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In this special Black History Month episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I had a chat with Gabrielle “GB” Blackwell, the Manager of Business Development - Strategic Accounts at Airtable. Gabrielle is a repeat LinkedIn Sales Star and has built 10,000+ followers over the past year. She leads a team of business development reps where she partners with people to cultivate a healthy culture of learning, development, and collaboration. She’s also the Co-Founder at Women in Sales Club, an organization built to drive conversations around enabling, empowering, and promoting women within the sales profession. 

She mainly focuses on driving content and community. She will share how she overcame insurmountable odds to thrive in sales within the tech space, especially as a woman. She will also talk to us about her people-centric approach and how her infinite curiosity about her team members gets the best out of them. Our conversation will definitely be of great value to you as we also discuss what it takes for sales leaders to build teams that always win, and so much more. So don’t miss it. And if you need help with any sales or leadership issue don't hesitate to book a complimentary clarity session with me HERE. Stay tuned!

On Today’s Episode of the Science of Selling STEM:

• Starting in sales out of desperation only for it to actually align with her vision in life (02:44)
• Why it’s important for every sales professional to lay out a road map for their career (05:50)
• Becoming a top-performing 3xing sales development rep in her first sales role (08:30)
• A Path Less Traveled: How she became a sales manager (10:15)
• Having the cards stacked against her as a woman of color in the tech industry and how she overcame it to win big (16:47)
• Rebuilding her sales career despite having a misdemeanor (20:20)
• Mentoring others to invest in relationships with their sales leaders (25:08)
• The inspiration behind her co-founding Women in Sales Club (27:58)

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn
• Wesleyne on Facebook
• Wesleyne on Twitter
• Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com

Connect with Gabrielle Blackwell:

• Gabrielle on Linkedin

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Thanks for tuning into The Science of Selling STEM! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn even more about what it takes to transform your sales, don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite episodes on social media!

Join The Science of Selling STEM community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit my website for even more content, information, and resources

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

listen to my guest today. They will give you information and

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

you can put into place today. In the United States, February is

dubbed as Black History Month. Today, you're going to be

hearing a very special episode between myself and GB, also

known as Gabrielle Blackwell of airtable. During this episode,

you may hear some terms that you may know you may not know if

you're not in the tech industry. Some of these terms may be a

little bit foreign to you, but I wanted to give you your glossary

before we got started. An AE is an account executive. An SDR is

a sales development representative and a BDR is a

business development representative. So I encourage

you google search those figure out what they are. But Nestle

up, get out your notepad and get ready for this amazing episode

between myself and G B. Hello and welcome to another episode

of the science of selling stem today. I am so so excited to

have a fellow Texan I'll claim you as a Texan even if you

haven't been here your whole life. GB Blackwell of air table.

How are you today?

I am doing well. How are you?

I'm doing amazing. Let me tell you guys a

little bit more about Jeb. She's the repeat LinkedIn Sales star.

And she's built 10,000 plus followers. Over the past year,

she leads a team of business development reps at Air table

where she partners with people to cultivate a healthy culture

of learning, development and collaboration. When she's not

leading a team or posting content. She's focused on

driving content and community for women in sales Club, an

organization built to drive conversations around supporting

and enabling women in the sales profession. So you're not doing

like just one or two things. You're doing a million things to

start your career. And how did you get to where you are today?

Yeah, I joke around and I say that I

started sales out of desperation. I had moved back

from Paris, France in 2015. I thought I was going to get into

like the HR people recruiting side of the business,

interviewed a bunch of places didn't get past the phone

screen. So Mike, let me take a moment and really think about

like, Where do I see my career growing into? And so it kind of

created a vision map of my for myself. And I said the CEO like

I'm just going to aim for the CEO position. Where do we CEO

start their careers often in sales? Really, this bubbled up

for me as one of those positions that I felt like alright, I can

get started in this. And it will very much aligned to like my

overall like long term career goals. So I started applying for

sales positions, specifically an SDR role, the if I applied on a

Wednesday, my first day was the following Wednesday. So I'm

like, Cool. Let's make it happen. So I was like, I needed

a job I needed a career in sales just happen to align very well

to that.

Wow. So you literally made a vision map. A

lot of people don't do that. They don't cast their vision out

on paper anywhere. Tell us like why why did you even start

there?

I think I didn't actually start there. As

I mentioned, I had, I had been interviewing at a bunch of

different places, and I just wasn't going anywhere. And

again, when I when I was living in Paris, France, I thought I

was going to live there had no monies I was with a.so, great ex

husband as well. And so when I came back, I was like, I really

need to figure out what I'm doing with my life. And I have

to actually like claim, what I'm going to do and have some sense

of ownership and control over the way that my life is going.

And so in effort of just I'm just going to try and get into

the people side of the business not not going anywhere. Like let

me just try something different. So I remember I would go into

bookstores, and I would read up on all the different career

paths and like how should I choose those career paths? And

I'm just ingesting information on like, what's the best way to

think about starting a career. And so somewhere in that journey

of like walking around from one Barnes and Noble to the next, or

like what phone screens the next I was just down I'm like, What

am I actually doing here? Like I really need to plot my path and

I need to have a direction. So I just feel like I'm running

around rudderless. And so like, I think that was a moment where

I'm like, I need to understand where I'm heading. So as soon as

I gave myself my northern stall then everything else seemed to

make a lot of sense. I knew exactly kind of like what to do,

where to go, even if I was like, what cold calling cold emailing,

like what is my life brought me to? And now made sense in the

grand scheme of okay, what am I actually building? I'm not just

building for having a job, I can do that anywhere in any place.

I'm like I'm building a career and something I know I could be

committed to. I think that's really what was driving me is

like, I wanted to have that commitment to something

that's amazing. I think so many times is people

in general salespeople, we don't really lay out that roadmap.

We're just like, I want this thing. And then that's it. And

so I love how you said, Okay, let me take a step back. Let me

do a little bit of research, some reading. And I interviewed

and a week later, I was a salesperson. So how was that

dropping in the middle of the ocean? No.

That's a great way of putting it I am

just like reflecting back cuz I can't even remember taking my

phone screen in the car. I met my godmother up for coffee. And

I was like, Oh, I have an interview. And she's like, do

you want to prep for it, I was like, I don't know if this like,

I don't know, sales is meant for me. But I'm just gonna have fun,

see what happens. And I got on the call. And I honestly just

had, I had a really great conversation with the person who

would end up being my manager is named Stan bar. And I think just

like from the get go, one of the things that he had shared with

me, he goes, you know, you seem like somebody who's going to be

kind of successful no matter where you go. And I just want to

let you know that this is like the first demonstration of an

investment into your career and into your success. But recognize

that whether you work for me or not, like know that I'm

invested, that was on a phone screen, right? He's like, I

don't want to get ahead of myself and offer you a job right

off a phone screen. So I think he was also slightly desperate

to work so all very well. But from the get go, I just talked

to someone and what I heard and what I felt was, wow, like this

person, just trust me. Like the he sees that I can be very

successful. And I think that's like what I was seeing in

myself, regardless of what was going on around me and what my

external circumstances look like. So it even when I met him

in person, I was like, I don't know if I could take this job.

He's like, why not? Like, I don't know. Sorry, headphone

fell out of me working in sales. And he's like, Who do I need to

talk to your family? Like, oh, okay, you're really you're for

real. So I think already, I was just like, I was excited about

working for someone who seems so curious about what I could do,

where I was like, Alright, this is I feel like, I'll be in a

place where I can really show up and show out. And so from the

first day, I was just like, I have no other choice but to be

successful. So like, that was it, I was like, I made a

decision, I made a conscious choice. I don't have any money.

I'm living in a basement of my uncle's house, I like I gotta

just be successful. And so like, at that point in time, I think I

was just like, a woman on a mission. And I was like, I'm

exactly where I need to be. And now I just need to make the best

of the opportunity. So I didn't really feel like I was getting

dropped off in the middle of the ocean. I was just like, I'm

gonna make it work. The end. So that's what it was for me. I

love

it. And you really touched on a couple key

points there. One thing is a manager seeing something in you,

right? And you didn't have any sales experience. I love saying

stop hiring your competitors rejects people don't do it. Find

strong salespeople, find people who have those innate abilities

to be excellent. And then something else that a lot of

people think it's like sales. Oh, I can't do that. My field is

not gonna like that. I want to be sleazy used car salesperson.

So once you got into your first sales position, had a go,

it went really well. I was a top

performing. So I started off as a sales development

representative. And I think I'd averaged like 130% a quota. If

you looked at the next top performing rep, they would have

been under 100%. I think there was one point in time I was

producing at like 3x, the next top performing rep. And yeah, so

it went really well as we get like two times my ote so tough.

So my manager at some point in time, he's like, did you know

you're gonna make to lecture ote? Like, you're on path to do

that? And he's like, Can I get some money from you? So at that,

at that point in time, I was like, oh, like, um, I was having

one I was having a good time. I was enjoying what I was doing. I

was enjoying everything that I was learning. So I feel like

sales I share this with people my sales is a learning

profession, in my opinion. At least that's what my experience

has been. So it was always, it's always been really intriguing to

figure out cool, like, how can I better understand our prospects?

How can I learn more about our customers? Like how can I get

better at being a salesperson or even alright, I'm really

interested in figuring out how to operationalize my own success

and share that out with other folks. So for me, I had it

wasn't just a matter of like, Oh, I'm really successful as

also being challenged by my manager at that time to figure

out how can I share what was working with me to also help

others figure out what was like what could work for them to kind

of took on a somewhat of a team leader role to where I could

like coach and mentor other folks on the team. So yeah, the

first year went really well. Okay,

so first year in sales blowing it out of the

water three acts doing amazing at what point did you say okay,

he dropped me in the middle of this tiny ocean. And I want you

to drop me in the middle of a big ocean and become a sales

manager. Yeah,

it was definitely I feel like a path

less taken or last, like less traveled. So that first company

I worked at as a sales development representative of

that company's called Cloud words. The sales development

department was eliminated, like, right at my one year or right

before my one year mark. So I was like, dang, I was doing

really well. Like, this is a company that I really like, like

my manager got fired. The VP of Sales got fired. It was it was a

crap storm. Yeah, yeah. The fun of working in startups. So I was

kind of like beside myself for a bit. And the VP of sales that I

worked for it cloud words start up a new companies like, hey,

like, I can get you an SDR role, no problem. But what do you feel

like? How do you feel about becoming an AE? I was like,

Sure, I'll take on the challenge. So I stepped into the

AE role at this new company, they relocated me out to

Portland, Oregon from Chicago, I got into actually got into like

a car accident had a terrible concussion and kind of forgot

how to operate for a bit, all the while I'm holding a quota,

right. So I went until like the last month of the quarter at

zero, like, I was at the very bottom of a list of like, 75

people like what am I doing is sales for me, somehow the stars

aligned. And in the last few weeks of the quarter, I closed,

like almost 100k deal. And I was working a mid market accounts,

as well as some other like smaller deals. So I ended up

hitting like 193% of my quota number one of my team, like,

look at Yeah, yeah, so I was, you know, and then and then I,

you know, everyone's like, super excited for me. They're like,

Wow, what a comeback kid. I come back two days after the quarter

and to find out my position a bit eliminated. Oh, my gosh. Oh,

yeah. So and that was all by the way, that was all within the

same year. That was 2016. For me. So I, yeah, so kind of had

this experience of like, wow, like, I know, I can do this

work. But it was incredibly discouraging and disheartening

to experience these things. So and I also hadn't been in the

account executive long enough for people to go, Hey, like, we

see you having enough experience, like we'll hire you

back in. And maybe that was a blessing in disguise, because I

ended up thinking through, alright, I need to work for a

company that's growing quite a bit, right where the marketplace

really has a big need for what they're offering. And if I

joined that kind of company, regardless of the kind of

technology, I'll probably have some opportunities that show up,

I don't know what they're going to be. So I ended up joining

this company called Cloud mobility as a BDR. So I kind of

lose a little bit of a step back, but I was like, whatever

we're gonna figure it out. I was like, we prove it. And I'm like,

Gabrielle has proven that we can get stuff done and get promoted,

do very good job, like, let's just trust in ourselves again.

And so I joined the company, and their BDR function was hardly

anything that resembles business development, it was more so we

have one person is a sales admin, and just kind of like,

hey, like, here's what this program could be. I had all my

resources for my past gigs, I started creating like scripts

and playbooks for myself, just because there wasn't really a

manager for my function. And then when we got a new VP of

sales I just shared with him, Hey, I've been an organization

where we built out what you want to build out. I was a leader in

that capacity. I really studied to figure out like, what makes

this program successful. And I think that I'd be a great

manager, right for the business development team. He heard me I

don't think he took me seriously. And then when the

position actually came up, where they had a job wreck for a few

months afterwards had to remind him again, like, Hey, by the

way, I'm your girl, he gave me a shot to interview how to panel

interview, like, ever. I stayed up for three days straight,

creating this business plan. It was intense, and presented like

three business days later, and ended up getting the job that

day. So I was just like, I was like, listen, again, woman on a

mission, like you cannot stop me, you cannot deny Me, I've got

to do great work. I'll show you what I'm capable of in this

business plan. Then after that, like I will produce results. So

I just kind of, that's how I got into management.

Wow. So I have to unpack all of this that you

just told us. Literally had a year of people letting you go

people saying, hey, Jeb, I'm sorry. Your position is

eliminated for companies and doing well. And you literally as

a comeback kid, you mentioned how you close that quarter out.

But you said hey, took a step back. Where do I want to be?

What is the next best step for my career? A lot of times we

don't do that a lot of times we don't stop, take a pause and say

what's best for my career? Not what's the job that's gonna pay

the bills, but what's best for my career. And so you found this

company, you went in and you said, I know how to be excellent

in my capacity. And what I want to do is I want to help others

be excellent. And so you advocated for yourself and so

many people, especially women, I'm going to plug women here, we

don't advocate for ourselves, we just take it right. And you kept

pushing and kept pushing. And you became a manager. That is

amazing. I mean, like literally going from being laid off twice,

to saying, I'm going to lead this team of BDR in this brand

new creative position. The person for this job

yeah, 100% exactly what happened. And yeah,

advocated for myself big time. So Kevin Dorsey's one of the

things that he really impressed on to me, because there's a part

about being a woman, but there's also being like a black woman, a

woman of color is he's like, like, you don't need to just

raise your hand and say, like, say, like, Oh, hey, like, I want

this, you have to like, raise your hands. And you have to

raise your voice, like you're not yelling or anything like

that. But you have to make sure that people hear you. And that

means that you might have to tell them quite a number of

times for them to go, oh, look, you're talking to me. That 100%

happen big time. So yeah, 2016 to 2017 all those years. Like it

was such a journey. But yeah, a good one.

That is amazing. So that you said one thing that

is I think key, you're not just a woman, you're a woman of color

in the tech industry, right? So I mean, all of these cars that

have stacked against you all of these things that are saying,

hey, DB, there's nobody else like you here doing this job. It

isn't meant for you. And you said, You know what, I don't

care. I'm just gonna raise my I'm gonna say this is what I'm

destined to do. And for that, is one reason that I know you've

gotten so much success out of your career, because you didn't

just take it right, you didn't just lay down and say, Okay,

I'll just stay in this BDR role and keep making this company

money right here in this silo?

Yeah, you know, what I joined in tech

sales, that first role that I had at Cloud ability. So day

one, I mean, it's a very small team initially, like we were

based out, we had a satellite office in Chicago. So it's where

I was working companies based out of San Francisco. So I

started with two other folks, a woman named Dana, a guy named

Nick. And then there was two guys were on San Francisco. Over

the course of a few months, one of the guys in San Francisco

left and other guy moved positions, Nick got let go. And

then it was Dana and myself. And then all of a sudden, it was I

don't remember everyone's name. It was like Erica, and Maddie

and Heather. And it was like, we just had a team of women. Yeah,

wow. That was my first experience in sales, like the

only guy in the office was our manager. So I didn't really like

know that there was any kind of gender disparity or like gender

gap or like, and what the implications of that meant in

terms of access to opportunity and access to earnings and

things like that. So like, I didn't know that exists, until I

left that company. So I think I was really blessed in that

situation to like, be in what feels like a like utopian place

in sales. And I also like, it wasn't until like a few

opportunities later that I also started to understand like, oh,

wow, there are people who will refuse to see me as successful

and who will, consciously or unconsciously block me from

having opportunities because of the color of my skin, and

because of the body that I inhabit as a woman. So I kind of

like grew up, actually, like in sales in a very innocent way.

And I also like, just like, grew up to a single mom. So there was

no, I really had no examples of anything that would tell me that

I couldn't be successful. So and I had started teaching off the

side of this program called elevate this past year. So with

Elevate, they're really trying to get folks to break into tech

sales, most of the folks are coming from like an

underrepresented minority, or they're coming from maybe like a

troubled background kind of thing. And one of the things I

would hear from folks in my class is like, hey, Jeb, people

aren't giving me opportunities, because I don't have enough

experience. I'm like, Well, you can't change the fact that you

don't have experience much the same way. I can't change that

I'm a black woman. And if I can't change it, that's not the

reason I'm not being successful. Like there are so many other

things are inside of my control. You know, can I work at every

single company? No. Can I have any, whichever manager No, like,

do I need to be very precise, and very, like, discerning and

the choices that I make 100%. But I also recognize, if I had a

really great manager, my first go, I had a really great

manager, a really great leadership team now that I'm

like, not everybody is going to discriminate in those ways.

Like, there are people who really, really will want me to

thrive and are 100% bought into that, whether it means working

for them or working elsewhere. So it's just my prerogative,

it's my job to go and make sure that I'm around those people so

that I can really have the kind of success that I know I'm

capable of.

Hmm, that is powerful. That is so powerful,

because what we know fully is that we can't control how other

people perceive us or their biases, or any of the cars that

may be stacked against us. All we can do is control ourselves,

and how we show up to the world and what we can do. And so

really, the fact that you You're pouring into others so that they

can reach the levels of success that you have. I think that is

absolutely amazing. And you mentioned that, you know, when

you started your career, you had some really, really great

bosses. But I know that was up time within your career that you

had some trouble getting a new position. Talk to us about that

a bit.

Yeah, 100%. So I had, this is beginning of

2018. So there's a company that I've been working for. And

there's no other way to put it. But it was a very hostile

working environment. And so there were times where they'll

go. And it's like all the details, I was just getting a

lot of very unsafe, I was on the receiving end of a lot of like

uncivil treatment. And at the beginning of 2018, I end up

having like a mental breakdown, and during that time during the

breakdown, had gotten trouble with the cops and ended up

getting a misdemeanor as well as part of that. And it's really

hard to get a job when you have a misdemeanor. Very, very

difficult to get a job when you have a misdemeanor, and also to

have just gotten in misdemeanor and like kind of coming out of

that and recognizing like, wow, this was very much informed by

the environment, very unhealthy environment that I was in. So

yeah, I would interview at places people would be like,

Hey, we think that you're the best, they would offer me a job.

I didn't know how to talk about the fact that I had a

misdemeanor, I didn't know how to talk about, hey, like, here

are the series of events that led to the misdemeanor as well.

So what wind up happening was, these people would find out from

my background check that I had a misdemeanor. And they would

start to inform their own idea of like who I was, then I didn't

ever change. Like I never interrupted that narrative. So

very much. I feel like I very much surrendered control of my

narrative to other people. And so that led to a couple of

offers being rescinded. Yeah, so I was like living in New York

City. I like didn't have any money. I had to move back in

with my mom in 20. Yeah. 2019. So moved back home to

Chicagoland area, and actually reached back out to I had been

talking to my first manager, dad, who was talking about and

then he knew what was going on. Right? So he definitely

fulfilled his promise of hey, like, I'm invested in you, like

no matter what. So he had taken on a VP role at a company that

he was working at, and had let me know, he's like, Hey, I think

that you're great. I know, there's some stuff has happened

in the past, right? That's blocking your ability, like,

what do you need? I was like, I just need someone to like

advocate for me and champ, like, like, basically, like, I'm not a

jerk, you know, like, I just had a very, very real human moment.

And it got the best of me. So what I really needed someone to

advocate for me internally and let them know that like, I'm so

much more than my background check will show. And so when

they were opening up a BDR manager position, he reached out

to me and was like, Hey, I think that you'd be great. I'd love

for us to work together again. And he was my internal champion.

So I ended up starting to work at a company called in Futura as

a BDR. Manager. And like, that really gave me the opportunity

to go, alright, like I've been in the BDR manager position,

once before, one time might not be enough for someone to go

like, hey, like you're good. You're good as a manager, but

also like really helped me build that much more confidence in

like, hey, like, I can do this job, I can do it very well. I

don't have to worry about the past stuff. And so it took me a

year and a half to get back into the BDR manager position. But I

got back.

And really, I think that the thing, the story

that you just shared, what is so telling about that is that, you

know, hey, a lot of times we don't talk about the negativity,

the toxic workplaces that actually lead to our mental

anguish, especially when we're in sales. And it kind of

catapulted into something that left you in a place where you

couldn't get another position. However, you didn't give up. You

didn't say, Okay, I'm just gonna go be a barista, and you know,

I'll work my way up, and I'll be a manager, because I know how to

manage people, I'll be a coffee shop, you kept going and having

an ally, right. And so right now, anyone who's listening, if

you are in a position of power, whether you're in a C suite

role, a VP role, and there is someone that you can help

elevate someone that you can lift up that you can help them

if they're going through a tough patch, as GB just mentioned,

that person who said, I invested in you, I believe in you is why

she was able to get back on her feet. And I think having those

like you said that internal champion, somebody will go to

bat for you to say this person is more than what you see on a

background check truly helped you.

Mm hmm. Yeah, big time. I will say I

almost gave up my mom, I got a I got a little it's not even a

lecture, but I got a pep talk for my mom before sitting on the

couch one day, and I was looking real glum, because I was just

like, I'm like, What am I gonna do? I don't know what's

happening. So she's just like, Gabrielle, it looks like you're

giving up and you shouldn't ask. Bye, mom. I won't. So um, you

know that I'm like, very Very, very, very grateful for my mom

for kind of just like giving me a little bit of a reminder a

little bit of a boost in that way. I think there's a second

piece to this two of you know, there's there's the things that

like C suite leaders can do. One of the big things that I'm

sharing right now was also, I had an internal champion, but I

also had invested quite a bit into that relationship back in

2015, right? It's like, Hey, I'm going to show up, and I'm going

to do really great work, like, I'm going to ask you questions,

I'm going to ask for feedback, I want you to look great dad, you

know what I mean? Like, and I also made it a point to like,

get to know him to get to know who his wife was, like, get to

know who his kid was, and really try and demonstrate that level

of care and him as a person, and not just what he could do for

me, given his title. And this is really what I'm trying to

advocate to with the folks that I'm mentoring is great. Like,

I'm a mentor of yours. But also like who else in your

organization can be a sponsor for you, especially for women,

especially for women of color, I was just talking to one of my

mentees who just recently joined in sales, and she's the only

black woman that she knows of in North America, right. So I was

like, Hey, it is critical, it's essential for you to have people

who are going to speak up on your behalf and advocate for

you, when you are not in the room. I was like I was like this

will number one help you save your like cover your ass in case

like something goes down. But also, more importantly, is like

when someone's thinking about a promotion, for example, or a new

opportunity or a learning opportunity. And you've invested

in that relationship. And what was happening is someone goes to

Victoria and says, Hey, Victoria, I really think that

Sara over here is great, or is there, she'll also go, Hey, but

what about what about Heather over here? I think Heather

should also be considered my, these are the kinds of things

like if you invest in those kind of relationships, especially

early on, the start to pay off like three, four fold in the

future.

That's so good. I remember when I went to my

first international sales meeting in Germany, I looked

around the room, I was just so excited. You know, I'm brand new

salesperson, I'm excited about this, there were five women in

the room. And I was the only person of color. And I'm this is

international. So this isn't just North America. And so when

we think about that, that was many moons ago. But the thing is

that in many places, it's still the same. Yeah, I was so

fortunate that my manager was actually one of the women in the

room. And so when you talk about having that internal champion,

the person who speaks for you, when you're not around, even if

we translate that into how sales works, right, you think about

okay, who's sitting down the champion that I'm going to talk

to? Who's that person who's going to advocate for my

product? It's the same thing when you're thinking about your

career, who's the person who's going to advocate for me, when

I'm not in the room? Who's the person that I'm always going to

be peppering? And asking them questions and saying, Hey,

should I do this? Should I talk to this person? How can I

elevate myself? Those people that we surround ourselves with

are so important? You started an organization not too long ago,

women in sales club tell us about that?

Yeah, so they are co founded women in

sales club alongside my dear friend business partner Aleksey

boudoir. So we are celebrating Yes, like, this is like our one

year, so I don't remember exactly what day it was that we

started, but sometime in January of last year. And you know, it

really started off with like Alex and I have a conversation.

We're just on the phone, chit chatting. And Aleksey Anna just

shared about like she had always had this experience of being the

only woman on the sales floor. And I was like, you know, like,

I turn it off on a team of women. So like, I don't identify

with that experience all the way. But I definitely am

typically like the only black woman around like in the

company, like not just even on the sales floor. So we talked

about like, what really helped us in our careers and like, what

were the things that felt like hindrances, and then what is the

kind of like mental anguish that we go through or be the only and

so that started off a conversation on clubhouse where

we're like, let's just talk about what it's like being the

only on a sales floor. So initially, women's sales club

kicked off as a room and clubhouse that we it was an

event that we'd host every Saturday for a couple hours,

we'd have a different topic. And we also were like, Hey, we also

recognize like how impactful like men have been in our

careers. Like, every mentor, every manager that I've had up

until like last year is a man. So I was like the people who

have really been the most influential in my career up

until recently. I'm like, these are men. So we also recognize

like, it can be so easy to join into these women in fill in the

blank environment. And it turned into a man bashing sessions,

right? Hey, we want to do something very different. We

want to be a part of the conversation. A lot of men are

in positions of power. So if we can really share experiences,

like maybe this is how we can bridge a gap of like, this is

what will allow men to feel more comfortable investing in women,

whether that's with like learning opportunities,

promotion opportunities, those kinds of things. And here's

really how we could start to elevate the profession of sales.

So we're not doing the same like forum of events every Saturday

on clubhouse, but we just launched a newsletter. I write

that to like, please subscribe comes out every Sunday, but a

lot of heart and effort into that. So we are partnering with

companies as well to start throwing events, or like

recruiting events or like webinars and things like that.

So really just trying to like share content and build

community in that side to again, like just like have

conversations, get people thinking about how can we make

sales a better place for literally everyone, right. But

there's a there is a focus on women for this.

Wow. So just the up place. And what I like is

that this isn't just like, hey, this is women, women, women,

women supporting women, yes, that's important, but the

importance of having those male allies, and those people who,

again, who are in the position of power that can help elevate

you. So I'm guessing that you talk about how to find that

mentor and helping that mentor elevate the woman and all of

those amazing things that both women and men need to elevate

themselves within sales.

Yeah. 100% Yeah, it's Aleksey was usually

the one who would kick off the like preamble to the room, she

she'd go, like, while we are called Women in sales club, you

know, we value every perspective. And it just so

happens that it's run by two women kind of thing. So I know I

butchered it quite a bit. But from my perspective, I'm just

like, hey, if we can make sales better for everyone, like I was

like, it has to be better for everyone. It can't just be

better for women alone. Right? Like, like, it can't just be

better for black people, or like, it really does have to be

better for everyone. We can also understand what are the nuance

differences in the experience based off of whatever identity

that you carry, and that you live in and things like that.

But for mine, I'm like, Alright, the whole like toxic workplace

culture, like I don't think those are healthy for white

dudes, I really don't. Like you're right. It's not honest.

I'm like, it's not a good place for anyone. So like, let's

really do the work to make. I also think as a manager, as a

leader, with my team, you know, I think about the impact that I

can have. Imagine someone starts off their career, the first

mentor do they have is a black woman, right? And I'm just like

that to see like, how cool is that? But I think about All

right, hey, if I show up, and I'm thoroughly like I care about

that person, thoroughly invested in that person, right? Like, I'm

in support of their ability to succeed. And I'm also an

advocate for them and their ability to have more

opportunities to do more. I'm like, they just go, Hey, like,

here's this person who really cared about me who invested in

me and all these other things. And now they could probably see

that like, anybody could do that. Right. So like, that's the

kind of stuff to me that will start to impact, like the future

of sales looks like as well as like, I can be a really great

example of a phenomenal boss. And that doesn't have to live

and just like one kind of person that we would associate

leadership with.

So powerful, so powerful. Oh, this conversation

has been so rich. I mean, we have started from you coming

back from Paris, getting into sales, getting into sales

management, having to take a sabbatical, even though you

didn't choose to take this sabbatical, a sabbatical and

really ending up with this amazing organization that you've

created for all people, men, women, black, white, green,

orange, pink, this better how you identify, because we need to

make sales a better profession, period. Full stop. That's it.

And that is what your mission is.

100% Thank you. Yeah, thank you. What a

wonderful conversation.

It has been an amazing conversation. And I'm so

so so excited that we got to chat today. And I wanted to hold

this until the end. But this is actually the episode that we're

gonna launch black history with. So this will be the episode that

will launch our Black History Month. And so I'm so excited. We

got to have this conversation today.

I'm so thankful I appreciate this so

much was really like just this felt like an anointing. Really

great way to start a Tuesday. Awesome. Well,

thank you so much for sharing your time, your

talent and your expertise with us, Miss GB, it has been

amazing. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. And guys, that

was another episode of the science of selling stem. So

whether you're listening to this the very first Wednesday in

February for Black History Month, or you're listening to it

in 10 years, or in five years, I hope that you got all the golden

nuggets that you needed to get from GBX today and remember and

everything that you do transform your sales. Until next time.

Thank

you for joining us today on the snack sized sales podcast. If

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