Whether you want to admit it or not, shoes have the power to change your whole demeanor. So when it comes to the office, are high heels too much, or just right?

SHOW NOTES

Background

-Ashleigh’s apprentice was starting in her first sales position and her boss told her to feel free to dress casually on her first day. She was disappointed because she feels more confident when she’s wearing heels.

What Do We Think?

-Wear the shoes that make you feel the most confident because confidence is everything in sales.

-With that being said, it’s always better to err on the side of formality.

Tips and Tricks

-Either carry or have back up professional and casual attire at the office.

-Don’t wear heels that you can’t walk in. Own what is the appropriate thing for you.

-Ashleigh breaks her shoes up into 3 categories: sitting shoes, standard shoes, and walking shoes.

Work Style and Personal Style

-Have your power shoes for the office, but be sure to draw a line between what you wear in the office, at home, and socially.

-Early on in your career you will have to do some testing to figure out what your office style is and that can take some time.

Where to Find Good Shoes for Work

-Nordstrom Rack

-Kasey’s favorite brands: Cole Haan, Sorel, Vans

-Ashleigh’s favorite brands: Vionic, Naturalizer

Traveling with Shoes

-Always opt for comfortable. You never know what’s going to happen and you don’t want to be miserable at the end of the day.

Resources

-Nordstrom Rack

-Cole Haan

-Sorel

-Vans

-Vionic

-Naturalizer

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Jaime Diglio, leadership coach and President of SomethingNew, talks to us about the benefits of change, being a woman in sales, and how to be an empowering leader.

SHOW NOTES

Selling Through Change

-Jaime’s current work encouraging the embrace of change as something positive builds off of her previous experience shifting the direction of both Gartner’s and Microsoft’s growth and development.

Being a Woman in Sales

-The way men and women think complement each other and bring different valuable perspectives to the workplace, so teams that are a combination of both are stronger.

-It is essential that leaders shift the way they communicate with men and women because they listen, process, and react differently and require different coaching.

Moods and Interpretation

-As a boss, it is crucial to be aware of the mood you present because the people around you notice and it affects them and how they work.

-A 2011 study examined judicial rulings in parole cases, exhibiting that judges were much more lenient at the beginning of the day and right after taking a break. We are all affected by extraneous factors and applying our own interpretation to every situation which is why transparency as a boss is beneficial.

How To Be An Amazing Leader

-Hire people for their strengths that add something new and different to the team.

-Understand what drives each individual.

-Continuously tell your employees that you believe in them.

-Build your network and get a trusted outside perspective to develop your leadership ability.

-Understand what your leadership philosophy is.

Coaching the New Generation and the Importance of Connection

-Technological advancement has transformed training and coaching new hires into a much more detached experience. While a lot of the training process can be more automated, coaching needs to include face to face engagement for better connection.

-The next generation isn’t lazy and entitled, they are hungry for training, they just don’t know how to access it.

-The people are the most important part of a business, in such a saturated market the only way to differentiate yourself is through your people and their ability to create a great customer experience, which will only happen if they have a great model set before them.

Collaborative Learning and Culture Bubbles

-As the leader, announce each of your employee’s strengths and ask them to show that to the rest of the team to foster a culture of collaborative and constant learning, not simply giving away answers.

-If you don’t have a manager that inspires this culture and environment, initiate it.

Dealing With A Hostile Environment at Work

-Build your outside network by connecting to people that you admire, that inspire you, and that believe in the same thing as you.

Resources

-Parole Study

-“The story I am making up…” - Brené Brown

-Quiet Leadership by David Rock

Connect With Jaime

-LinkedIn

-Twitter

-SomethingNew

Ashleigh and Kasey talk about how to survive sick days when your paycheck is tied to showing up.

SHOW NOTES

Determining the Necessity of a Sick Day

-Am I in the right state of mind to get anything done?

-Am I contagious? Contagious is generally defined as a fever over 100 degrees and a cough.

Respect your Colleagues

-Sales teams rely on each other and if everybody gets sick, it’s really difficult to make that time up.

-Other people in your office may have conditions that warrant a compromised immune system, so be aware and don’t put their health in jeopardy.

A Sick Day is Necessary, Now What?

-Tell your boss, do not ask for permission, and do not feel the need to justify or apologize. You are guaranteed the right to take a sick day, however whether you or not you will be paid for sick days is up to your employer.

-If you see a doctor, get a sick note just in case.

-Set appropriate expectations for the amount of time needed before you return, it is always better to come back sooner than expected than to need additional time off.

-Communicate with anyone affected by your leave to update them on everything that needs to be covered.

-Be prepared for needing unexpected time off work by having a documented process. This makes life a lot easier in numerous instances that include being sick, going on vacation, or training a new hire.

Taking Time Off Can Be Scary

-It’s easy to feel disposable if everything goes smoothly while you’re away, but rest assured that no one will see it that way, it’s more a sign of you being a great leader.

The Ball Was Dropped

-Do not make excuses, a simple apology and note that something will get done right away will do.

-The Eisenhower Decision Matrix essentially places all activities into one of two categories, important or urgent. Prioritize what is most urgent first and then get to the other important tasks.

Communicating With Your Boss and Colleagues

-You are protected by law from disclosing any information beyond the fact that you are unable to work for medical reasons. The general consensus is that it’s better to disclose less than more.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

-Kasey advises saving boring or busy work for the end of your time off to ease your way back into working without taxing yourself.

Resources

-First Opinion

-Teladoc

-MDLIVE

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We talk to Tim Clarke, President & Cofounder of UNCrushed, about his experience in sales and how he’s on a mission to bring awareness to mental health issues in the sales industry.

SHOW NOTES

UNCrushed Background

-Mental illness is an international issue that is surrounded by stigma and usually a topic to be avoided in the workplace environment. UNCrushed is a platform and community for people to share their experiences and create awareness.

Tim’s Story

-Tim delves into the trauma he experienced dealing with mental illness, as well as his unhealthy coping mechanisms, and how work became a way of ignoring the issue.

Suffering in Silence

-Whether it has to do with stigma based on geography, familial values, individual perceptions, or a closed-off work culture, there are so many challenges that make it difficult to speak about mental illness.

Coping and Getting Past It

-Tim not only focused on sobriety, but also on finding a way to love himself, be vulnerable, and create connections as he worked towards recovery.

Cultivating a Safe Space at Work

-Priorities, repercussions for time off, setting boundaries, and the problem with “happy hour culture” are all discussed.

Cultural Shift and Diversity

-Mindfulness and mental health have become major discussions over the past few years.

-No one is alone in their fight against mental illness.

Resources

-Suicide Prevention Lifeline

-AFSP

-UNCrushed

-Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability

-Brené Brown: Listening to Shame

-Dan Harris: Ten Percent Happier

-Ten Percent Happier Podcast

-Austin Eubanks: What the Columbine Shooting Taught Me About Pain and Addiction

-The Challenger Customer

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Since we say we're a podcast for the "Non-Sales Bro," it's time to start by defining what that is!

SHOW NOTES

What Does a Sales Bro Look Like?

-Sales bros can be found wearing a vest that is probably from Patagonia, along with a pair of Allbirds and are typically white, male, and a college grad.

How Does a Sales Bro Behave?

-The overarching behavioral characteristic is their selfishness and constant, inane competitiveness. These both result in a negative “quantity over quality” mentality.

Why is This Detrimental?

-This mentality leads to resistance, on the sales bro’s part, to ask for help or listen to others, because they want to keep up the facade of consistently “crushing it” solo. The reality is that sales is a team sport and it can be extremely lucrative to care more about buyer needs.

Sales in the Media

-Sales has been in massive transition, particularly in the past ten years, and the media has yet to catch up. Films like “Glengarry Glen Ross” or “The Wolf of Wall Street” portray the sales bro as the epitome of the sales professional, which isn’t the case.

-Look to films like “The Pursuit of Happyness” or “Tommy Boy” for positive examples.

Are Sales Bros All Bad?

-Every great sales professional likely has a little sales bro in them but is able to balance this with other characteristics, like empathy.

The Importance of Diversity

-There is no one way to sell, and finding your own method is the way to succeed. This is the same when it comes to leadership, as good leaders find the best way to motivate each individual.

Resources

-Patagonia Logo Vest

-Why Workplace Diversity Is So Important

-Key and Peele: Black Republicans

-Glengarry Glen Ross

-The Wolf of Wall Street

-The Pursuit of Happyness

-Tommy Boy

-Corporate Bro Comedy Sketches

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In our inaugural interview, we're thrilled to have Rachel Biers of Bevy Labs.

SHOW NOTES

Upbringing

-Rachel Biers was born in Japan and lived abroad for the majority of her childhood due to her parent’s work - first as journalists with a focus in Asia, then as diplomats. She attributes the importance she places on community, and her ability to adapt quickly, to her upbringing.

Community in the Workplace

-In terms of sense of community, there is a big difference between joining a company and moving up in management. When Rachel began her career in sales at Oracle she was joined by 450 other recent college grads who were going through the same experience. As she moved up in management, however, she found it to be a very lonely job. To counteract this she built relationships not only with her team, but with other departments.

Balancing Professionalism with Camaraderie as a Manager

-It is important that while professional separation exists, there is also the sense that each team member knows that the manager cares about them on a personal level as well. The ability to empathize with and adapt to an employee’s individual needs is a key component to being a strong leader.

Self Improvement and Self Care

-Whether it’s through reading, listening to podcasts, or traveling, aiming for personal growth and development is never a bad idea. The little improvements made everyday add up to create big change.

Being an LGBTQ Person in the Workplace

-Being an LGBTQ person is a big part of Rachel’s identity that she was still working to understand as she entered the professional world. She felt an immense pressure to fit in and hide that portion of herself, which negatively impacted her work. This experience taught her a lot about being an outsider, and helped develop her empathy and listening skills.

-Her advice to managers on creating a safe space is to not assume anything, use gender neutral terms, and instill all of this in the rest of the team. She also advises that anyone contemplating whether or not to be out at work should understand their legal rights, which can be based on location and company policy.

Resources

-Brenè Brown: Dare to Lead

-Chris Voss: Never Split the Difference

-Out in Tech

-Lesbians Who Tech

-PDXWIT

-WIT

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Welcome to the other side of sales! In our first episode we discuss our origin story and what to expect from us as we begin this journey to highlight the "non sales bros" who are pushing the profession forward.

SHOW NOTES

What is Our Origin Story?

-Ashleigh discovered podcasts in late 2018, and in her search for great professional sales podcasts she found the market was almost entirely dominated by white male hosts.

-Kasey had been contacted to be featured in a book composed of interviews from top sales leaders, but as she looked through the list of the other professionals participating, she realized it was practically all white males.

-Ashleigh reached out to Kasey and the rest is history.

What Are We Doing?

-We want to provide a platform for the “non-sales bro”, in other words, the non-traditional sales professionals.

-Half of the podcast will be devoted to interviewing these people that don’t fit the typical sales mold and the other half will be devoted to Ashleigh and Kasey digging into issues that are not typically discussed, publicly.

-This isn’t about providing solutions or answers, but about cultivating a community and an ongoing dialogue.

How Can You Get Involved?

-To share topics you want us to discuss or people you want us to interview, simply fill out our nomination form!

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