Origin Stories from z to A

Listen in to hear the journey of Liza Meak who went from traditional journalism to the corporate world. From covering stories in California for national broadcast names, to producing and managing communications for internal/external corporate communications. Learn about the hurdles she had to overcome, and what she did in order to conquer those obstacles.

In this episode, returning guest (now co-host) Bruce Campbell, introduces Laura Clayton McDonnell to the podcast. Laura shares an incident in her childhood which set her on a career path entering Law. After doing internal legal work for some of the worlds largest companies, she fell into Sales on her own by filling a Sales gap while performing her functions as a lawyer.

With her unique law background, she has grown into a Senior VP in Sales. Join in to listen to Laura's story in full.

In the technical sales world, it is common to see sales  engineers move into a quota carryinig, or bag carrying, sales role. It is extremely uncommon to find someone more suitable for an Account Manager (quota carrying) role to start their career as a Sales Engineer. This is the beginning of the unique path Ferhan Zaki has taken. Join me in listening into Ferhan's story and the reasons for him taking on the added pressures of a unique start to his career. He shares his transitions from an Engineering Sales role, to an Account Manager type role, and to roles outside of Cisco including Google, Slack/Salesforce, and currently SADA.

Join the journey of Tim Sherman as he journeyed through various technologies, became a manager, went back to an individual contributor, and found his spot in the manager track again. With 20+ years experience at Cisco, Tim has a great deal to offer in his most recent role at Palo Alto Networks.

Bruce discusses how he fell into his current role in technology. Join as we listen to Bruce take us through his journey of starting in the Army Reserve, to selling ATV's and Jetskis, to shifting to a sales engineering role, to moving into the management track.

Bruce also shares some of the struggles and difficulties he encountered, and how he overcame them. Advice on  reflecting and identifying what exactly "you love to do, and do more of it", and having not just a mentor, but just as importantly a champion.

Susan Crowe, Services Sales Manager, discusses women in the workforce, her first big break, and the importance of keeping your network.

This tracks first guest discusses his journey in the technology space: from starting his interest in technology at the age of 9, to his engineering positions, to transitioning into a sales lead role. He even explains why he likes to do dishes.

Going through the journey of Michael Pontoriero, a Global Account Manager at Cisco Systems. Mike reviews his experiences growing up which exposed him to the sales career, his college years, and his young professional career to date. He also shares his aspirations of where he wants to go.

This is a brief intro giving background into the creation of the podcast. It includes the benefit to you, the listener, and insight into how it came to be.