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Victoria Loewenstern & Delilah Singer 35 min

Cultivating Connections


Huddle Up, Episode 8 dives deep into the critical topic of cultivating relationships in the B2B tech industry. This episode Victoria & Delilah sit down with Matt Green, CRO at Sales Assembly, who shares his insights on the importance of building and maintaining strong professional connections. They discuss practical strategies for networking, the impact of trust and loyalty on business growth, and the role of effective communication in fostering long-term partnerships. Listeners will gain valuable knowledge on how to leverage relationships to drive success, enhance collaboration, and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving B2B tech landscape. Tune in to learn how cultivating relationships can be a game-changer for your business.



0:00

All right, guys, let's huddle up.

0:04

Been a while since we've recorded really excited

0:07

for this guest to come on.

0:10

Matt Green, CRO at Sales Assembly.

0:13

Hey.

0:15

Thanks for having me.

0:16

Thanks for coming on.

0:17

We're excited to have you.

0:19

Typically, we like to kick it off with our guests

0:21

by introducing themselves pretty much like their background

0:24

and essentially your why in a sense.

0:27

So yeah, name is Matt Green.

0:29

As Victoria mentioned, I'm CRO of a company called Sales

0:33

Assembly.

0:34

What we do is we provide all the day-to-day skills training

0:38

for the go-to-market teams of a few hundred

0:40

B2B software companies, fortunately for us,

0:42

including LivePerson.

0:45

Previous to that, I've had kind of a weird career.

0:49

I started right out of school in financial services,

0:53

commission-only type of sales environment, 350

0:57

cold calls a day, six days a week with no salary,

1:00

no benefits.

1:02

Actually--

1:03

Wait, hang on.

1:04

No salary, no benefits.

1:06

What were you--

1:07

was it volunteer work?

1:08

I was just going to say--

1:10

Yeah, it was volunteer for this, sir.

1:12

It was close to it.

1:14

No, my first professional role right out of school

1:18

was working with American Express financial advisors.

1:21

And we had to go around and me as a 22-year-old

1:25

with an ill-fitting suit convinced rich people that, like,

1:29

no, I'm going to be a better person

1:31

and managing your money than you or any of the jimokes

1:34

that you might happen to be working with.

1:36

Well, did the rich people believe that, too?

1:40

Because I have friends that worked for Merrill Lynch

1:42

and stuff after college.

1:43

And I'm like, they trusted you?

1:46

Yeah, I mean, enough of them did

1:50

to the extent that I was able to do relatively well there

1:54

for the first few years.

1:56

And then I did move on to a slightly more professional

1:59

environment, like JP Morgan, very similar to your friend

2:02

working with an established brand like Merrill Lynch.

2:06

But yeah, that--

2:07

how I grew up in all things sales was our very first day.

2:13

It was me and I think nine or 10 other people

2:15

started and the leadership team actually

2:17

had bets going on who would quit within the first week.

2:24

And they usually presume that 70% of the 10 people that they

2:28

hired would end up quitting within the first week.

2:30

I was one of the three that did not

2:33

and just ended up doing that for a couple of years.

2:35

Yeah, we'll--

2:35

I'll give you another cheer.

2:37

Yeah, mainly due to desperation, because no one else

2:39

would give me an opportunity.

2:41

But yeah, after that, spent a little bit over a decade,

2:45

a decade and a half in financial services and wealth

2:48

management at larger firms like JP Morgan

2:51

before getting recruited to lead sales for a series

2:54

a startup here in Chicago.

2:57

And I've been kind of working in and around the tech space

2:59

ever since then.

3:01

And that series A is sales assembly?

3:04

No, no, that series A is a company called

3:08

Capow, which was a corporate events marketplace.

3:13

How I got connected there is, as I was working at firms

3:17

like JP Morgan, I was doing a lot of client entertainment

3:20

for these rich people and bulls players

3:23

and all these other individuals whose money I manage.

3:27

And I was a terrible event planner.

3:29

I'm still a terrible event planner.

3:32

But I had to do it as part of a function of my role.

3:35

So I got introduced to the CEO of this company that

3:38

started this corporate events marketplace called Capow,

3:41

where they would essentially plan and execute

3:44

all these really cool creative events like mixology classes

3:48

and private chef tasting experiences,

3:52

all that good stuff for you.

3:53

So started doing a lot of business with them.

3:56

And then after they raised their A,

3:58

after about a year working together,

3:59

they said, hey, do you want to come help us lead sales?

4:02

Because you know the business, you know the product.

4:04

And they had a big bar in the office.

4:06

So I said, sure, why not?

4:08

So took the leap over there.

4:11

And how this ties back in with sales assembly.

4:13

My now partner Jeff, who I've met serving on the board

4:16

of the same charity about three or four years prior to that,

4:19

was the first person that I hired at Capow.

4:22

So we kind of worked together there building sales teams

4:24

for about a year and a half.

4:26

Amazing. How big was the sales team at Capow?

4:28

When I started, I think I was employee number 37.

4:35

When we left, we had just under 300 employees,

4:39

somewhere between 250 to 300.

4:42

So we were one of those traditional just

4:44

hey up into the right.

4:46

In retrospect, we're going too far up and too far

4:49

to the right too quickly.

4:50

Because we both left due to the fact

4:53

that we grew so quickly, woke up one day.

4:55

It's like, oh shit, company can't afford all this account.

4:58

Any more.

4:59

So now we have to riff about half the people on the team,

5:02

including my partner, Jeff and I.

5:04

When I hear Capow, Delilah.

5:07

So Delilah and I are both from Boca.

5:09

I think of the restaurant, right?

5:10

Yeah.

5:11

There's this noodle bar called Capow.

5:13

Fun fact, that's where my first date was with my boyfriend.

5:16

Here we go. Yeah.

5:19

But in other news, what I actually love about your story though,

5:23

and this is the same thing that right before you joined us,

5:25

Victoria and I were talking about how we want to specifically

5:28

talk to you about this is networking.

5:31

And I feel like you are like the guy for networking.

5:35

Every time I talk to Victoria, there's always an event

5:38

that you're either a part of or introducing people at,

5:43

I don't know, just you're very big into networking in my opinion.

5:46

And I feel like that's how you jumped careers or got these

5:49

opportunities because of people that you've connected with.

5:52

And so forth.

5:54

So I'd love to like pick your brain a little bit about the

5:57

importance of networking and what you currently do to connect

6:00

people together.

6:01

Yeah, it's an interesting question.

6:03

So I I've never been a big fan of what you might consider

6:07

the traditional definition of networking, like going into a

6:11

banquet hall, putting on a lanyard with a name tag and

6:15

just walking around shaking hands with random strangers and

6:18

striking up conversations.

6:20

I hate that.

6:20

I'm not good at that.

6:21

I'm an introvert.

6:22

It just drains me.

6:23

On the one hand, you know, I would meet a lot of really

6:27

nice, really fantastic people.

6:30

But I would walk out of that two to three hours time spending

6:33

saying like, you know, this like, hey, Delilah was great.

6:36

She's going to do nothing for me.

6:39

Right.

6:39

So, you know, I mean, you know, why, you know, why, why would I

6:42

bother investing the time to keep in touch with her?

6:45

And I know that that is a terrible way to think about, you

6:49

know, networking and building relationships.

6:51

And I kind of like hated myself a little bit inside for just my

6:54

mind, automatically going to that saying like, Oh, it was a

6:56

waste of time because there's nothing in it for me.

6:59

If I keep up a conversation with Delilah after this, I just

7:03

didn't like real though.

7:04

That's, I feel like that's how most people think going to these

7:07

events, which is why sometimes there could be like a stigma,

7:10

like, Oh, another event, you know, or I have to shake hands with

7:13

random people.

7:14

I agree with that.

7:15

The only thing is, is like, I feel like you never know what

7:18

you can.

7:18

And I think Matt, you probably were alluding to this.

7:21

You never know what you can offer someone.

7:23

So, for instance, if I meet someone who's in finance, I'm

7:27

always thinking of like, Oh, who can I connect them in finance

7:30

that I know in my realm?

7:31

So like, it might not benefit me directly.

7:34

But I love putting, and I'm sure you were about to just say that

7:37

of like putting people together because I know that you brought a

7:40

lot of people to my realm or have connected me that it probably

7:45

wouldn't have benefited you in the long term, but you still went

7:48

out of your way to do it.

7:49

Yeah, that that was exactly where I was going, which was trying

7:53

to find a way to make sure that if I'm meeting people, if I'm in a

7:57

room that that room is relatively curated and to be clear, not

8:01

curated in the sense that, Oh, what can these people do for me,

8:04

but curated in the sense that at the very least, I'm going to have

8:07

something to offer these people, right?

8:10

And meeting someone that wants to open a franchise that is looking

8:14

for an accountant that specializes in people that own franchises.

8:19

Like I just don't have any frame of reference of how to be supportive

8:23

of that person.

8:25

So what I started doing, especially when I got working in the

8:29

tech ecosystem, was just trying to meet more and more people in

8:33

tech and then started building rooms of more and more people in

8:38

tech just so that again, even if there was nothing in it,

8:41

necessarily for me as far as like ROI that I could point back to

8:45

and say, okay, this was a good use of my time.

8:47

The very least I knew that I would be able to impart some sort of

8:51

value on other people in the room just because my network was

8:54

tech.

8:54

And if you're looking to meet someone or connect with someone

8:57

else within this ecosystem,

8:59

I probably knew enough people where I could facilitate those

9:01

connections.

9:02

And hopefully, you know, the buzzword synergy could happen.

9:07

You're the tech matchmaker.

9:08

Yeah.

9:09

That's where you are.

9:09

It's just helpless approach though.

9:12

That's what I love about this.

9:13

Like it's you're truly like once you took yourself out of it and

9:17

how it could benefit you, all you you've just been serving others

9:21

and helping others and you've probably I will I'm sure I know

9:24

you have made a great impact.

9:25

Like even for us, right when we spoke to you about coming on our

9:30

podcast, the next thing you did after like planning our episode

9:33

was who else can I get you guys on?

9:35

So which I just thought was awesome.

9:38

Um, I'm curious.

9:39

So talk to us a little bit about sales assembly because I think

9:42

there's a lot of power in having a small but mighty team.

9:46

Um, I know that's like the buzz right now on LinkedIn.

9:49

I see it all over of like you don't need so many salespeople or

9:53

sales reps to, you know, hit your numbers.

9:57

Yeah.

9:58

So sales assembly, we've been around for about seven years, but

10:01

we're we're still a bootstrapped, you know, super scrappy company.

10:05

Uh, we have a team of eight people right now.

10:08

And you know, I like to think that even with a small team, you

10:11

know, we punch well above our, our way class as far as impact is, is

10:16

concerned.

10:17

Um, but yeah, I mean, I could talk all day long about what, what I

10:22

perceived to be, you know, a lot of the benefits.

10:24

And of course there are drawbacks, but a lot of the benefits of

10:27

having a much smaller, much more efficient team.

10:31

A lot of that is you could probably imagine just boils down to a

10:35

sense of cohesiveness and effectiveness, right?

10:38

Where there's less personalities to manage less silos within an

10:43

organization as long as you could get this team focused on a very

10:47

singular mission and direct all of the manpower and resources

10:53

towards accomplishing that mission.

10:54

I think that leads to success in any business.

10:57

But as you can imagine, you know, the law of physics, the larger

11:01

that the business becomes, it becomes more and more difficult

11:04

to have that one flag planted in the ground and have like all the

11:08

resources cohesively directed towards accomplishing that said

11:13

mission.

11:14

Do you guys have, I feel like grown a lot over, I don't know, maybe

11:18

the past year or something.

11:19

So what do you, what's like the secret sauce?

11:22

Like how are you guys getting out there with such a small team?

11:25

I mean, we've, we've tried, you know, that the traditional marketing

11:29

kind of stuff hasn't really worked out well for us.

11:31

Um, we've tried hiring, um, a few salespeople, uh, some of them

11:37

that have worked better than others.

11:39

Those that didn't work, it's typical like, hey, maybe the

11:42

wrong fit from the beginning.

11:44

Others that didn't work more about timing than anything else, I

11:47

think.

11:48

But the point is, is that our growth has been predominantly

11:51

been fueled by the relationships that we've been able to form the

11:55

advocates that we've been able to build across all the organizations

11:59

that we work with and finding a good way.

12:01

The number one, making sure that we're doing the utmost quality of

12:05

work for all of these companies.

12:07

So that number two, these companies are going to be much more

12:10

comfortable, much more inclined to recommend us to refer us to other

12:14

people exactly like them who could potentially be really great users

12:19

of sales assembly.

12:20

So it's just been leveraging the customer and advocacy base that we

12:24

have in order to grow the entire customer network.

12:27

I also think that like what you were saying about one mission, when

12:31

you have a big company and so many different departments and all over

12:34

the world, it's really hard for everyone to focus on the same goal.

12:38

And that's it really makes you grow.

12:40

Every department has their own goals.

12:42

And then that's when the line starts getting fuzzy, everyone's

12:45

prioritizing different things.

12:47

And that's when I feel like it can kind of get slower your growth.

12:50

But to your point, only having eight people and having one mission

12:54

that all eight people are focused on can have a huge impact on what

12:57

your mission is like you were saying.

12:59

So I'd love to know what is the sales assembly mission.

13:02

So the sales assembly mission is to build the world's most productive

13:06

B2B software, good market teams.

13:08

That's it.

13:10

The reason why I'm glad you bring this up is because candidly we didn't

13:13

really have this singular mission up a few months ago.

13:16

And I think that in large part, it's weird.

13:19

It was inhibiting our growth in previous years, but we didn't know it

13:23

because the market was still carrying us up into the right.

13:26

And it wasn't like a lot of businesses.

13:28

It wasn't until 2023 when the markets kind of receded that we're

13:34

able to look back and be like, Oh, shit, we're not as smart as we thought

13:37

we were. We're not as good as we thought we were.

13:40

The waters that the tides receding sort of pointed out like, OK,

13:44

there's a lot of problems in our business right now that we should

13:47

probably go into fix.

13:48

And I would say the probably the biggest problem of all was this

13:53

lack of a singular mission, this lack of focus of the organization

13:56

because prior to 2023, 2024, we were a community.

14:01

We were training.

14:02

You know, we didn't recruiting.

14:04

You know, we did this.

14:05

We did that. We tried to be everything to everybody, right?

14:09

And if you asked five sales assembly member companies, like,

14:13

what is sales assembly?

14:14

Do you get five different answers?

14:15

Right.

14:16

And that was a big red flag, but we didn't pay attention to it at the time

14:21

because, again, due to market forces, the growth was still there.

14:24

So it's like, no, I mean, we got this dialed in.

14:26

This is easy.

14:27

Nothing like a little bit of a recession to open your eyes a little bit

14:32

to the reality of the situation.

14:34

Yeah, I feel like we went through that too.

14:36

Like, right, Victoria, when did you say as someone that pivoted from chat

14:40

to messaging and then all of our different products at our last RKO,

14:44

we really all got together and focused on our one mission.

14:48

A lot of companies think like, oh, I can offer you this, this, this, this,

14:51

and this, and this.

14:52

But when you go to a restaurant, you're not going to order everything off the

14:55

menu,

14:56

right?

14:56

You're going to order the things that they're known for.

14:58

I think it's important that, you know, a lot of brands and companies are

15:02

getting

15:03

really crisp on what their vision is and what it is that they have to offer.

15:07

For life, person, for instance, like we used to say we could do all of these

15:10

things,

15:11

but no one ever knew what we were really good at when really our bread and

15:15

butter

15:15

is messaging.

15:16

So to your point, Matt, it's like really finding that, that one mission and

15:20

then kind

15:20

of rowing in the same boat with your team.

15:22

One thing I did like how you mentioned is relationships.

15:25

So I think right now, SaaS and tech, the way people are selling is through

15:31

referrals,

15:32

through relationships, through partners and, you know, bringing in people that

15:36

you've

15:36

known and so forth or have used your product in the past or word of mouth.

15:41

So I just wanted to touch on that and like the importance of relationship

15:45

building.

15:46

It has to kind of be authentic.

15:48

I mean, this is just one of the, the, the natural bones that I like to think

15:52

that I

15:53

have in my body where I am interested in building and fostering long-term

15:57

relationships,

15:58

which is individuals, you know, business related or not, but just people in, in

16:03

general.

16:03

Number two, you know, I think there's, there's a lot to be said for just the,

16:09

the mere act of keeping in touch, right, which I think a lot of people drop.

16:12

You know, the problem that we see a lot of companies and a lot of go-to-market

16:16

teams have trying to bring this whole circle as far as gathering referrals is,

16:21

you

16:21

know, that they'll reach out to, to someone to ask for a referral.

16:24

And one of the first things that they say when they reach out is, Hey, it's

16:27

been a

16:28

long time since we spoke, right?

16:30

Or some version of that.

16:31

I mean, that right there, if it's been long since you spoke, it's like, okay,

16:34

well,

16:34

you know, maybe you should find a way to fix that before you're going in with

16:39

some

16:39

type of ash, just like at a human to, to human level.

16:42

Um, and number three, and you know, I, I, I like to think that there, that this

16:49

is a

16:49

reflection on, on life, you know, my sound like small things, but it is the

16:53

small

16:53

things that make up life just paying attention to people being engaged, like

16:57

being

16:57

an active listener when they are talking it, it, it does form much stronger

17:02

relationships.

17:03

If, you know, when I reach out to a contact to mind that I maybe haven't spoken

17:07

with

17:07

in three or four months, I know where he or she, you know, we're planning a

17:11

vacation

17:12

the last time or the names of their kids, right?

17:15

Or, you know, just small little details right that that, um, that again, number

17:19

one,

17:19

to be clear, I'm just naturally inclined to remember that kind of stuff.

17:23

And I make it a point from a data perspective to log these types of details in

17:29

our CRM,

17:30

right?

17:30

You know, what are people's birthdays?

17:32

What are their wedding anniversaries?

17:33

Again, where did they take their last vacation?

17:36

Um, just again, for organizational purposes, but, um, when it comes to building

17:42

authentic relationships, I, I do like to think that it is those small things

17:46

that

17:46

make a big difference, right?

17:48

Especially, and to be clear, especially if we do want to bring this back to say

17:53

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17:56

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17:59

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19:55

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

19:57

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

19:59

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:01

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:03

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:05

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:07

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:09

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:11

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:13

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:15

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:17

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:19

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:21

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:23

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:25

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:27

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:29

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:31

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:33

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:35

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:37

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:39

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:41

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:43

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:45

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:47

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:49

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:51

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:53

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:55

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:57

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

20:59

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:01

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:03

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:05

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:07

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:09

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:11

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:13

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:15

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:17

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:19

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:21

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:23

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:25

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:27

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:29

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:31

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:33

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:35

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:37

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:39

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:41

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:43

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:45

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:47

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:49

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:51

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:53

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:57

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

21:59

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:01

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:03

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:05

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:07

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:09

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:11

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:13

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:15

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:17

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:19

Um, and I think it's a very important thing to do.

22:21

Um, so to answer your question, you know, uh, travels a big hobby of ours

22:25

and time us back to some outsides mentioned.

22:27

What I do outside of work, I mean, usually revolves around my son

22:31

who, uh, who will turn 12 in about a month and a half.

22:34

So whatever he's doing, I'm trying to find a way to, uh,

22:37

to be involved with.

22:39

Oh, I love that. Does he play sport?

22:41

Yeah, he's one of those kids that is average to above average

22:45

at a handful of sports, but he's not like really good at,

22:49

and yet so, you know, he gets by, he does really well in soccer.

22:52

He'll get by a basketball. He'll get by a track, but, you know,

22:56

he's one of those kids. He's very similar to, to me growing up,

22:59

or is never really good at just like one thing.

23:01

I just like, drugged and drabbed in a few different things.

23:04

That seems to be where he's at right now.

23:07

What's, where's the coolest place you've ever traveled to?

23:10

Um, I swear from San Francisco.

23:13

No, yeah. Yeah, I can't go. Um, no, we, yeah, we were in Jordan

23:18

a few years ago. We, yeah, we loved the, the Middle East.

23:21

So we've been to Jordan, Turkey, which I know technically is in Europe,

23:26

but those two places and Oman, which is right near Somalia, like right next to,

23:31

uh, to Somalia. I mean, those, those places have been amazing.

23:35

Great food, great people, great culture, and, you know, my son has loved

23:39

all those places as well.

23:41

Oh my God, you took your son to all these places. It's sick.

23:44

He's so cultured already.

23:46

Yeah, no, I, much to my wife, Shagrin, I, we don't go anywhere without it.

23:51

That's a big part of my, my decision, but mainly, it's mainly because I have

23:57

this chip on my shoulder from a grown up.

23:59

You know, we didn't have a whole lot of money resources. We didn't go anywhere.

24:02

Um, I didn't travel anywhere until I was maybe 33.

24:06

And so I'm doing that big over correcting thing where it's like, well,

24:11

I couldn't go anywhere. I want to make sure that he has the opportunity to go

24:16

everywhere. So I like to just again, exposing the different cultures and stuff like that.

24:20

And plus just spending more and more quality time with him is, uh, is important

24:25

to me because, uh, it goes by fast.

24:27

It's amazing. Yeah, they always say, and obviously to Lyla and I don't have

24:31

kids just yet.

24:31

God willing one day, but the days are long, but the years are short.

24:35

Yeah.

24:36

That was exactly it.

24:38

Okay, cool. So I know I don't want to, you know, I want to be respectful of

24:41

your time.

24:42

We like to go into a section of fun rapid fire questions.

24:46

They're not that fun and they're not that rapid in the responses.

24:49

So it's a great name. Yeah. Yeah.

24:53

But they're insightful.

24:57

So if you can make a law that everyone had to follow, what would it be?

25:02

Oh God. Everyone has to use zoom because I'm tired of switching back and forth

25:10

between Google Meats and Microsoft teams and zoom and all the other platforms.

25:12

Um, that is my joking answer, filling the air because I can't come up with, I

25:17

think, a really good thoughtful answer right now.

25:19

So give me a few minutes.

25:21

Yeah, that'll change the world. Definitely. I'll see if I could circle back to

25:25

that.

25:25

No, I mean, one thing. I mean, now that we're talking about one thing that I do

25:28

think would be really valuable.

25:30

At least here in the States would be, I like the idea of mandating some type of

25:37

national service for people after high school.

25:40

And it does have to be military, could be Peace Corps volunteering locally.

25:44

Just something that puts people in a position where not only are they, they get

25:49

like a year's worth of experience working for something bigger than themselves.

25:53

And they're doing it around a lot of people that they don't know that come from

25:56

different cultures, different backgrounds, things like that.

25:59

That would be valuable to the individuals, but also be valuable long term to

26:04

the country.

26:05

Did you serve?

26:06

No, no, I did not. That's probably why I'm broken.

26:09

Yeah.

26:10

They do that in Israel where as soon as you graduate high school, when you're

26:15

18, you go straight into the army.

26:16

And I think it really like toughens them up and it makes you mature at a

26:20

younger age.

26:21

Yeah, I think, you know, countries like Switzerland and Finland do too.

26:25

And again, it doesn't necessarily have to be military, but it has to be

26:28

something.

26:29

I love that. I will say, by the way, this question, I was listening to Tiffany

26:34

Haddish on Jay Shetty.

26:35

And she said that her law would be that everyone has to give someone a hug.

26:40

She's like, there's just too much chaos in this world. Like everyone just needs

26:43

a hug.

26:44

But she said it a lot funnier than I did.

26:46

She's like, everyone just needs a damn hug.

26:48

I was gonna say, it's not like co-share after COVID.

26:50

Maybe you can like pick the people you hug.

26:52

Like co-share after COVID, we should make that a slogan.

26:55

Our ADD today, Delilah is often not a good job.

26:58

I'm like trying to sneak sips of my coffee, but it is worth it.

27:02

All right. Next question.

27:03

What is your favorite quote or mantra that you live by?

27:07

But nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems.

27:11

I love that.

27:13

Like drop.

27:15

Do you think back to anything that you were stressing out about or freaking out

27:20

about?

27:21

Did it end up as poorly as you thought?

27:23

No, and that's the thing. No.

27:25

I mean, you know, for intercourse, I easy for me to talk about this from a

27:33

position of relative privilege,

27:35

at least compared to a lot of other people.

27:37

Right.

27:38

But yeah, I mean, you know, running a business day to day 2023 really tough.

27:43

I mean, there were days talking, I just pull the records like, look, I'm done

27:47

already.

27:47

I mean, you know, this is not worth it.

27:49

I mean, you know, things aren't going well.

27:51

But then, you know, take a step back.

27:52

It's like, well, look, I mean, I'm in a much better position than a lot of

27:56

people out there.

27:57

But then at the same time, when things are keeping you grounded, when things

28:01

are going really well,

28:01

it's like, well, no, I mean, it's sure that this is good.

28:04

Could be a hell of a lot better.

28:06

Right.

28:07

I think it keeps me sort of mentally operating in that sort of medium space,

28:11

right,

28:12

where we're relatively grounded on both different men.

28:15

So I don't get the lows don't get too low, but the highs don't get too high

28:20

either,

28:20

which could be just as dangerous.

28:22

I love that because then it's like also people could look at social media and

28:27

think that, oh, you know, these people that are posting all the time are so in love,

28:31

but then you have no idea what goes on behind closed doors or they just went on

28:35

the best vacation of their lives.

28:37

But meanwhile, their luggage broke.

28:39

It's hot as shit outside.

28:40

You're like, got to late three times, right?

28:43

So you never know.

28:45

This question is on here, but I'm curious.

28:47

What's the biggest misconception that people have about you?

28:50

So I got asked this question during a job interview and my answer resulted in

28:58

me not getting the job.

29:00

So that this question actually sticks.

29:02

Yeah, but the CEO asked me that this question during the final round.

29:06

And, you know, my answer at the time was that, you know, I like to think I'm

29:12

relatively even keeled

29:14

and it could come off that way.

29:16

I mean, relatively monotone against sort of even keeled people.

29:21

They have oftentimes would have a misinterpretation me as far, you know, not

29:26

being friendly because I always look the same.

29:28

I don't smile that much.

29:29

I'm not very emotive.

29:30

I mean, outside of being Italian and talking with my hands a lot, like I just

29:33

don't.

29:34

I'm not very active.

29:36

You've got this smile here and there.

29:38

Once in a balloon and it's painful.

29:40

It's forced.

29:42

But yeah, so the answer that I would give to that is that I hope that there

29:47

would be no misconceptions, right?

29:50

I hope that, you know, if someone gets to know me for five or ten minutes, I

29:54

like to think that I'm open and honest and vulnerable enough where they would

29:59

have a good understanding of who I am.

30:01

So that might sound like a trick or pop out answer, but you know, the genuine

30:06

answer is I hope that there never is a situation where someone says like, oh,

30:10

not really too sure about that guy.

30:12

Did he tell you that you didn't get the job solely because of this answer or he

30:17

gave you feedback after?

30:19

The VP who I was going to report in to gave me feedback afterwards.

30:23

But to be clear, yeah, and just yet to be super clear, my initial answer was

30:28

that not as much of an asshole as I might appear at first glance, right, due to

30:32

the non smiling and not being emotive.

30:34

Yeah, so he shared that that feedback was less than ideal.

30:39

It was only upon further reflection that, you know, that I sort of came up with

30:43

the answer that I chose to express to you, which is that, you know, I hope that

30:48

there really is no misinterpretations about me if you get to know me for five,

30:52

ten minutes.

30:53

I like that because it's really like genuine, but I also, I don't think that

30:57

your first answer was, I feel like that was pretty honest and that's not like a

31:01

deal breaker for a job.

31:03

I probably wouldn't want to work there then anyways.

31:05

Yeah, great organization probably competitive environment anyways so you never

31:11

know.

31:11

Yeah, good thing happens for a reason.

31:13

Okay, what's the legacy that you hope to leave behind?

31:17

These are good questions. I probably should have read these through a head of

31:20

time and all the preface materials you sent over.

31:23

But like I said, I'm on rapid fire quirky.

31:26

Yeah, I'm free wheeling on this as hokey as it sounds, just that he cared right

31:26

, you know, when, you know, if I'm dead and buried 10, 20, 30, 40, 100 years

31:27

from out.

31:39

He was like, oh, yeah, you remember that I got an acronym?

31:41

It's like, yeah, you know, he cared.

31:43

You know, that's, that's the best that I could ask for.

31:46

So simple yet so succinct.

31:49

Did I pause or no?

31:51

No, that's.

31:53

I'm waiting for him to react.

31:55

I'm just terrible at reacting to what I perceive as as compliments.

31:59

So I'm just like, I'm not going to respond to that.

32:01

I like, hey, thank you, Victoria.

32:02

You're absolutely right.

32:03

That was very succinct and an amazing answer.

32:05

We'll need to dive into that.

32:07

We can unpack that.

32:08

Yeah.

32:09

We're going to need to unpack that at some point.

32:11

Next episode, we're going to end on this.

32:13

And I know you've given a lot of really good tips and advice and mantras and

32:17

this and that.

32:18

But what's the best piece of advice you've ever received yourself?

32:22

No, there's no need to go it alone, right?

32:25

Regardless of what you're doing, there is always the opportunity to leverage

32:31

the, you

32:32

know, the strength, the support, the agency of other people, regardless of what

32:38

the mission, the endeavor is.

32:40

Yeah.

32:41

So that's some that I struggled with during a long time, especially during the

32:46

first half

32:46

of my career is I thought that I needed to accomplish everything on myself or

32:51

by myself. And I think there's due in large part to, again, sense of the maturity, maybe

32:56

sort of proverbial

32:58

chip on my shoulder.

33:00

But then once I was able to just confidently be a little bit more vulnerable

33:05

and call it

33:06

what it is, ask people for help once I got more comfortable doing that.

33:10

I saw a big impact both in professional life, personal life as well, just being

33:15

open to help.

33:16

I think that's such good advice because everyone thinks that they have to take

33:20

things on them selves and like they have to have the ego to do it themselves and they can't

33:23

delegate or

33:25

ask for help, but it's so important to be able to ask for help because it just

33:28

only makes

33:29

you stronger.

33:30

Like drop your ego, lose your pride, ask for help.

33:33

Matt, it has been such a pleasure having you on.

33:37

This has been a really fun podcast to record.

33:40

Hopefully you'll come back again soon without the jokes and like even cracking

33:44

a smile or

33:45

whatever misconception there was about you.

33:48

I think especially in this episode you can genuinely tell that you're a really

33:52

great

33:53

person just all around.

33:54

So I'm very thankful that you came on.

33:57

I didn't really know much about you prior to meeting prepping for this, but I

34:02

feel like

34:02

I learned a lot about you and I'm very impressed.

34:05

Oh, thank you for saying that.

34:07

That does mean a lot.

34:08

I'm never going to talk to you ever again so I could go out on like a high note

34:12

It's like, okay, well, yeah, there's, yeah, this is the idea.

34:15

I've reached the peak.

34:17

And we're also very, very excited to continue to use sales assembly.

34:21

There she comes, freezing again.

34:23

It sounded like she's going to say something really good too.

34:26

Am I frozen?

34:28

You're back.

34:29

You know you guys have froze like five times, but I just let you roll with it

34:32

because I

34:33

figured that I'd be able to see it on the other end.

34:35

Well, here's the thing.

34:36

I think you're out to compliment him.

34:38

And then I was.

34:39

We would have just been like straight, not flinching.

34:42

But from Matt's point, he does poker face all the time.

34:44

So it would have been the same for him.

34:47

Um, no, I was going to say we're really excited to continue to use sales

34:51

assembly.

34:52

If those who have been listening thus far, definitely check them out, reach out

34:57

to Matt.

34:57

Hopefully if you reach out to him, you ask him what's his favorite place to

35:01

travel, not

35:01

his favorite sports team.

35:04

And yeah, you guys froze for me.

35:06

I don't know if I'm frozen for you.

35:08

Just looks straight.

35:09

Yeah.

35:10

I was frozen, wasn't I?

35:12

You just came in that.

35:13

You are.

35:14

Yeah, but we tried.

35:15

We tried.

35:16

But the best part about this is the two of you have been trying to at this

35:18

conversation

35:19

for like 15 minutes, but Victoria keeps pausing.

35:22

Right?

35:23

So we, yeah, we could do this all day if you want.

35:26

Bye guys.

35:27

Bye guys.

35:28

Thanks for watching.

35:29

Bye.

35:30

Thank you so much. Bye.

35:31

Bye.

35:32

(upbeat music)

35:34

(upbeat music)

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This is a test comment.

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This is a longer test comment to see how this looks if the person decides to ramble a bit. So they're rambling and rambling and then they even lorem ipsum.


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