Can you tell us a little about your background?
I joined the Salesforce ecosystem during the pandemic, helping a company called Sonar get off the ground as their first sales development representative. Luckily, I was able to learn from a tight-knit group of account executives on how to be consultative and digest a ton of knowledge about Salesforce, mainly the common challenges admins and developers face every day. That led me to CapStorm.
Before this, I had a decade-long career in journalism. I started by knocking on the door of my local paper, knowing they needed help covering sporting events. From there, I got involved in print journalism and broadcasting in college, leading to a full-time job as a sports reporter and eventually a copy-desk position with a regional newsgroup in North Carolina. To me these jobs helped me tremendously in being able to communicate and ask questions that matter to others.
What is something unique about you (a fun fact) that few people are aware of?
I could correctly spell the word “pterodactyl” at the age of three, thanks to my obsession with dinosaurs that came from watching Jurassic Park the year it came out – not sure why my parents were letting me watch that in 1993.
What is your favorite pastime?
Baseball. It doesn’t matter if I am at an MLB game or a local high school game, whether the teams are good, how many innings in extras we are stuck in, etc. I love the smells, the sounds, the community it creates, and most of all, the history and how it’s so intimately connected to our nation’s past. It’s one of the best things about living in the U.S.
If you could tell your 13-year-old self one thing, what would it be?
Georgia will win the 2021 and 2022 National Championships, so relax; getting destroyed by Florida for a few more years is not the end of the world.
If you were trapped on a deserted island what are three items you would want to bring with you?
A kayak, a paddle, and an umbrella. There’s no way I am making peace with being stuck there.
How did you get started in your industry?
Funny story – I had been laid off with a bunch of my peers from my first sales job at the start of the pandemic. The job hunt had gotten exhausting, I had just taken a trip around the country, and I think my parents thought I would end up living out of a bus in the middle of nowhere. I got a ping from a recruiter for a job while I was aimlessly wandering around Target to get my mind off things; that ping requested I create a minute-long video, so at first, I scoffed. Then I just got this hunch from my conscience telling me to go home and make that video. I used my dormant video editing skills to create a ridiculous, meme-filled, brutalist clip about that company’s product. I cringed as I sent it. Within an hour, I had an interview set up and was later told the effort put into it was what got me the job. Always follow your gut!
Tell us about your most interesting job so far.
When I was in college, I was the “towel runner” at a country club here in Atlanta. My job was to handle the logistics of moving used towels to a warehouse to be washed and delivering them back in wrapped bags to be put out for members. It was gross and surprisingly exhausting (towels get heavy when wet), but I spent a lot of time around very successful people and became a part of that community. I ended up loving that job and went back two more summers.
What drew you to CapStorm?
The people. Who you work with matters more than anything else to me, and what I gathered from initial conversations was that this is a place that genuinely has a business-critical solution that can help customers and people who are in it for the right reasons. It helped that two of my closest peers had joined just before me, so it immediately felt like home.
What inspires you the most here at CapStorm?
How our software applies to business outcomes. For example, without naming the customer, our ability to land layers upon layers of complex data on a medium that allows for robust analysis that cannot be executed inside the CRM is helping companies with initiatives as important as cancer research. Things like that make this a fascinating place to work.
Do you have any specific goals for the next six months?
We are a small company, and with that comes a lot of responsibility. I embrace this. I want to become a reliable and trusted technical resource in the Salesforce ecosystem when it comes to challenges related to data autonomy. To build that credibility, it’s going to take six months of not just intentional work but also constant learning.
