Finding Your Passion: Helping Purpose Driven Consumers

JB: Talk to us about your sales journey

KP:

Mom was a really successful sales rep - and had a similar outgoing personality to mom 

Gt into sales because it was way out of my comfort one

Had this icky feeling towards slimy sales like the used car salesman

Was a BDR at a software company

Joined HubSpot, Loved it. Found my favorite part of the job was onboarding and training. 

I found this ability to move into the new realm but needed closing experience

Joined the new (at the time) non-profit sales team at HubSpot which I felt like I hit the Jackpot!

What gets me out of bed in the morning, I want to make the world a better place, but didn't have a specific mission I was attached to. So working across all different non-profits gave me perspective

It gave me the ability to prescribe inbound marketing to these non-profits because it will work, HubSpot is the best tool to do it so I felt that I believed and could help the marketer dedicated to their cause! 

I did fine as a sales rep, but my passion was involved with Educating people and supporting people which led to a nice easy transition to iterate on the sales training program at HubSpot. 

Did 3-4 iterations over 3.5-4 years 

Working sometimes with 20,30,40 new hires every month. As the central person someone came to for when they joined 

Employee 180 when I started and was totally different company and I was wondering what was next

Husband asked: What was it that you liked about this and being at HubSpot?

I liked that the industry had the wind at it’s back! What was the next industry that had the wind at its back?

It was Cannabis!  I wasn’t into the growing and that stuff, but found a conference and learned about CBD

Found there was a ton of mis-information, limited science and found opportunity to help people build a better understanding of how to use these products effectively

Got an executive coach, defining my passion and my purpose. Came down to Technology and Doing Good.

It came down to; make it easier for the purpose driven consumer to make informed purchasing decisions. 

JB: Quality and characteristics of best reps getting up to speed

KP:

Not saying things that you think you should say!

When people can actually take the information in their language and make it their own is when they thrived.

When people just tried to memorize it or say what they thought I wanted to hear it was obvious they weren’t speaking their own language

Keeping a positive attitude, it can get really toxic really quickly if you go down the path of thinking negatively. 

It’s important to have those moments where you curse, punch a pillow and feel bad but then set a timer and jump back in and NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

What is the next right thing I can do now?!

I found Visualization being a really powerful tactic. My life now is what I visualized as a kid and I don’t know how but, wow do they work

Setting an intention - as a sales rep with monthly quota- Here’s the $$ I’ll hit this month and do it 3 days, then put that to action and let go a little bit.  Do the next right thing, take action and is where I saw reps thriving.

JB:My dad would always say, “If you hold onto something too tightly you’ll kill it.”  I love this thought of letting go a little bit.  So much to be said for the WHY we are training you this way. Characteristics of a top trainer?

KP:

You’ve got to be a people person

You’ve got to care about the people you’re helping and that’s the crux of it

JB:  It’s so critical to being that beacon of light for people when they join the organization to welcome them into the family.  What do you do or see with reps who struggle to bounce back?

KP: 

Hold onto it too tightly, you kill it is a great point from dad. 

Let’s stop stressing about that one tiny thing. How can we get up to the 10,000 foot level. 

I would go back to the basics really. 

Why am I here? What are some of your goals this month?

What am I here to accomplish?

I try not to sweat the small stuff.

What I notice a lot of the time when I’m not growing, I’m trying to stay within my comfort zone. I’m a person that LOVES being in my comfort zone.  The early part of my career I had no choice but to get out of my comfort zone. 

ONCE I GET HERE then I will be happy in my comfort zone. 

I tried but I wasn’t happy and didn’t grow. 

When I got back involved with my executive coach she asked, what am I doing to push myself?

And that is what led me to get outside of my comfort zone and doing it a way following my intuition more which is really doing a good job of making it easy to present opportunities. 

Example: Find an excuse to reach out to my network, saw a program I wanted to reach out to and thought who was in my network as to if this is a good idea

Should I do this Inner MBA thing or is it to woo woo?

JB: It’s easy to do what someone else tells you what to do.  To do what everyone else is doing.  But to question yourself and see what you really want to do that will align with your beliefs and values is possible in today’s day and age.  How does your coach help you with the mental game? Getting past the fear of getting a coach?

KP: So funny how my mom and I have been following career paths  that are similar. 

Went and saw my therapist for many years, but saw they were only for a certain part of my life and weren’t giving me the professional advice I needed. 

WENDY KAPLAN

It was a leap to really invest in myself. 

She helped me understand my mental models of the world. 

Since I was 22 I knew there was something locked away in my brain that was untapped

I realized I need to have my work and life integrated to drive my own happiness

She helped me identify some of the mental models and realities I have assigned to my life. That’s one reality, that doesn’t mean the one mistake I made that stands out in my mind that may or may not be true and many that DON’T Serve me. 

I can choose to think of this other reality  that has changed my life, my outlook and how I approach every day!

We did a lot of, which I’m still figuring out is a Professional Mission Statement

Why am I on this planet and what am I supposed to be doing professionally?

I will and have to have a job that is aligned with my values. 

Selling Hubspot, worked and selling it to nonprofits had that alignment and I realized it’s important for me to sell the right thing.

JB: Investing in yourself is such a powerful way to take control of your life.  Our education system is built to create soldiers and employees.  To take your own control and aligning your values is so powerful. 

KP: What I appreciate so much about my coach was having someone to talk to. I was able to blab for 10 minutes and she could boil it down to a sentence or two. It added so much clarity to the mush or extra stuff that was in my head and something I recommend to anyone. 

JB: InnerMBA, Wisdom 2.0 and Scott Schute. Talk to me about your intention for going into this InnerMBA program and what it’s about. 

KP:

InnerMBA 9 month program from top businesses - Form Patagonia CEO, LinkedIn, Amazing faculty 

How can you bring the woo woo stuff into business to help employees in mental health and how might an organization use visualization, manifestation, intuition into the company to perform better. It’s beyond logic and reason. But over and over and over again we are seeing businesses do this and IT WORKS!

I might be interested in starting another company, but I want this to be at the core of the business. I want people in the business that have similar beliefs but we can challenge each other with positive, non-judgemental, good intentions every day. 

One guy I love Mind Your Business Podcast, James Wedmore - came out of the woo woo closet and his business has explored 

This woo woo was at the center of it, they still follow logic and reasoning and business strategy and work their tails off, but they do it in a way that’s more WHOLE

If I could build something anywhere near similar to Patagonia but the business has amazing strategy and does great for this world, that would be wow, amazing. 

JB:None of us have been trained how to live our own best life.  This is where a coach and some personal, individual support can be so powerful. Top qualities in leaders?

KP:

Transparency is really big. It helps me know where to focus. If i know you’re having a tough day it helps me to know how to react. It evens the playing field so we can understand each other’s motivations.

It enables clarity and alignment so everyone can know how we need to help each other and operate on the same team!

Emotional Intelligence is HUGE - it’s involved with transparency. You need to be emotionally intelligent to call out what you’re feeling and read a room. 

A big one, I found recently, I appreciate leaders who are constantly learning and evolving their mental models!

We look at leaders who we think they have it all figured out. I appreciate the leaders that acknowledge they don’t have it all figured out. And you showed me something else and I appreciate that

I love leaders that are not afraid to look at someone less tenured or younger than them and learn from them. I think everybody has something to offer and I appreciate leaders that are open to that!

JB: Love winning or hate losing?

KP: Neither - grew up an athlete- I like winning but I like doing it as a team! 

Whether it’s a win or loss, it’s a human experience

Society teaches us to avoid failure and I’ve recently doubled down on EMBRACING FAILURE because it will give me lessons and something to learn 

I like to win, I don’t like to lose but I like to do things that push me

JB: What does success mean to you?

KP: 

It means feeling like I’m fulfilled in every category of my life. It’s an iterative process, it’s going to change and ebb and flow. I think about my life in different categories, physical, mental health, am I learning new things?

All of these categories need to be above a certain threshold. 

Success is I’m above this threshold and I’m feeling good and leaving this world in a better place than when I came into it.

JB:

Kara Potter on LinkedIn 

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@KaraBpotter

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