyea: I got to… 

[00:31:25] Let me jump in here for a sec. Do you remember anyone you especially were proud of that you sourced when you were a sourcer? 

[00:31:31] Libby Galatis: Bailey Esparza. 

[00:31:33] Chris Corcoran: Bailey. 

[00:31:34] Marc Gonyea: Bailey Esparza? Really? So 

[00:31:36] you sourced her during that age? 

[00:31:40] Libby Galatis: Yeah. So I marched in your office, Chris, with her disc assessment results. And I said, “I’m going to hire this girl.”

[00:31:46] And I did, I hired Bailey, but I took her full cycle. I found her right when she moved to Maryland from Arizona and her husband AJ’s military, now husband AJ’s military. And she didn’t know what [00:32:00] she was doing. I think she was looking at WeddingWire, WeddingWire and memoryBlue and… Not are sold on… 

[00:32:08] Marc Gonyea: Who else?

[00:32:09] Anybody else’s sources, if you know. Some people where you’re breaking their hearts right now, that’s okay. 

[00:32:14] Libby Galatis: Yeah. I can’t think off the top of my head. I mean, I know that I like like Simone Comer, I hired her… 

[00:32:20] Marc Gonyea: As a recruiter?

[00:32:21] Libby Galatis: I recruited her. 

[00:32:22] Chris Corcoran: Wow. 

[00:32:26] Marc Gonyea: The original. Yeah. 

[00:32:27] Libby Galatis: I’d have to look at like a map. There’s, there’s a lot of people that are working here right now, but a lot of leaders within the business. 

[00:32:32] Marc Gonyea: That’s a ton,

[00:32:32] yeah. It’s not really fair to ask you that. So many people, but Bailey was the one that,… 

[00:32:39] Libby Galatis: Yeah, she’s always and she ended up being my best friend. Now she lives in Mississippi. She had to travel for the military, but she works at memoryBlue now. Yeah. 

[00:32:48] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. It’s awesome. 

[00:32:50] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[00:32:50] Frank, Frank Taylor, you know, who was your DM, left and came back.

[00:32:54] Very interesting how that works. 

[00:32:56] Chris Corcoran: Is there any candidate that, the one that got away? [00:33:00] 

[00:33:00] Libby Galatis: Oh, no, no. I mean, there’s, there’s.

[00:33:08] I, I don’t know. I don’t have, I would have to,… If I’ve had a list or like, if I knew that this was a question I would have come prepared with a list. There are quite a few people that I dedicate a lot of time to. And that was my recruiting style was to make my entire role to revolve around these individuals and, you know, connect with them until they saw what I saw in them and had confidence in that too.

[00:33:30] So… 

[00:33:31] Marc Gonyea: What do you 

[00:33:31] think as a recruiter? I know you’re not doing that now, but you still have to teach that. Actually you still do, you are just not individual contributor anymore. Right now you’re managing a team of people doing it, but in your recruiting days, what was like your superpower? What was your, what separated you from?

[00:33:48] Libby Galatis: I, I, it was a connection that I made with my candidates. I, I think my personality style I can work with just about anybody and I got really good at it [00:34:00] being straight up when I knew that the candidate wasn’t a fit for this position. And that’s another huge part of recruiting here. You can’t force a square peg into a circle hole.

[00:34:08] If they’re not a fit for sales, you’re setting them up for failure, pushing them and selling them too hard for a role. And they could accept the job, but those are the people that will start a few months and quit. They’ll, they’ll leave just because they’re not built for this current environment. So I became really good at identifying the talent on the front end of individuals that I knew would really, really love this job and do really well here and presented the information that they needed to have

[00:34:34] that message also resonate well with them. So they were bought into the memoryBlue dream, which is the growth paths that we have in the springboard that we offer. And they were also bought into the value of the training that they would receive. And so I was really good at, at that messaging of pre presenting the opportunity in a way that resonated most with the individuals that I was targeting, but also building that relational connection where they trusted me.

[00:34:58] You know, “If, if Libby’s telling [00:35:00] me I’d be a good fit at this job, and I know I trust her and I’m confident that with her experience, she’s probably right.” 

[00:35:06] Marc Gonyea: But how, but 

[00:35:07] how would you 

[00:35:07] do that? You know, telling us how…

[00:35:09] Libby Galatis: Well those…

[00:35:09] Marc Gonyea: You tell us what you did, but how do you 

[00:35:12] do that? I think the qualifying call is really important.

[00:35:14] Libby Galatis: That’s something that I kind of preach and talk about a lot. You can identify a lot about a person when you ask them very straight forward questions like, “What are your non-negotiables? Walk me through your past experience. Can you speak concisely about yourself? Tell me about, you know, would you consider yourself to be a competitive person?”

[00:35:31] There’s, there’s just a lot of very heavy heading qualifying questions that you can cover in a 15 minute conversation that is more focused on, is less focused on the candidate, love and memoryBlue being sold on that initial call and it’s more about me being sold on the candidate. Because once I decide that somebody would be a good fit here, it’s, it’s a mission at that point to make sure that they receive that too.

[00:35:52] So between that first qualifying call and that second call where it’s more of a rollout, that’s a slow game. And I tell this to my recruiters all the time. “You just trust the process, [00:36:00] right?” If you find good talent, if you find somebody that is a truly good fit for this position, they’re going to get hired.

[00:36:06] It might take time, but they will get hired and the message will resonate for them. It’s just about identifying that on the front end. So I think once I’m able to qualify somebody or disqualify them very quickly, that’s kind of the starting point, but being confident that I’m investing my time in somebody that is not only in a situation to change jobs or, you know, be sellable for sales or open to memoryBlue as a company in general.

[00:36:31] I think big picture type people are really important here too. But it’s just, I, once I build that connection and identify those things, it’s, it’s a continuous relational touch, touch point throughout their process. In between interviews, checking in, making it about this is a career move. You know, you spend more time at work than you do at home.

[00:36:51] So, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I think it’s a part of the, the qualifying process and just the identification that [00:37:00] I, I am, I is just as important to disqualify somebody for this job on the front end as it is to qualify them and be super excited about them. But when you’re able to tell somebody, “Hey, I know that you might be interested in this model

[00:37:12] and the fact that we’ve won awards for our culture is super exciting to you, but when it comes down to it, this is a sales role. And for five days a week, you’re going to be making a hundred plus cold calls a day, no culture is going to be able to compensate for that. If you’re not down for the nitty gritty and you don’t have the grind and the capability to put your head down and do the work.” 

[00:37:33] Marc Gonyea: How many companies have you recruited?

[00:37:37] You know, and do you tell them, do you like that? Like, do you get fired up when you out recruit, you know, you’ve got this really top shelf candidate and you you’re convinced it’d be great here. And you’re also convinced this is a better opportunity for them. But maybe the, the base salary is higher at another company or maybe the company’s a flashy flashier company, so to speak

[00:37:55] or there’s a super nice office. Shit, stupid shit like that. Like, [00:38:00] do you like out recruiting? ‘Cause you win more than you lose all together. 

[00:38:04] Libby Galatis: Yeah. I love out recruiting. Are you kidding? That’s where the campus recruiting side of things was really fun. Because as student walks into a career fair and they see memoryBlue’s booth, they see our elephant logo and they ask us if we’re part of elephant con conservation. Or if they’re, if there’s something to do with elephant as an ainable, because we’re not a household brand. You know, they’re putting us next to GEICO.

[00:38:24] They’re putting us next to Insight Global and Gartner and companies that are very well known household names. And yeah, most candidates that we talk to and recruit from, from the campus side of things are actively looking at those different firms. But being able to catch those individuals at the right time and getting the message to resonate with them, giving them the experience that those larger companies just can’t give because they, I mean, they’re just so large. The attention to detail and the personal kind of touch with the process is sort of lost.

[00:38:58] So, when, when recruiting stops being [00:39:00] about the business and becomes more about the individual, that’s where you start to see people win. 

[00:39:04] So…

[00:39:04] Marc Gonyea: That’s gold. Say that again. Repeat that. 

[00:39:07] Libby Galatis: When recruiting is less about the business and more about the individual, that’s, that’s how you sell an opportunity. And if you have recruiters that are focused more on identifying the talent and focusing on the quality of that talent and enriching the lives of that individual, because that’s what we’re doing, right?

[00:39:24] You start at memoryBlue and it jump-starts your career and we see it all over LinkedIn. The alumni, Katie Lowry, she came in crushed that. Katie the Killer. Seeing that, I mean, those are the use cases that I’ve point to where it’s like, “Hey, you might not know with confidence right now on this first conversation or in this presentation I’m giving in your classroom

[00:39:41] if sales or memoryBlue could be a fit for you, but let me show you an individual that graduated last year play a call from how he or she sounded when they first started here, which is absolute garbage.” I mean, anybody’s first week of calling. You might book on your first dial, which we’ll see a lot that, that first call that you make, that you book on is not going to be a qualified lead.

[00:39:59] I think [00:40:00] I booked on the first conversation I made to, but that was not a good lead for my client. But as you get better and as you get more training it, you have to trust the process. And people like Katie that came in and put their head down, they learn the skills. I can put side by side, here’s how she sounded when she first started. You know, sorority girl from JMU, never picked up the phone and made a cold call in her life before. Three months in,

[00:40:20] here’s how she sounded in contrast, which is night and day. That’s when the light bulb start to go off. Where it’s like, “Hey, if I have, you know, this peer of mine that I never saw as a super business professional, crushing it in a very short timeframe, I know that I can do it too.” 

[00:40:37] Marc Gonyea: That’s golden. Make sure you tell your team that stuff.

[00:40:40] Libby Galatis: Of course. 

[00:40:40] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. That’s great. 

[00:40:42] Chris Corcoran: So Libby, you talk about this for a minute. So you were recruiting and then when did you, how long did you do that before you focused just to campus recruitment? 

[00:40:50] Libby Galatis: Oh, the time kind of blends together. I’d honestly have to look at my LinkedIn to have the exact dates, but I think I spent like a year, year and a half in the full cycle recruiting role.

[00:40:59] [00:41:00] I hired just over 200 SDRs. 

[00:41:02] Chris Corcoran: Wow. 

[00:41:03] Libby Galatis: And that’s when I, you know, I’m spending all day talking about the growth and the development and the career opportunity that this role is and all those things are true. But Kristen Wisdorf was in the director of talent role. And actually, and actually she had since been promoted into a different role within the company.

[00:41:21] We had a new director of talent, Meredith Faber start, and I just kind of reached a point where the conversation… I was really good at hiring SDRs, but once you know that you’re proficient at something and you’re doing it over and over all day, every day, you start to, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to feel like I’m just running on a hamster wheel just to run.

[00:41:40] I want to be running somewhere and going somewhere. So, I was running for the next challenge and I remember that’s when I went to you and I I was like, “Chris, I’m hitting a wall. I don’t know where my next step is and I don’t know whether that’s within the business here, but if it’s not like I need help finding it elsewhere.”

[00:41:57] So, that was when Chris pulled [00:42:00] me. I remember it was, it was a ridiculously hot Friday afternoon at like 4:15 or 4:30. I was sitting at my desk and I had my like winter sweater on because the office was so frigid when the summer with the AC. And Chris walks by my desk, he’s like, “Let’s go for a walk.”

[00:42:15] And I’m, I have no idea what to expect or what’s happening. I mean, my one winter sweater and we’d walk outside, go across the street. I’m sweating because I’m like, “My God, I’m literally about to get fired. There’s no reason that we were having this meeting…” 

[00:42:29] Marc Gonyea: …down the peer. What the docks… 

[00:42:31] Libby Galatis: We, we actually go to, we go across the street to the Hilton and we sit at the bar, have a beer.

[00:42:37] And he was like, “We don’t have anybody in this role and we have never had anybody in this role specifically and exclusively. And we want you to be the first person to do it.” And I mean, I was over the moon. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting that, but it just presented itself. And that’s what I tell everybody when they’re like, “Why are you still here?”

[00:42:54] Because, to what you had said earlier, I’ve been here for quite some time and I’m an elderly grandma in [00:43:00] comparison to my peers, as far as memoryBlue in ten year goes. But anytime I’ve gotten to a point where I’m bored or I feel I’ve reached a ceiling, something else comes up and that’s just part of being at a growing company.

[00:43:11] So, yeah. That’s how I landed there. 

[00:43:13] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. So, you did campus. Talk a little bit about the difference between recruiting start nows versus recruiting campus. 

[00:43:21] Libby Galatis: Yeah. So start now, it’s kind of like a memoryBlue buzzword. It’s just for immediate hires. Like in the nature of this business our, our product – our people.

[00:43:28] And I hate to say that, but we don’t have a solution as a company outside of the talented representatives that we’re bringing in and growing. And with the way that the model is structured, those individuals are constantly transitioning out of the role and we have to constantly fill those seats. And it’s a good thing.

[00:43:43] Some people get the, the terms churn and… What’s it called? Turnover and churn mixed up. And here it’s churn. I mean, we’re, we’re celebrating when our reps leave which is kind of backwards, but we’re also celebrating when they move within the business. For the campus side of things, it’s a long game. [00:44:00] Because students have an entire school year to land a job at whatever company they want.

[00:44:05] The opportunity is incredible. And they have fairs dedicated to finding a job, entire events and career centers that are dedicated to helping them find their next step. And they have influencers in their ear from professors to family members, and as the years progress those programs and the classes they’re taking and the influences that they are experiencing when figuring out what they want to do are more advanced and more in depth.

[00:44:30] So, where I start now is more of an immediate, I mean the process is relatively quick. If somebody wants to interview for this company, you can be in and out through process within a five-day workweek, if you’re looking to move fast enough and if you’re ready to make a decision. If you’re a student and your first semester of senior year, memoryBlue starts talking to you…

[00:44:48] I mean there just so many variables in play from when that initial conversation happens to when you accept the role. And then the time between accepting a role and actually starting a role. A lot can happen in a [00:45:00] short timeframe. So there’s a lot of, a lot more variables in play and it’s just a long game.

[00:45:05] There were some candidates that I recruited off of college campuses that took five, six months to close and those were the really gratifying wins. The ones that maybe, you know, put my hands in the air and get super hyped about. 

[00:45:17] Marc Gonyea: It’s a long cycle for someone who might be here for six months or longer. Right? All six offices were all open up by people who were formerly known as SDRs.

[00:45:29] So to big deal. 

[00:45:31] Libby Galatis: Yes. 

[00:45:32] Marc Gonyea: And you know as well as I do a really good SDR makes a huge difference, huge. They’ve they attract other people like themselves, they get on a team and they may take over a culture, influence the cultural team so much the DM. It’s like, “Thank God for this person.” I mean, the strong hires or are amazing.

[00:45:53] Like you get to manage like Jeremy Wood who swears by May grads or December grads. Yeah. I just. [00:46:00] Ginormous. 

[00:46:01] Libby Galatis: And we’re not the only company that sees that now. And especially with all these universities coming up with these professional sales programs which is something that we talk about on the Tech Sales is for Hustlers Campus Series that I host with Kristen. 

[00:46:14] Marc Gonyea: Plug plug in your own podcasts.

[00:46:18] Libby Galatis: But these universities are they’re growing and the exposure that the students are getting to professional sales and the importance of it and the value that their talent brings to businesses. Now businesses, you know, something that we’ve known for a long time other companies are now catching wind on.

[00:46:33] So it’s way more competitive than it’s ever been. Students are given the opportunity. So many opportunities, just kind of out outlaid for them and companies would bend over backwards to hire them. And my job is to identify why they should move forward with memoryBlue and, and not, you know, look at those other companies. 

[00:46:54] Marc Gonyea: As soon as possible. 

[00:46:55] Sooner rather than later.

[00:46:57] Libby Galatis: Yeah. So, I think it, campus [00:47:00] recruiting is changing, especially in the professional sales field. I think that this is an incredible job for any recent graduate, regardless of the path that they choose to take long-term. It’s, it’s offering the opportunity to establish a set of skills that a lot of companies haven’t quite been able to figure out how to build and establish,

[00:47:18] but it applies to all learning styles. And that’s something that resonates a lot with students. You know, they, most students don’t know a hundred percent where they want to see themselves long-term forever. If you ask any senior in college, “Where, where are you seeing yourself in your career moving into? What job do you want to commit to forever?”

[00:47:34] Anybody that says that they know with confidence what they want to do forever, it’s they’re either lying or they’re going to change it after they actually started that role, right? And where memoryBlue is different than other opportunities is it provides a platform to establish those skills and through experience and, and actual exposure into different environments, into different

[00:47:53] opportunities, different companies. You can define what that long-term path looks like for you, which is exactly what it did for me. I didn’t see [00:48:00] myself in recruiting when I started off in sales, but in that sales experience all of which I still utilize to this day and that sales training, I was able to define recruiting as the path that is the best fit for me.

[00:48:10] So, once I was able to define that, I mean, I’ve been there. And that’s the opportunity I seek to give out students is, “If you’re not a hundred percent sure, try this out and get really good at it and see how many doors open up for you as a result of that skillset.” So that’s what I talked about in all my, my classroom trainings.

[00:48:30] Yeah. So. 

[00:48:31] Chris Corcoran: Libby, what’s more competitive, sales or recruiting?

[00:48:38] Libby Galatis: I mean, I would say they’re neck and neck. 

[00:48:40] Marc Gonyea: Come on. 

[00:48:42] Libby Galatis: No. 

[00:48:42] Seriously. ‘Cause I mean, in sales, you’re competing that’s other, other vendors. I think it becomes more of a competition the later you are in your career. The account executives, the closers of the world. I mean, they’re, they’re constantly trying to sell against whatever else is out there.

[00:48:57] Whereas with recruiting it’s on the shorter [00:49:00] term a lot more competitive because it’s all about where the candidate starts and what resonates most with them. And this opportunity with memoryBlue, and this is how I was able to beat out so many other companies, our reps don’t have to know with competence what they want to sell and commit to long term.

[00:49:14] Whereas other companies are able to provide these training programs that identify one solution and they will tailor all the skills trained to their representatives to sell that one specific solution. But one question that most students can answer is, “Okay, so let’s say that this flashy solution at this large company that really excites you in, in real practice, you know, once you start the role you get a few months in and you realize it’s not as flashy as you thought, or maybe the message behind the solution it gives that, that specific product,

[00:49:41] I mean, it doesn’t resonate as much as it did when you first started. All of the skills that you built are then tailored to that specific product, so that transition into something different is going to be that much harder for you. Whereas here build the versatile skills set, whether you’re selling a cybersecurity product or a software product, the training applies,

[00:49:58] the process is very similar. [00:50:00] The soft skills and the hard skills that you use each step of the way that any salesperson use are the same.” And that’s how we define our training is that ability to build a foundation that applies regardless. So it’s, it’s extremely competitive. What we’re going against to what you mentioned earlier,

[00:50:15] I mean, 9 out of 10 entry level sales positions out there offer a higher salary than we do. And so when the selling and the competition comes in play is if I can get a student to understand the value in the career opportunity and the growth and the progression that they’ll see, with this age being so focused on now, you know, wanting things immediately ordering something on Amazon to be delivered that day, wanting to make as much money out of the gate.

[00:50:39] There are still so many students that this big picture kind of ‘let’s focus on the long game mentality resonates with’ and those are the ones that I love winning. I could beat out a larger company selling a similar opportunity any day if the candidate has the right mindset about their career. 

[00:50:56] Marc Gonyea: Golden.

[00:50:56] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. I think recruiting is more competitive. [00:51:00] And the reason why I say that is because you have to compete with everyone. Like there’s not just a couple of competitors. It’s George Mason’s bank with you. It’s, WeddingWire. It’s all these different companies and it could be a different profession. Some of the people we talk to pretty on campus, they’re like, “I’m either going to be in consulting or I might do this develop development job, or I might be an SDR.”

[00:51:23] So you have to sell them on the profession and then on the company. And like you said, most of the time we’ve got the lowest, lowest base. 

[00:51:33] Marc Gonyea: The base is the lowest. ‘Cause, so this is a personal decision too. 

[00:51:43] It’s highly personal. Or are you going to go spend, like you said earlier, your most of your waking hours.

[00:51:48] Yup. It’s a cold reality. Well, that’s, I mean, if you’re selling something and we’re selling a product or service, I don’t know the sellers or the professional sellers were getting here and there’s shit is harder than recruiting. 

[00:51:59] Chris Corcoran: But I didn’t say it [00:52:00] was, I said it was more competitive. 

[00:52:01] Marc Gonyea: More competitive.

[00:52:02] Well, some people will interpret that to be more challenging. 

[00:52:05] Libby Galatis: Sure. So you stripped down any of those roles that any student is pursuing as a recent grad. It’s all, entry-level, it’s all going to be sales development, you know, business development. It’s all the same thing. You’re prospecting, you’re doing cold outbound outreach and it’s, it’s a rite of passage.

[00:52:19] I mean, any sales professional will tell you that they once had to start off as an SDR. And my argument to that is if you have to get that skill down and if you have to learn how to do this, why not do it in an environment that almost exclusively hires those like-minded professionals. And we’ll surround you with those that are going to be dealing with the same challenges as you overcoming those challenges together, celebrating the same successes and then working towards the same goal.

[00:52:43] And an environment that, I mean, we’re looking to get you in and out of this role as quickly as possible so that you can get the foundational basics that you need to see progression and move on. Whereas other companies that they aim to keep their reps in that role and in that environment as long as possible, focus less on the culture and, and, you know, what’s going on around them while they’re learning that [00:53:00] skill and more on the business and the needs of the company.

[00:53:02] So, our environment, I mean, we want to wards for our culture and I can talk about the selling points of this company ’cause it’s part of my job all day long, but that’s really what resonates with most students. They want to learn this skill. They want to work with people that they can connect to and build relationships with.

[00:53:17] And this, this model, I mean, all of our reps go on and do something different. So thinking about all the companies that I’m now connected with, because I grew up at memoryBlue and I’ve been here forever, however long. I mean, networking is everything in this industry. Just an interesting, interesting

[00:53:36] business model that you guys have. But I would say this too all the time, Chris. Thanks for making a company that’s such an easy sell. It’s very moldable. 

[00:53:44] Chris Corcoran: So Libby, what’s more competitive, campus or starting out? 

[00:53:49] Libby Galatis: Campus. 

[00:53:50] Chris Corcoran: And why is that? 

[00:53:52] Libby Galatis: Because is of some of what we talked about earlier. I mean, most smart technology companies are [00:54:00] actively seeking out entry-level talent from these universities.

[00:54:03] The sales programs that memoryBlue partners with, I mean, some of the strongest talent you could ever imagine hiring for your SDR team or for that kind of BDR role are, are growing. And they’re already exposed to these concepts and they’ve done the role-plays already, they’ve gone to sales competitions, and they haven’t even started their full-time job yet.

[00:54:22] So that’s what is, that’s why it is so competitive because as companies are now realizing how important that talent is, they’re investing more in these programs and the programs themselves are growing. And you can hear it in the, the sales leaders that we speak to on the podcast, the campus podcasts that we have. I mean, the amount of growth that these programs are experiencing and in the last 5, 10 years it’s bananas because all of us can point to the importance of all this stuff.

[00:54:52] It just taking a lot of time for a lot of other schools to kind of come to that realization, but when they do, you see these sales classes pop up and those [00:55:00] light bulbs are going off and it makes my job a lot easier to work with a student that already knows they want sales. Then that’s like half the battle, right?

[00:55:07] Especially if they’ve never considered it before, but we’re literally working with students that specifically and exclusively want sales. They already understand the value of it. It’s just about deciding where they want to start. So now that more companies are offering a place to start, it’s becoming way more competitive because memoryBlue is just not a household name yet.

[00:55:25] Chris Corcoran: So, 

[00:55:25] and so talk a little bit about what you do on campus and the kind of the ground road or the inroads that you’ve made at these different schools and these sales programs. And how you get access to these students sooner. Talk a little bit about that. 

[00:55:36] Libby Galatis: Yeah, so I think, the biggest thing is getting into the classrooms and the presentations that I’ll give because

[00:55:41] there’s a lot of firms out there that will send the recruiters on campus and give a presentation about their company. And it’s all, I mean, every slide will have the company’s brand on it and it’s all about this company. “Come work for us. We’re really great because of X, Y, Z.” And if you’re in a classroom with students that are already certain they want sales,

[00:55:58] sure, that’s going to be a [00:56:00] presentation that resonates with them, especially if they’ve already decided they want to pursue X, Y, Z company. With memoryBlue, if we took that approach where we just showed up to a classroom of students that may or may not have ever heard of us before and focus just on the brand and on the company, because they had never heard of us prior to that presentation. There 9 at a 10 times going to go work at the company that you’re familiar with, you know. I always took the approach of educating on the front end.

[00:56:27] Like, “Listen, you guys are interested in sales, but how many factors do you have to consider when you think about where you want to pursue your sales career longterm?” Product is huge, but a dollar for every student that was like, “I want to sell something I’m passionate about.” How do you know what you’re passionate about until you have experienced selling it until you’re in the driver’s seat, actually doing it.

[00:56:44] You can’t define that. You go through trial and error and it sucks, but it’s just part of the process. Passionate, you want to be passionate about your product? Okay. You and everybody else out there. What do you know what your passion, why you, you just don’t know, you can’t have an answer to that. Good question.

[00:56:57] Most students they also want to sell something that’s [00:57:00] expensive which, you know, tech is kind of a dub, but there’s a lot of products out there at big company is where the solution isn’t that expensive or complex. And as a result, they’re bought in to an opportunity due to branding instead of the actual product, which is truly what they’re looking for, is there that passion to the solution.

[00:57:17] So I, you know, talk about B2B versus B2C, the importance of, of the technology product that you’re selling. ‘Cause I mean, we’re working with solutions. We have clients that sell things like drone technology and artificial intelligence and cyber security and all of that. I mean, how many SDRs come here wanting to sell cyber only did to begin on a cyber client and realize, “My God, this, this environment is so saturated.”

[00:57:40] It’s extremely challenging to sell cyber security. There’s a lot of cool products out there for sure, but it’ll change the more experience and exposure you get. And so that’s what I’m teaching is like, “Let me tell you and show you through active like case studies and use cases what you can expect so that you don’t have to go through that trial and error and experience that job [00:58:00] or company that you’re not a fit for and that you actually won’t enjoy.

[00:58:03] And just kind of give you the perspective that you need to begin focusing on that long game.” So it’s just educating about what a lot of companies, you know, th they, they can point to their brand. They can point to their flashy product, but when you come down to the actual task at hand, which is recruiting the individual, it’s about finding what resonates most with them and identifying things that they didn’t consider prior to me sitting down with them. ‘Cause sales is a great path for sure.

[00:58:28] But there’s so many things that students don’t think about when it comes to their sales role or sales career that I am aware of because I’ve been in the shop for so long, and I can point to that experience. And again, you know, they trust me. And they trust that perspective. And I also spent a lot of time with the students too, in the classrooms two, three times a year. Visiting them, you know, going on trips with them, taking them to dinner and, and I wouldn’t go through all of that trouble if I didn’t truly believe in it.

[00:58:53] So I think that that’s also something that they feel as well. 

[00:58:56] Chris Corcoran: Talk a little bit about the importance of relationship building, [00:59:00] particularly with it, with the campus folks. 

[00:59:04] Libby Galatis: It ties into a lot of the other stuff that we’ve been talking about, but your first job out of school is a very big decision or at least a lot of students think that it’s a really big decision when most adults or most professionals in the industry realize that your first job isn’t going to be your forever job.

[00:59:21] You don’t have to know 110% and have 110% confidence in where you end up, you know, job, your first job. I don’t know what the statistic is, but people end up changing jobs eight, nine times before they end up in the, you know, company or role that they ended up going towards retirement for now. And so it’s about taking the pressure off of that decision.

[00:59:40] And from a relationship standpoint, really getting an understanding of what is important to you. You know, what are non-negotiables when you think about any company or any opportunity, because a lot of them are going to say, “You’ve got to work hard, play hard culture, a great culture. Got an awesome training program and awesome product.”

[00:59:56] But to its core, like what are you truly looking for? ‘Cause when you identify what you don’t want, [01:00:00] it becomes that much easier to find a company that you do want to work for. So in order for somebody to really trust what you’re saying in the same way that the professors will go out of their way to develop these awesome relationships with their students. And Stephanie Boyer, we just had her on the podcast,

[01:00:14] she still talks to her students after they graduated. And they’re in the work world and she’s able to kind of provide them advice and feedback. That’s what I aim to do with the candidates that I work with. It’s like whether or not memoryBlue ends up being a fit is that’s, that’s kind of secondary to

[01:00:30] you’re making this decision for yourself and me supporting whatever decision you end up making with the information that you get, get throughout the process. So it’s all about relationships. I mean, recruiting is all about relationships. Sales is all about relationships and it’s, it’s just about finding a way to, I, to have to resonate the most your message to resonate most with the people that you’re talking to or working with. 

[01:00:49] Chris Corcoran: Talk a little bit about the relationships that you’ve been able to build with the sales program leaders, because that’s really the linchpin, they’re the ones that give you access to the classrooms.

[01:00:59] Libby Galatis: Yeah, [01:01:00] absolutely. Well, I’ll just say as leaders have one common goal in mind, which is to find the best opportunity for their students. And I think a lot of companies and a lot of campus recruiters are not willing to go the extra mile as far as building that strong and genuine relationship with the, the sales leaders, because they don’t have to, because they can point to their brand.

[01:01:18] They can show up to the classroom with all their stuff, their swag, toss and swag out there and say, ‘hey’ and ‘bye’ to the professors in that classroom. And that and their job is done. You know, they’re going to hit their recruiting goals and, and that’s that. Whereas memoryBlue, it is all about the long game from that initial relationship, the initial conversation with any sales leader in any classroom.

[01:01:37] So, I think once you’re able to identify my mission is the same as yours. I don’t want all your students to work at memoryBlue, ’cause they’re not all going to be a fit for this company. But I want to be able to educate them and double down on the messaging that you’re pushing in your classes, which is sales is not about selling cars.

[01:01:53] Whatever idea you have about sales is probably wrong and here’s why. And then also have, you know, the, the data to [01:02:00] show the value of what is being taught in those classrooms. Because I am, I mean, memoryBlue is those sales classes post-graduation. We talk about it being getting your master’s degree in sales all the time.

[01:02:11] The college professors are doing the same thing that we’re doing, they’re just catching their students a lot earlier. So the hurdle that they’re overcoming is very similar to the hurdles that I’ve had to overcome from an education standpoint, from a gaining buy-in standpoint. So I think just having that common goal and that common, those common challenges that I can help them overcome and help them, you know, get that messaging that resonates most with their students.

[01:02:33] That’s, that’s kind of what I was able to build the strongest connection with those sales leaders. Brian Collins, Mark Weber, Richard Tate. I mean, they’re, they’re all over but they all have a common goal of just identifying the best opportunity for their students and making sure that they’re offering a platform for them to, to pursue those.

[01:02:50] Chris Corcoran: And talk a little bit about some of the success that you’ve had at the schools. 

[01:02:54] Libby Galatis: 2019 memoryBlue was the number one employer of marketing grads at Virginia Tech. 

[01:02:58] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[01:02:58] Chris Corcoran: Nice.

[01:03:00] Libby Galatis: Yeah. And I, I, I, we, we hired Ellie Miller who was the president of the sales team, the con the competitive sales team at Virginia Tech, in addition to a handful of other competitors that were there. Austin Redden, multiple others that are just kind of falling on my brain right now.

[01:03:16] But I think we were able to get a handful of students from each university and that’s all it really takes. You know, we’re a small company, we don’t need a ton of people. We’re growing very quickly, but I think the proof is in the pudding. I mean, the number of hires were, were always within the top five employers of marketing grads or professional sales graduates of the universities that we partner with because of that messaging.

[01:03:40] So there’s a lot of achievements that we’ve made and a lot of classrooms that we have left with change perspectives. Erin Miller, she’s crushing it right now in Palo Alto running circles around, you know, all of her reps. And I think it’s, it’s cool that I spoke in one of her classrooms with it was Brian Collins, professional sales class, and he gave me a phone call right after I wrapped up that presentation. It was a COVID presentation, so it was virtual. And Erin was one of the most kind of engaged students in the class and she was asking me questions at the end. He called me and he was like, Erin Miller, you need to hire her. When you figure something out, I’m going to connect you with her.

[01:04:18] And then he introduced us over email and then she landed the job here. And absolutely is crushing it. She’s doing an excellent job as an SDR. So, I think that the partnership and that connection, you know, Brian was just as confident as I was in, in meeting her and having conversations with her that memoryBlue could be a fit.

[01:04:36] And they’re huge asset when it comes to your hiring goals and, and bringing in the talent that your company needs. So, yeah, they’re like the key, the gateway. 

[01:04:46] Chris Corcoran: So you essentially, started our on-campus recruiting program. And, and now, it, what does it look like? 

[01:04:54] Libby Galatis: So now we have four campus recruiters. I’ve since transitioned into a new role, not to say I won’t ever revisit or go back to the campus,

[01:05:04] ’cause I mean campus recruiting is just so much fun. But we have more recruiters that are all being taught the same values that are all able to identify the same. You know, intangibles and the same type of talent that we seek and that truly believe in memoryBlue and the opportunity that this company offers.

[01:05:21] And I think we’re getting set up for a really unique transition now that things are in person. And there’s going to continue doing what we started. They’re going to get on campus, give the presentations, talk to the students, build relationships. There’s just more of them. 

[01:05:37] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. So you, you started that and then you also started something that’s really critical to our hiring strategy, which is our internship program.

[01:05:45] So I want you to talk a little bit about that and particularly what you did during COVID. 

[01:05:49] Libby Galatis: So we did an awesome intern group that started. And it was a, it was a really weird time, everybody… because internships are less challenging to staff for, [01:06:00] because I mean, every junior at any college is going to be looking for internships.

[01:06:04] But the challenge is getting your interns to commit their first semester of their junior year with all that opportunity that second semester, inevitably, that will come up. So we got this awesome group of interns and between them signing to work with us and them starting everything shut down with COVID.

[01:06:21] And our internship is kind of, I mean, it’s, it’s sales. It’s the rawest sales job you could ever have to do, the same thing that our SDRs do, do go through the same exact training process and onboarding and get exposed to the same concepts. And, you know, they come out with a very similar skillset. The difference is just the duration of time that they’re there.

[01:06:39] But our interns had to learn how to be SDRs from the comfort of the four walls of their bedroom. In the same place that they were taking a lot of their college courses. This is not a job that you want to do from home. So, the, the challenge first was hiring them, second, making sure that they wanted to commit to this role and knowing how hard it was going to be.

[01:06:57] And so I, you know, hired the, the students and I would talk to them throughout the year. Then there were all these questions and unknowns that were just part of everything that was going on in the world. There was no handbook. Companies could reference on how to conduct themselves or operate in this environment.

[01:07:12] This is just kind of an unforeseen challenge. And we were fortunate though all the resources that our reps use to get ramped up can be accessed from home. But what was missing was the culture piece and the connectivity piece and the friendship building. I mean, that’s really why people come to work here every day because if you strip that all away, it’s a cold calling job.

[01:07:31] You can’t, I mean, without all of the fun stuff and the ability to turn to your neighbor and, you know, make fun of the guy you just called that it made your life harder. It’s not, it’s not fun, but these interns were so impressive. They went in and they operated from home. We had so many meetings over Teams. And we actually had weekly game nights, which were a lot of fun. Daily, our weekly huddles that allowed us to kind of step away from the SDR position and connect more as a group.

[01:07:56] And it got to a point where at the end of the internship, they all had a group chat that they so kind of engaged with each other. And regardless of if they ended up returning to memoryBlue or not, those are the friendships that we were able to come out with. So, it was a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of energy, but to preserve their experience and ultimately get them to commit to come back full time that it was a top priority from just a connectivity standpoint and making sure that, you know, “Yeah, you’re from, you’re working from home, but we can still have fun doing this too.”

[01:08:24] So…it was good.

[01:08:26] Chris Corcoran: It’s fun seeing some of those interns working here now in a full-time capacity. 

[01:08:31] Libby Galatis: Yep. Luke Voivoda is the man. Ben Slindey, he’s the man. Yeah, we had a handful come back and it was, it was a really great summer. 

[01:08:38] Chris Corcoran: Which is good. Very good. So talk to the listeners about what you’re doing now.

[01:08:43] So you’ve, you’ve migrated away from campus. Talk about what you’re doing now. 

[01:08:47] Libby Galatis: So now I lead our internal recruiting team and this was a role that you had, I mean, it caught my interest a long time ago, but there was always somebody in that position and the timing just worked out perfectly.

[01:09:00] So I made the transition over. And it’s awesome to now teach people what I was able to learn through experience. There was a long time when I was developing myself and learning and building the skill set as a recruiter that I didn’t have a leader to turn to. So I had to learn through trial and error to act for the actually experiencing it.

[01:09:19] Nobody had done a lot of the stuff that I did before I did it and fell on my face quite a bit. Cried a lot and figured it out. And that was just part of the process. But, my goal is to be that leader that I didn’t have for such a long time for those that are growing within this company. And then to teach them what is truly important, which is the individual and, you know, preserving that experience of our reps because that’s where we get a lot of buy-in from the SDRs that we hire is the recruitment process that personal touch that’s given and the experiences that they can, the people that they meet and the different steps that they can endorse.

[01:09:54] So. I don’t know, I get to teach and educate and see these reps find a lot of success because of the skills that I’m giving them. So that’s, what’s been really rewarding. 

[01:10:07] Chris Corcoran: How big is the team? 

[01:10:09] Libby Galatis: Oh God, I don’t know. We’re growing quickly. I think we have 9 or 10. 

[01:10:14] Chris Corcoran: Okay. So you’re leading a team of roughly 10 recruiters. That’s a lot hires. We’re trying to hire over 500 people in 2021. 

[01:10:22] Libby Galatis: That’s the goal. 

[01:10:23] Chris Corcoran: Which is wild, which is wild. Very good. And also about another recruit that you brought to us, from the, from the bloodline. 

[01:10:32] Libby Galatis: Oh yeah. 

[01:10:34] My cousin, Michelle recently joined the team. Yeah. 

[01:10:39] Chris Corcoran: Direct our, director of our academy team.

[01:10:41] So that was a, that was a challenging recruitment. 

[01:10:44] Libby Galatis: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, her story is kind of unique because she has worked at a handful of companies. All of them are larger than memoryBlue a little bit. More structured internally because they are of a certain size and they’ve experienced a lot of what memoryBlue’s going through now with the [01:11:00] growth that the company is experiencing.

[01:11:01] And she is a workhorse and our co our, our family, you know, from, from a professional standpoint. She’s always kind of led the pack and she’s always been reaching for that next challenge and that next goal. And it definitely took time for her to come to the realization that memoryBlue is a good, strong next step for her.

[01:11:24] I wouldn’t have referred her, if I knew if, if I had any inkling that she wouldn’t enjoy this or be a fit here. I think that her, the skills that she’s bringing and the creativity that our mind has a lot of her past roles she wasn’t really able to showcase and tap into those parts of her brain. Whereas here it’s like light bulbs are going off left and right.

[01:11:43] And yeah, autonomy she’s given. I mean, she’s an incredible addition to the team. I’m really happy to have her working here too. 

[01:11:50] Chris Corcoran: Yeah. Well, we appreciate you bringing her to us. 

[01:11:53] Marc Gonyea: Every company needs two Galatises.

[01:11:57] Libby Galatis: There’s plenty of us to go around. [01:12:00] 

[01:12:00] Marc Gonyea: I just want to compete with Edison High School in like 25 years…

[01:12:06] Chris Corcoran: Very good. 

[01:12:08] Libby Galatis: Great. 

[01:12:09] Marc Gonyea: I think that’s it. 

[01:12:10] Chris Corcoran: Are there any words of wisdom for the listeners? 

[01:12:14] Libby Galatis: Trust the process. 

[01:12:15] Marc Gonyea: Trust the process. 

[01:12:16] Libby Galatis: Take your time. If you’re doing things right, if you’re, for the recruiters out there, if you’re identifying the right kind of talent, they’re going to get hired. If you’re a sales person, if you’re taking your time and qualifying the leads and doing the job correctly and being thorough, your sales deals are gonna close.

[01:12:32] And if you’re a recent grad about to graduate, if you have an idea of where you see yourself longterm, backtrack and just start somewhere. And trust the process, your first job is not your forever job. It’s the job that’s going to provide you that initial step towards your end goal. And sometimes it takes time and that’s okay.

[01:12:52] Marc Gonyea: I think what you said earlier too about how you develop these skills and being able to learn to be more concise, maybe more articulate with how you speak. I mean, it’s great you like to work with people. It’s great you want to sell something you’re passionate about and if it’s a real detail oriented too. 

[01:13:08] Libby Galatis: Oh yeah.

[01:13:09] Marc Gonyea: But the things that you don’t expect that you’re going to get out of this role, you articulated quite succinctly earlier, which is great. And then I like could break it down for me again. In recruiting process when you make it not about the business, but to can, what is that?

[01:13:24] Libby Galatis: When you’re recruiting as a recruiter, especially when you’re recruiting young talent, impressionable talent, individuals that have their whole life in front of them,

[01:13:32] when you make the process less about the business and more about the individual, that’s when you, that’s when you hire the best of the best. And that’s when you bring on individuals that are going to stay at your company term that understand what they’re getting themselves into, and that are up for that challenge.

[01:13:47] Marc Gonyea: So that’s great. 

[01:13:49] Libby Galatis: Yeah. 

[01:13:50] Chris Corcoran: Very good. Libby, this was a lot of fun. We appreciate it. Onward and upward. 

[01:13:56] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, Libby, we’re thankful you work here, and these drops of major insight and stuff that you and I have never been able to talk about before. So it was very educational for me too.

[01:14:06] Chris Corcoran: Schools in session.

[01:14:08] Marc Gonyea: Schools in session for Marc Gonyea.