Power to Sell

For our second episode of Spring 2025 (episode 35), students sat down with NDSU alumni Marcus Pratt, a Sales Engineer at Midwest Mechanical Solutions. Marcus talked about his time at NDSU as an engineering student and how he leveraged that into a technical sales career. Sales was not on Marcus’s radar in college, but sometimes the opportunities that land in our laps are the ones that were meant to be.  Marcus talked about the importance of being honest with yourself, encouraged students to say yes, and shared some great thoughts about being successful in sales.  He shared some great stories, talked about the importance of staying healthy, and how he prioritizes time for his family.  

For our first episode of Spring 2025 (episode 34), students sat down with the CEO of Corvent Medical, Richard Walsh.  Richard talked about his career in medical device sales, the story of Corvent Medical, and the importance of setting goals. Students had an excellent opportunity to understand better the entrepreneurial journey of a medical device startup, which started during COVID-19, regulatory challenges, and the importance of staying focused and goal-oriented. Richard shared several great stories, talked about the positive business climate of North Dakota, and shared the ambitious goals that Corvent Medical has over the next few years.

For our seventh and final episode of Fall 2024 (episode 33), students sat down with Shannon Hauf, the Senior Vice President and Head of North America, Australia, and New Zealand Product Supply for Bayer. Shannon shared her journey from growing up on a farm in southern Minnesota to being an executive at Bayer today. Shannon discussed the importance of trust, responsibility, resilience, teamwork, passion, and credibility. Shannon shared several great stories and talked about her time in Fargo while pursuing her Masters and PhD at NDSU.  

For our sixth episode of Fall 2024 (episode 32), students sat down with Patty Post, the Founder of Checkable. Patty shared her entrepreneurial journey, talked openly about challenges, and discussed her goals and motivation. Students had an excellent opportunity to understand better the entrepreneurial journey in a small medical device startup, the regulatory challenges, and the importance of staying focused and showing up every day. Patty shared several great stories and talked about the entrepreneurial community in Fargo and the importance of finding your strength.  

Students continued to explore the theme of 'dorm room to the boardroom' when they sat down with Darren Jacoby, CEO of Protosthetics, on a Sunday afternoon in Boston, MA, to record our fifth episode of Fall Semester 2024 (episode 31). A unique aspect of this interview is two of our student hosts are sales internships at Protosthetics, which led to a slightly deeper discussion about product development and sales strategy. Darren shared a lot about his entrepreneurial journey, his decision to acquire Protosthetics, how they've grown, what is coming shortly, and how a strong vision and customer focus has been critical to their success. 

In our fourth episode of Fall Semester 2024 (episode 30), students continued to explore the theme of dorm room to boardroom by sitting down with Wes Cummins, CEO of Applied Digital, at their headquarters in Dallas, TX. Wes shared stories about the beginning of Applied Digital, their massive investments into North Dakota, and why those investments make sense.  He discussed the importance of being able to help others understand complicated technology and covered many leadership and sales lessons, such as taking risks and the importance of storytelling. He talked about how those skills have been a key to his success. 

In our third episode of Fall Semester 2024 (episode 29), students continued to explore the theme of dorm room to boardroom by sitting down with Kevin Black, CEO of Creedence Energy Services. Kevin shared his founder story with Creedence Energy Services, talked about his time at NDSU, discussed business challenges such as economic downturns and COVID-19, and shared great stories with our students. He covered many outstanding leadership and sales lessons, such as the importance of putting in the effort to learn the basics or fundamentals of a business along the journey, and talked about how that has been a key to his success. 

In season five of the Power to Sell Podcast, our NDSU Sales students are exploring the theme dorm room to boardroom. In our second episode of Fall Semester 2024 (episode 28), students got the chance to visit NDSU Alumni Brent Boucher, the Senior VP of Americas for Solventum.  Brent shared his career journey in the medical device industry and how his time at NDSU helped prepare him.  Brent discussed the importance of collaboration, building great teams, and being results-oriented.  He highlighted the importance of serving others, building great culture, and discussed the path for new talent in the medical device space.  

In season five of the Power to Sell Podcast, a theme our NDSU Sales students are exploring is going from the dorm room to the boardroom. In our first episode of Fall Semester 2024 (episode 27), students sat down with Darrin Peterson, the President of Marvin Windows! In addition to starting at the company mowing lawns in the summer of 1986, Darrin is now the first non-Marvin family member to serve as President in the company's 112-year history.  Darrin shared his career journey and discussed the importance of community and family.  He highlighted the importance of authenticity, building trust, and connecting and learning from others. Darrin shared stories about working with multiple generations of Marvin family members, what he has learned from them, and the critical role that Warroad, MN, plays in the company's history and future.

In season four of the Power to Sell Podcast, our NDSU Sales students continue to explore multiple themes and visit with sales leaders and executives from various industries. In the final episode of Spring Semester 2024 (episode 26), students sat down with Matt Berseth, co-founder and Chief Information Officer, and Robert Thomas (R3), Sales Manager of NLP Logix, a data analytics and artificial intelligence services firm. Matt shared his career journey, starting at Microsoft after graduating from North Dakota State University, moving to Jacksonville, and starting NLP Logix with his business partner, Ted Willich. Matt and Robert highlighted many critical skills and discussed how AI is used today. A key message was leveraging AI in business but understanding where to use it and where you shouldn’t.