Pace Setter: How Faith and Freedom Drive Sales Success
When passion meets purpose, the possibilities are endless. For Rachel Pace, an Account Executive at Tableau, a Salesforce company, those possibilities extend far beyond her day job. A deep desire for personal growth and financial freedom drives her success. That desire and an unshakable confidence have made her accomplished career inevitable. So, was this sales superwoman born or built? According to Rachel, it’s a little bit of both. From Science To Sales Rachel has been an Account Executive at Tableau for six months, focused on Healthcare and Life Sciences. For many people, sales is less something they found and more something they fell into. Rachel’s path was a bit more intentional, but no less unconventional. “As a mechanical engineering student at North Carolina A&T State University, I interned at a major pharmaceutical company where I fell in love with the technical side of medicine. Upon graduation, I accepted a role as a Pharmaceutical Sales rep which was a great fit for me. It allowed me to hone in on the technical side but also be personable and interact with my customers. It just fueled me.” Rachel’s aspirations were inspired by her father, who was a pharmaceutical salesman. His career gave Rachel a front row seat to the fun, freedom and fast pace of a sales career. “The fancy dinners he’d take his clients on, being able to make his own schedule, not being held to an office or a cubicle… Seeing that freedom first hand inspired me to get into the world of pharmaceutical sales.” Rachel took to pharma sales quickly and began making a name for herself. She consistently outperformed her peers, earning her praise and job security throughout the first half of her career. She eventually moved into the world of Maintenance, Repair and Operations in Healthcare but after more than a decade at her previous company, Rachel started to feel like there was something missing: A challenge. While her role afforded safety and job security, Rachel started to feel stagnant and lacked career growth. As complacency threatened to settle in, Rachel realized it was time to exit her comfort zone. She interviewed and started with Tableau, a Salesforce company, focused on enabling companies to see and understand data in new ways. In her new tech sales role, Rachel found the challenge she was looking for. “It feels so good to be reinvigorated and back to a space where it’s like ‘The world of software is so new to me but I know that I can learn and I’m hungry for what it is that they’re trying to teach me.’” Navigating the Nuances Rachel Pace’s achievements are remarkable by any measure. She’s just six months into her role and has already achieved 215% of quota. This is, no doubt, aided by the culture of inclusion she experiences in her role. Her success is also, in part, driven by the impact of seeing others from historically underestimated groups succeed. That representation is one of the first things that impressed her about joining both Tableau and Salesforce. “Seeing Black women represented within Salesforce at both the leadership and managerial levels as well as in my peers is so encouraging.” Rachel also talked about the importance of vetting company culture before coming on board. She suggests asking future team members questions like: 1. How do the company’s stated values align with what you experience?2. Do you feel supported? Are you encountering a glass ceiling? “Being able to have those candid conversations before coming on board was so affirming.” This kind of transparency also helped Rachel feel comfortable showing up as her most authentic self. “It’s inevitable as a Black woman. Yes, we are multifaceted ! I don’t know what else to tell you.” Take The Trip. Leave The Ladder There is much to be impressed with about Rachel Pace’s career success, but perhaps even more admirable is her thoughtful perspective on what truly matters in life. She centers family, spiritual health, and the endeavor to leave the people and places she meets just a little better than she found them. So, what’s next? For many sales people the answer to this question is rooted in career aspirations, but Rachel sees things differently. “I just want the ability to be content with what I have and for my son to be able to experience other cultures first hand.” Rachel emphasizes gratitude as a source of motivation. She is in no hurry to climb the corporate ladder, but being content does not equal being complacent. Rachel is hungry to succeed, but says winning as a seller is less about collecting titles and more about making memories with her son. Achieving her sales goals means more than money. It’s fuel to fund their future without limits. If you’re interested in working with Rachel and the rest of the Tableau team, apply here.
#StrongerTogether: Global Sales Leader Ensuring Work-Life Balance While Driving DE&I Change
Syreeta (Gordon) Taitt, a Senior Manager, Sales FINS. and BOLDforce Canada Founder & Co-President, shares how her desire to maintain work-life balance has impacted her career journey. She also talks about how her unique global background and experiences helped catapult her career. Check out Syreeta’s insights below to set yourself apart as a professional saleswoman of color. Starting her career as a bilingual data translator, Syreeta saw first-hand how data provides valuable business insights. As a Customer Service Representative, her curiosity and desire to learn more led to a sales role. I asked her to tell us about her entry into sales. I joined a tax and accounting software company to break into a technical role, and that’s where my love for software began. I worked in customer service, answering calls from account executives and customers about their software. I assisted them and described the features and functionalities of the software. I said to myself, “I am fielding these questions from the account executives; what do they do?” I started networking to understand what it means to be in sales. Shortly after, I was promoted to an internal account management role, selling the tax and accounting software. When I moved into property management software and enterprise-style software sales, the company was using Salesforce. Afterwards, Salesforce reached out and asked if I would be interested in interviewing with them. The first time Salesforce reached out, I declined because the timing didn’t work well for me. When the company reached out again with a brand new role, it piqued my interest. The role was for a position in the healthcare and life sciences industry. My grandmother had recently passed away from cancer, so it was interesting to learn more about the U.S. health system and the kind of support that was in place. You were recently promoted from leading an outbound Business Development Representative (BDR) team to now leading a small business FINS Sales team. Can you tell us about your transition into sales leadership and your Global BOLDforce role? I wanted to get into a leadership role and understand more about what it’s like to be a leader at a company. My BDR team was prospecting into organizations to try to uncover opportunities and projects for the account executives. Learn more about our open roles at Salesforce here! What excites me most is seeing the potential of my reps and seeing them realize that potential. I’m positive and always see the best in people. I always try to tell coworkers, direct reports, mentees, friends, etc., “I know that you can get promoted. I know that you can do this job and do it well, and I know you can do the next job well.” But until they believe it, it is not going to happen. The moment you see the switch, when they realize they can do this — that is amazing. It is similar to parenting. You tell your kids many things, repeatedly. You explain, and you try to show them the right way. You hope that they are listening, and then one day they finally turn around, and they say your words back to you or show you, with their own flavor. That is what excites me about leadership and my team. I’m seeing more and more everyday that they’re finding that courage to go above and beyond. It’s all them. I also founded BOLDforce Canada, here in Toronto. BOLDforce, which stands for the Black Organization for Leadership and Development, is a Salesforce Equality group created to expand and empower Salesforce’s Black community. BOLDforce started in the U.S., but there was no presence in Canada. I realized the culture at Salesforce’s Toronto office did not quite reflect the rich diversity of the city. I wanted to make sure there was a safe space for Black and Brown individuals to have conversations and, from a leadership and development standpoint, that they had a support system in place. I have also taken on a global BOLDforce role, in which I support BOLDforce globally from a growth standpoint. In this role, I ask myself: how can I make sure that we are continually retaining our Black employees and growing our number of Black employees, from internships to leadership roles? In general, my work with BOLDforce is to help ensure that there is a space for individuals to feel supported in their daily lives. Learn more about Syreeta’s game changing work with BOLDforce and what it takes to become a successful saleswoman at Salesforce here. Can you tell us more about your unique global background and experience? My background is an interesting one, often referred to as a unicorn for my unique background and experience. I was born in the UK and my parents are Jamaican, so I’m Jamaican through and through. I was raised all over the world — that is where my bilingualism and love of languages comes from. And technology is really just another language. I spent over a decade of my life in Kenya and then another decade in Geneva, Switzerland, and then lived two years in the U.K. I came to Canada to continue my education, and, coming from Switzerland, hospitality was on the top of my mind. I attended Ryerson University in Toronto and studied hospitality and tourism with a minor in communications. I also continued studying French, which I learned while in Geneva. I quickly realized that I was not a fit for the hospitality field. I’m not the type to be working on holidays; I enjoy my holidays and weekends. And, of course, with two kids, it makes a whole lot more sense to have the stability of a Monday-to-Friday role. I believe that a person’s industry and company should support them and their values in all ways, shapes, and forms, whether they are a parent or not. I found that as a mother, I could do sales. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an increase in the importance of work-life balance. Tell us how you make it work. Growing up,
How Women in Sales are Balancing Work and Family in 2021
Sistas In Sales Joins She Sells Summit
#StrongerTogether: Be the Change Maker
Carlisha Kellum, Regional Vice President, Marketing Cloud at Salesforce | BOLDforce Indy Co-President Carlisha Kellum is a ”Change Maker” who decided early in her career that she could take the lead instead of waiting for someone else to make things happen. I asked Carlisha how she started her career in tech, what makes her a successful sales professional, and how she has driven change. Here’s what she said: Last year you had a record-setting year and exceeded your annual sales quota. You have worn several hats at Salesforce. Tell me about your career journey and what contributed to your success? Last year, I was a Senior Account Executive in the growth business segment for Commercial Marketing Cloud. I sold our digital marketing solutions that enable our customers to effectively reach their consumer base. I had a record-setting year last fiscal, closing about $1.7 million in new and current business across my segment. To give some perspective, that’s 270 percent of my quota. I’ve also been able to work on other projects and take on new responsibilities. When I started out in sales, I found it was a bit challenging to break into the tech industry. Fortunately, a connection from Indiana University posted that Salesforce was growing and looking for new inbound sales representatives at that time. I had zero connections in the tech industry and had to research what makes a good tech sales representative. I started as an inbound representative, or SDR, then I became a business development representative (BDR) doing outbound sales and later moved into an Account Executive role. I try to pass along all the knowledge I have gained including the ways in which I have been successful during my six years at Salesforce, to new folks who come on board. Outside of my day-to-day role, I’m also Co-President of the Black Organization for Leadership and Development—BOLDforce Indy Group. There isn’t much Black or Brown representation in tech, so I appreciate that Salesforce is committed to using their platform to advance the conversation. I was lucky to have a mentor—Chris Roberts, who works at Salesforce in our Toronto office—help me navigate this and ways to get involved. When I first became an Account Executive at Salesforce, I was a bit unsure of where I wanted to take my career. I spent some time working at a smaller partner company before I found myself back at Salesforce with a better understanding of what I wanted out of my career. Learn more about Carlisha’s game-changing work with BOLDforce and what it takes to become a woman in sales at Salesforce. “If I’m going to come back, I’m going to be serious about this.” Upon returning to Salesforce, how did you step into your role as a “Change Maker”? I returned to Salesforce after about six months; I was lucky that I had kept a lot of my connections. When I returned, I said to myself, “If I’m going to come back, I’m going to be serious about this.” My first steps were taking on the role of Co-President with BOLDforce, getting more involved with the Black and Brown communities in Indianapolis, and engaging with Salesforce allies in an impactful way. It took me a while to realize that I was looking for someone else to be a change-maker, the example, the leader. But then I thought, “Why can’t I do that? Why can’t I be the one to reach out my hand to help others?” BOLDforce is working to develop recurring events and ways for allies to get involved. The pandemic has been traumatic for many this past year and we saw a lot of allies at Salesforce step up and become more engaged. A lot of folks raised their hands and said, “I want to help.” And we don’t want that to die down. We want it to be ongoing, so we’re finding ways to engage our network of allies with more information. We recently had an amazing event with The Little Timmy Project, which is a local organization that provides resources to moms and babies in need in Indianapolis, Indiana. We focused on Black maternal health, why Black women are experiencing higher mortality rates than other women during childbirth, and how to advocate for yourself, not only when you’re having a baby but in health care in general. We also partnered this summer with BOLDForce DC on “Coding our Future Summer Tech Camp.” Twenty kids from the Indianapolis community attended this virtual STEM camp to learn about coding and hear from professionals and entrepreneurs in the tech industry. This is a recurring opportunity for young children to get involved early so that when they go to college, they’re already thinking about a potential career in tech. What’s the best career advice you have ever received? The best career advice I ever received was to not try to be like other people. When you want to be a top performer, you look at other people, and you think you should mimic exactly what they are doing. But that’s not necessarily how you’re going to be successful. Find a way to amplify your strengths instead of focusing on what you lack. I’m a lifelong learner and there are always opportunities to continue learning and growing. — CherilynnChief Learning Officer, SIS Cherilynn Castleman, Global Sales Keynote Speaker/Trainer/Executive Coach, has been a sales executive for 20+ years. With her natural talent for teaching and a drive to sell, Cherilynn uses her skills to coach and train other executives and sales professionals. Author of What’s in the C.A.R.D.S.? 5 Post-Pandemic Sales Strategies Sistas in Sales, LLC (SIS) is a community where women of color in sales can network, advance their careers, and most important, find sisterhood. SIS offers events, a thriving Slack community with companies hiring now, and career coaching services. Learn more about Sistas In Sales membership here, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Sponsored by Salesforce.Learn more about joining Salesforce
#StrongerTogether: Following Your Passions
Monica Roberts, Strategic Accounts Director – Enterprise Sales at Salesforce Following her unique combination of talents and inner passions, Monica Roberts started her college journey with pre-med aspirations, ultimately graduating from Baylor with a degree in finance. Continuing a pursuit of medicine because of her love for helping people, she achieved a Master’s in Healthcare Administration. I asked Monica to tell me a little about her sales career, her journey, how she landed at Salesforce, and what advice she would share with others about success in sales. In your college days, you considered a career in medicine. How did you decide to enter the tech industry and how did you pursue a leadership role once there? I’ve taken a path less traveled in comparison to my peers; however, it’s a path that has allowed me to follow common threads of passion for people, process, and change. While pursuing my Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, I came across an opportunity to be an auditor, which gave me the ability to travel and explore various processes in different departments. This job allowed me to spend time abroad and change scopes of work quickly, but the way I was received as an auditor didn’t really jive with my personality. During this time, I advanced my accounting knowledge through the achievement of an MBA and due to my skill set in process analysis and improvement, I was selected by an IT manager to move into a Business Analyst (BA) role. This is where I was introduced to Salesforce and the value it and its ecosystem bring to the table. Shortly thereafter, I was promoted to IT Service Manager, leading a team of BAs and supporting the entire front office. After that, I joined one of the top consulting firms in the world and was then recruited by Salesforce as a solution engineer. After 3+ years in the role of SE, I made the transition to Strategic Accounts Director. Through many transitions, I availed myself to the possibility of change; however, sales was something that I never set out to do. My passions and hope to drive change, guided me here. I am passionate about Salesforce, passionate about the solutions that we can bring to drive value for my customers, and passionate about my customers. I tell my customers all the time how user-friendly Salesforce is: “This is easy configuration, ‘click not code,’ and if I can figure this out, you can too.” One of the reasons I am enthusiastic about Salesforce is because I understand the benefits from the customers’ perspective. That’s one reason I accepted a role in sales for the company—because I know it works! I like to think that my story could be inspirational to people who are on a certain career path, like finance, and realize, “This is not for me.” I love numbers. I always thought that I was going to be an accountant. I realized the role I was playing in accounting, as an auditor, did not allow me to be seen in the best light by customers as they would hide or shut down when I approached them. It wasn’t a fit with my personality and didn’t really provide the opportunity to be innovative—which my role in sales does. What do you love most about working in sales and what advice would you give to someone considering a career change? Being customer-facing, being innovative, and working with a team are all aspects of sales that I love. Look at what you’re doing now, and consider how the different aspects of your current or past roles are transferable: process, people, interactions, or improvements. Examine how you can transform that into the career that you want. Too often we get stuck in the lane that we’re in and assume it’s the only way that we can go forward. You demonstrate two important traits for success in sales: being open to risk and determination. How do these two traits help you succeed? You certainly must adjust your level of risk aversion in sales because of the compensation model. It’s important to move at a fast pace and pivot on a dime based on customer decisions or changes in the customer’s environment. In my role as a Strategic Accounts Director, I have leadership and coordination responsibilities and also stay on top of customer accounts and am always working to deliver value. I’m incentivized to make a difference in sales. Having that drive and willingness to get up every morning and say, “Okay, I’m willing to dig a little deeper in order to make something happen,” is essential to my success, my team’s success, and my customers’ success. Listen to your customer. Sometimes you get so caught up in the narrative that you are working, but if you’re not listening to your customer, then there’s a total disconnect. You’re wondering why you lost the deal, but much of that hinges on whether you were truly listening and what you were actually listening for. At the end of the day, were you able to respond to their concerns in the right manner? What is the best career advice you ever received? I regularly connect with one of my mentors, Bret Taylor, who is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Salesforce. I recently expressed concerns about being afraid to ask for recognition or compensation. One thing he said was, “Monica, don’t ever apologize for wanting to be compensated for work that you’re doing and for the value you’re bringing to a company.” I responded, “I don’t want you to think that I’m money hungry. I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate where I am.” But in that moment, I recognized that as a Black woman, like many others, I had been indoctrinated into this mindset of just appreciating opportunity. That’s why I am proud to work at a company that is committed to equal pay for equal work, conducting an annual audit to account for any potential discrepancies. Another of my
#WantMore: Knowledge Is Power, So Keep Learning
Meet Ranjitha Raghunathan, Commercial Account Executive at GongInterviewed by Florence Madenga “Find your own personal board of directors” On The Pandemic For many people, a global pandemic may look like the worst time to be starting a new job at a new company. For Ranjitha Raghunathan, her first two months at Gong have encompassed some of the best teamwork she’s experienced in a workspace, even without the “space.” At a time where professional relationships are being tested, Ranjitha is thriving. “Obviously we have all been remote and I haven’t met many of them personally,” she says of her team and colleagues. But “they’ve been super helpful. And I think Gong as a tool and a platform itself actually helps me become a better salesperson every day. I couldn’t be happier.” As a commercial account executive, Ranjitha works with smaller companies — this means the size is anything from one employee to 250. The “small and mid-sized business” (SMB) space requires a lot of cold calling, identifying exciting business prospects, and building relationships. It means understanding priorities, fit, and roles — the ones people say they hold, as well as the unspoken concerns, values and responsibilities. While much of this comes naturally to Ranjitha, what made her career transition so painless is that within the first month in her role, she participated in Gong’s mentorship program, which encourages employees to “reach out to anyone to get some help.” She did just that. Ranjitha found herself “leaning a lot on teammates and colleagues” that have quickly turned into friends. She describes this culture as “feedback forward,” a part of the #NoSugar Operating Principle, which fosters an environment where everyone can improve daily and own their own way of selling. Employees are encouraged to be direct, speak their mind, and expect the same from their peers. On Trying Again Ranjitha’s journey to Gong has been two years coming. The first time she applied for a position there, she did not get the job. “I was not qualified by any means to get that job,” she says. But that didn’t mean she stopped. She honed her skills at Salesforce as a new business account executive, and then an SBE account executive, where she consistently outperformed expectations and was a peer-elected team lead. Meanwhile, before she applied a second time at Gong, she combed through much of the content the company was generating, from podcasts and YouTube Video content, to reading more about the industry. “So when they reached out to me, it was a fangirl moment, really,” she says. She breezed through the interview process and found herself at Gong, now as a commercial account executive. Like her arrival to Gong, Rajintha’s arrival to sales has not been linear. It has culminated in journeys across the Atlantic, and interests that she’s gleaned at several other moments in her life. Seven years ago, she moved to the U.S. from India. Prior to that, she was a software engineer, and quickly realized engineering was not something she was passionate about. She then worked for a small wind energy startup where she got into sales, business development, and realized: “Well, it’s like I’ve been doing sales all my life and I just had no idea.” Additionally: “I firmly believe that you don’t technically need to have a title to be in sales,” she says. “I was always selling. You just don’t know what you’re selling, or you could be selling yourself every day.” On Not Selling Out But how do you “sell yourself” without…well, selling yourself? On applying to a sales job (which can be meta because the process itself is an exercise in sales), Ranjitha recommends sticking to who you are. “I think specifically for women of color, it’s important that you own it,” she says “If you’re going to be different, you’re going to sound different. You’re going to look different. And that’s what brings your unique perspective to your job. That’s what makes you stand out and really hone in on those skills.” Here, Ranjitha is speaking from experience. As a brown woman in sales, she has been asked to “tone it down,” to “not be so direct,” so “soften the blow” and adhere to more stereotypical feminized and racialized modes of behavior in the workspace. “I was never a fan of that because that’s not who I am,” she says. “If I was going to take so long to write an email, she says, as has been recommended by some to “tone down” her approach, “the email I’m sending out is really not something I would even say.” So instead of finding another voice, Ranjitha would rather spend time finding her own. “The minute you start imitating someone else, you are going to forget it, you’re going to hate it, and nobody wants that,” she says. “And just to think, you know, the challenges that come with being a woman in sales and in such a male dominated field is a job by itself.” It is because of this reason, and the notion that sales as a career can be “super controlled,” that well-intentioned close friends and family, knowing her personality, warned her not to enter sales. She knew things like “having an accent” and coming from a different country would mean dealing with prejudice. Dealing with this has required having more open and honest conversations around diversity and inclusion. “People don’t realize that we’re not stupid,” Ranjitha says. “Someone says, ‘hey, don’t be in sales.’ Literally, the first question that comes to mind is ‘Why? Do you think I sound different?’ That’s my first question. It’s unfortunate that it’s common, but I think thankfully that times are changing.” On Finding Your Own Personal Board of Directors What has also helped that change is other women supporting each other. “I think people who I admire the most are people who care, like they really really care, and not just say they care,” she says. “There’s a big difference between the two, and people don’t really realize that.”
#WomenOfWonder: You Can’t See What You’re Learning Until You Come Out The Other Side
Meet Andrea Bibbs: Vice President, Ad Sales Marketing & Studio Operations, WarnerMedia GroupWritten by Myrna L. DatilusSpotlight Blogger, SIS Andrea Bibbs is the VP of Ad Sales Marketing & Studio Operations at WarnerMedia Group and has an impressive resume that details exactly how she has worked so diligently over the past two decades to get where she is today. During our conversation I was able to learn how many things we had in common, including our West Indian cultural backgrounds, and how driven Andrea is about getting to the next level in her life both professionally and personally. As teenagers from Guyana, Andrea’s parents moved to London separately, and when they met one another for the first time in the early-’70s, they decided to migrate to Canada together a few years later in the mid’70s. That is where the story of Andrea Harry Bibbs begins. Andrea is a Guyanese- Canadian woman who prides herself on her cultural identity and embraces the values that have been instilled in her from her parents. Andrea is also “a wife and a mother to two amazing young children; my oldest is my 8 yr old daughter Bailey, and my youngest is my 5 yr old son, Braeden.” Since the children were born in the USA, and surrounded by American culture, Andrea and her husband, Trey, find that it’s important that they learn about their Canadian and Guyanese roots and history. “So it’s just, I think, similar to sort of what my parents did. They didn’t want us to lose that piece. And I feel really, it’s funny how life works. It’s like such a circle because I feel like the same thing. I don’t want them to lose that piece of who they are.” Based on all I have learned about Andrea in such a short amount of time, I am sure the children will never lose but only gain more of who they are in this world, just like their mother did. In the first Wonder Woman movie, the love interest of Wonder Woman, Steve, made a strong statement, “It’s not about what you think you deserve, it’s about what you believe,” and it made me ask Andrea about her own life’s values and beliefs. I want to know how exactly they help her to reach the level of success she has in both her personal and professional life, and she simply responds, “One of my core values is leading with kindness. That’s something that my parents would always talk about.” Kindness and an added core value of relationship building is what has helped Andrea remain and thrive at WarnerMedia for about 21 years now. In 1998, Andrea started off as an Intern at CNN at the age of 21, right before graduating from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. A year after she graduated, she was offered an opportunity to come back to work for them. “I think that’s something that has never really changed about me. In this business of media and sales, it can be a really cut throat, competitive type business. I just never changed who I was in terms of being kind first of all, being empathetic, but really focusing on relationships and making sure that I was respecting folks just as what I wanted in return.” Andrea prides herself on forging genuine relationships, and not ones based only on ‘what can you do for me? How can you get me ahead?’ Andrea always kept a ‘how can I help you?’ approach with most if not all the relationships she has built throughout this business. Nonetheless, Andrea learned that being a kind, empathetic person doesn’t always go hand in hand with being a leader and moving up the corporate ladder. “I feel like I’ve just always led from a place of trying to be helpful while focusing on the right type of relationships.” This approach may have had her go up the corporate ladder at a slower pace, but by getting to where she is now by remaining true to herself and not stepping on any necks to get there, has helped her to be a true advocate of authenticity & integrity within the sales industry. That one trip to Atlanta right before graduating college, led Andrea in 2000 (2yrs after graduating), to work at CNN/Sports Illustrated as a liaison between their website and on-air shows. She then went on to CNN.com in 2002 as an Associate Producer where she also served as a liaison between the site and shows, as well as working on interactive content for the site. “Working closely with the TV network and the site, again, was through relationships. I’d only been there for like a year and a half, but I think I had forged really great relationships where we kind of knew that something might happen with the network and the person who was then the lead of CNN digital whom, I’ve worked with before, said if anything happens to come find him….as soon as we found out that the network was shutting down, I reached out to him and I got a job there within a couple of weeks.” To prove Andrea’s consistent message of relationship building, a fun fact about her is that almost every single job she has had at Warner Media has been through the relationships she has built these 20 + years that she can hopefully expand a bit more of. Being a people person and genuinely helping people will always keep Andrea at a place of success, because she has proven herself to be time after time again, a very selfless person; and from my own experience, those types of people make it very far in life. Another part of the first Wonder Woman movie which I loved so much, is when Diana realized her own strength while catching her own fall off the side of a building; she recognized one of her superpowers while in that moment and then she became unstoppable. That scene made me wonder, when did Andrea realize her own strength and that she too, was unstoppable? Andrea responded surprisingly by saying, “I’m still trying to find that strength.
#WomenOfWonder: You Are Stronger Than You Believe
Meet Ebony Moore: Vice President, Linear & Digital Account Service, WarnerMediaWritten by Myrna L. DatilusSpotlight Blogger, SIS Ebony Moore is the VP of Linear & Digital Account Service at WarnerMedia Group and has been with the company for the past 26 years. Throughout her time at WMG, Ebony has witnessed the company transition from Turner Media to WarnerMedia Group and is currently going through a reorganization within the company now. “We’ve been going through this transformation and this reorganization as of November last year, so my role has changed a little bit in the last seven to eight months. I now oversee Linear only, Planning and what we call Advanced Audience Solutions, which is basically targeting linear television by trying to reach very specific advertisers so there’s no waste in the impressions that we deliver.” Along the way, Ebony has learned a lot about herself and the business, and during our great conversation, I learned how what she has experienced over the years has shaped her into the wonderful woman she is today. Ebony was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA by parents that instilled in her core values by taking her to church every Sunday, and ensured that she knew the value of education. She graduated with her Bachelors in Communications Media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a school that she initially didn’t want to attend, but since she was admitted under a full scholarship, her dad convinced her to give it a try. Her Philly pride continued to permeate off the screen as she speaks highly of where she is from and what drives her to keep succeeding at WMG, but like any story of success, it comes with its challenges, so I became more intrigued about her story the more she shared some of the trials she has faced as a black woman in the media/ad sales world. Since we are remaining with the Wonder Woman theme for this blog series, I chose to ask Ebony similar questions as asked to her colleague and friend, Andrea Bibbs. The love interest of Wonder Woman, Steve, made a strong statement, “It’s not about what you think you deserve, it’s about what you believe,” and it made me also ask Ebony about her own life’s values and beliefs. Ebony shared, “…it’s gotta be faith over fear. Fear is just the unknown, but fear and doubt can kill.” This question allowed Ebony to recall a time or two in her career when her faith was challenged, and she had to be reminded of her values and beliefs. She shared a time when she was being overlooked for a job position because her boss did not want to lose her as an admin and was intentionally blocking her from getting promoted. Ebony states, “I went to the hiring manager and I said, I know you’re interviewing other people, so you’re not going to choose me? What could I have done differently so that I know for the next time?..and he told me you didn’t do anything wrong. He said, your boss wants to keep you. And so that’s why I’m still interviewing. I was like, okay, well, that’s a different conversation.” Ebony took that moment as an opportunity to talk to her boss and told her how much she really wanted this new role as she didn’t want to be a career admin. She asked her boss something I would’ve never thought to ask, “so how can I help you make this transition work for you as well as work for me?” Ebony ended up performing dual jobs for three months while her boss was interviewing replacements, and although Ebony does not agree that it was fair for her to jump through hoops to secure her next role, she thinks that it “builds a fortitude in my need to speak up or just sit back and let things happen to you.” Due to this situation, Ebony found her voice, and she emphasizes, “You have to have the courage over your convictions…it’s just faith over fear, reminding myself that God’s got it, even when I stumble, even when I fall, and even when I veer off the path that He has set for me…, He’s still walking beside me. He’s still got me.” WOW. You wouldn’t know it if you saw her, but Ebony turned 50 this year. She recalls saying to herself what most of us say as we approach a milestone age, “I’m going to have it all together. I’m going to have it all figured out,” but Ebony quickly realized that what is constant in life is change and opportunity for growth, and she has come to terms with that. She also posed a question that I am still pondering on, “Imagine if you just got to a place in life where you’ve just arrived?” My question after that is, ‘then what?’ Exactly. I segued into referencing when Diana“Wonder Woman,” found her strength; I needed to know when that moment happened for Ebony. She shared that she found that moment at a low point in her career. “One of my employees had doctored an invoice that went to an agency. She literally sat with paper, scissors, tape, and cut out units to put them on an invoice to show an agency that units had aired that had not aired. I got blamed for it. Somehow it came out at the end of the story that I knew that she was doing this, that I sanctioned her doing this, that I gave her the green light to do this, which of course is not true and completely made up.” I had to ask if the woman who fabricated everything was a white woman, and as you may have guessed, she was. Due to this incident, Ebony, her business practice, and her expenses got audited, people around her were being interviewed, and the whole premise of this was really to dig up dirt on her and to figure out a way to terminate her. “I just remember the intense scrutiny that I was being audited and that I just didn’t want to be at Turner anymore.” Ebony says she remembers
#OpenForDelivery: There’s No Success Without Really Loving What You Do
Meet Daniela Manrique: Strategic Partner Manager, DoorDashWritten by: Myrna L. DatilusSpotlight Blogger, SIS Daniela Manrique is a Strategic Partner Manager (SPM) at DoorDash in Miami, and is ecstatic to work for a company that has allowed her to evolve both personally and professionally. In the interview process for DoorDash, Daniela felt that she was being introduced to a company that will celebrate her and her Hispanic background, she also felt confident in knowing that she would be affiliated with a company that encourages her to be herself and share her voice. “I’ve never felt like they’ve gone back on their word,” and for these reasons alone, Daniela is extremely excited about her career at Doordash, so let’s take a few steps back to learn more about who exactly Ms. Manrique truly is. Daniela “Dani” Manrique (Man-Ree-Kay) was born and partially raised in Venezuela, and then in Brazil due to her father’s work requiring the family to travel often. From Brazil, the Manrique family moved to Miami, Florida, where they have been for the past 20 years. She attended and graduated with her Bachelors in Marketing & PR from the University of Florida, with that being the furthest she has ever been away from her family in Miami. Due to her travels, Daniela speaks four different languages (English, Spanish, Portugese, and French), and has an appreciation for many different cultures and people. Being so culturally & educationally sound has allowed Dani to have a general passion for people by helping, building and maintaining relationships with the people she encounters in her life. The trend I have found by spotlighting these amazing women, is that just like me, we are all passionate about the human experience and how we can help leave each person we meet better than how they were. Although her degree in Marketing & PR is not aligned with her current career in sales, Dani says while working at different companies, she has been inspired to continue her work within the sales industry since she has a natural knack in connecting with people. Prior to bringing her talents to Doordash, Dani worked as a sales intern for Cartier at their Latin American headquarters in Miami for their Latin American Caribbean department. Although that position did not require a lot of client facing opportunities, there were moments where if her managers were out or if she needed to hop on a call with a partner, she would get the chance to help them resolve problems, troubleshoot, or just strategize, which required her to interact with her clients more than usual. Those moments proved to be Dani’s favorites because she was able to do what she loved to do the most, which was to talk, and that is where she really found her passion in building relationships and realized that she wanted to continue to do this on a larger yet impactful scale. Dani has another passion for volunteering her time within her community and she began to realize that she desired a role that would fuse everything that she loved together. She yearned to be able to interact and build relationships with people in her local Hispanic community in Miami; a position that would allow her to help support Hispanic small business owners such as the local restaurant owners. She wanted to also support women or anyone that was from any different culture to help grow and scale their businesses. “I actually started working for Ubereats as an Account Manager, where I was able to really dive deep into that passion of mine, of being able to build relationships, being able to help businesses grow and see the impact that I’m making directly with my merchants and my partners.” She worked in that role for two years as the company started growing pretty quickly, then the pandemic hit, and unfortunately things started changing. DoorDash then reached out to Dani informing her that they were growing their team in Miami, and asked her if this was something that would interest her. “At the time I was very interested in Doordash because of all the things that they were doing for the community and for the restaurants during the pandemic. They were going above and beyond to help everybody and that really resonated with what I was looking for in a company and I liked that they shared my values.” Accepting the offer to work at DoorDash was a no brainer for Dani because she will get to continue what she was doing and what she loves to do at a company that shares the exact values and morals that she does. “I applied and now I’m here…I have finally found a place where I belong and am doing something that truly makes me happy by helping local communities and small businesses.” Dani is truly getting the best of both worlds in her position as a SPM. As a SPM, Dani has a book of business where she manages around 30 accounts, “If I manage a Cheesecake Factory, that account is one local business in the market of Florida, that can be anywhere from South Florida all the way to North Florida. I’m equipped to help them grow their business in whatever capacity that means if that’s helping them with marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, product adoption, talking through, and if they have any issues with operations, I am a support for that as well. Right now with the pandemic, we’ve also been focusing on how we can help them just outside of the platform.” Dani elaborates further by sharing that her team goes even further in helping these local businesses figure out how to find people to work at their restaurants! I have never heard of a tech sales team doing that for any of their accounts, so I was truly impressed to learn that DoorDash goes above and beyond for their clients in such a way. “We sometimes will donate money to help them staff people. I do really cool campaigns with them, like if they want to do a social media campaign, I can