Who am I?

While I have a BSBA and MBA, and I have never taken a Sales class in school. Sales, Customer Service and Business Writing isn’t a college major or even part of most academic curriculums. I know this because I loved going to class, furiously took notes and earned straight As from middle school through college (with the exception of a B+ in Philosophy 101–I still don’t understand Plato). Everything I learned about Sales, Communication and people is from on-the-job training.

It all started in Dubuque, IA (20 miles from the Field of Dreams), and I grew up in my parents’ retail gift store (think Precious Moments and Beanie Babies). Let me take you back to retail in the 1990s since it was before online shopping existed. This detail is important because I was trained in the hard knocks of face-to-face (F2F) communication when shopping from your couch was simply not an option. If you wanted to purchase ANYTHING, you had to drive to an actual store, fight crowds and talk to the store employees or other shoppers to get product information. No online reviews, no internet searches, no gift cards, and certainly no overnight shipping.

The retail environment taught me how to truly serve others through kindness and problem-solving. I learned how to read people’s words and actions to understand their needs. I helped customers find the perfect gift and I didn’t need to be pushy. I only needed to ask questions and listen. 

It’s these skills that set me up for a 20+ year career in sales across Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, restaurants and a non-profit. By the time I left my corporate job, I was a National Sales Director selling multi-million dollar programs to Fortune 500 companies and leading a team spread across the country. My results combined with my ability to communicate clearly and concisely also led to me training the entire sales roster on selling techniques at national conferences and regional meetings.