Facilitating Growth

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:13] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's be diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who have supported me through this journey. A lot of times I think about leadership. One of the things that I feel should be considered when we're talking about leadership is facilitating growth. We want to make sure that our employees not only have the opportunity, but companies show them that they do have the opportunity and we're facilitating their growth so that they can grow within the company and they stay longer term. So today we're going to be talking about facilitating growth, and I'm so happy to have as my guest today, Patty Ariza. Now, Patty is a sales leader who shares her wisdom and experience to uplift and empower others to reach their full potential. From SDR team lead to SDR manager and now sales enablement manager, Patty has monitored, coach, and nurtured countless sales professionals at every level to achieve their goals. As a proud mom, Patty's nurturing spirit is evident in all that she does. I'm so happy to have her. She was a nervous wreck to come on, but I know she's going to be a great guest. Welcome to the show, Patty. It's so wonderful to have you on today. [00:01:37] Speaker C: I'm still a little bit nervous. This is the first time I've done this, but I am not as nervous as I was in the beginning. I'm definitely much more excited now and very happy to be here. I appreciate the opportunity. [00:01:48] Speaker B: It's great to have you here. How are things with you, Patty? What's new in your world? [00:01:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm very grateful to be doing well in my personal life. I'm very busy with wedding planning, so I'm taking my professional project management skills and applying them to wedding planning right now and then on the professional aspect of it, the imatrix team is growing. We're constantly hiring. So I've been very busy with training classes, which is great. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Awesome. I will go in and I will say not just for myself, but all the listeners, congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I'm sure you're very excited about that. It's a huge step in any relationship, for sure. [00:02:32] Speaker C: I appreciate it. It's been a long time coming. [00:02:35] Speaker B: I'm glad to hear that things are going well, that work's going well, the wedding planning is going well. I'm so happy to hear that. Before we begin, I always have a fun, thought provoking questions for my guests, to get things going. Are you ready for yours, Patty? [00:02:51] Speaker C: Gotta be. So. [00:02:56] Speaker B: So my question to you, Patty, is, how do you think people would react if the moon disappeared? [00:03:04] Speaker C: Oh, man. I guess the biggest reaction, I just thinking the first thing that came to mind was, like, the ocean. Because I love the ocean, and just the tides would be all messed up. And I think that would really freak people out. I think in the beginning, people probably wouldn't realize if they're not by the ocean. I don't really know if they'd realize, oh, the moon's gone. Maybe they just think it's no moon. And then when time passes and they're like, oh, no, what happened to the moon? Then they'd start to freak out. That's my take on that question. [00:03:37] Speaker B: I think that's an awesome answer. I definitely agree with you, too. I think the moon, especially when the sun starts to go down and the moon starts shining, especially on the beach and the water, you can see the moon shining on the water. And if it wasn't there, then, yeah, I think people would be a little bit lost for sure. So I definitely love your answer. I think that's a good one. [00:03:57] Speaker C: I don't know how you come up with these thought provoking questions, but definitely. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Made me think that's the fun part. I think I have more fun with them than the guests do, just because when I'm preparing them, it's more fun for me because I try to figure out what the guest is going to answer or how they're going to answer. I love, it's a lot of fun. Why don't we start off today's great talk and our topic by you telling us a little bit about you and your story. [00:04:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess we can start at the beginning. I was born and raised in Mexico City, so I'm very proud to be a mexican immigrant. I moved to Silicon Valley when I was nine. And if anybody knows anything about Silicon Valley, it's a giant melting pot of people trying to achieve the american dream. And it's very hyper competitive. So I feel like growing up in that environment prepared me well for being in sales. I've been selling myself to people since I was very young. I'm actually surprised. I always say to people that I ended up in sales by accident. But then reflecting back on my story, it should not have been very surprising to me that I ended up in sales. I originally wanted to be a graphic designer, and I took an internship for a marketing company, and it did not work out. This was my senior year college, and I was desperate for a job. So I went back and reached out to a company I had interned at and was like, I just need a job. I will do anything. I'll go back to cold calling. And I ended up as an SDR at the company called Gosight. And I fell in love with the thrill of selling. It was very exciting to talk to people. I'm a very outgoing, people oriented person, and to be able to do that all day and get paid for it sounded like a dream come true. I was like, why didn't I think about this before? I did very well as an SDR, but I realized that what I enjoyed most has been developing people and fostering their growth. And so, very quickly from being an SDR, I moved on to become a team lead and then an SDR manager. And the reward of seeing somebody succeed has always been more powerful and meaningful than seeing myself at the top of a leaderboard. And that's really what also being an SNSER manager led me to enablement. At the end of the day, it's in the name, right? Enablement is about enabling people, and that's what I do now as a sales enablement manager on a daily basis, helping others where there's areas of opportunity to grow. [00:06:45] Speaker B: I love that. So from the sounds of it, you thought you were going to enjoy sales, but in reality, you had the love of working with people, teaching them, and seeing them succeed. So from a very early stage on, you realized that you had a lot of leadership skills and you were wanting to teach people and showing them how to be successful. So for me, that's a leader, and that's adapting to the situation. So I think that's awesome. [00:07:15] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you. [00:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that is totally awesome that you realize that. So why do you think facilitating growth in an organization is so important? I know you said in your intro how you liked it, so why do you think it's so important? [00:07:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I believe that people are a company's number one asset. So facilitating growth is incredibly important because you're investing back in your number one asset, which are your people. And if you're not investing in growth, I guess we'll go down that aspect. What happens in the battery? If you're not investing in your company's growth, then people feel like they aren't valued, they're not invested in the company. They lose morale, they lose confidence, they lose motivation, they start to either become lazy, do less work, or they end up just quitting, which ultimately leads to a company losing top talent and costing them a lot of money in not just hiring, but in the lack of productivity during that gap where the people aren't there. And so it creates a really big problem. Now, on the flip side of that, if you have a company that is investing in its people and it's facilitating growth, then those people are motivated. They are excited to come to work. They have a strong why on the tough days, they're going to work harder. They have a goal in mind that they're aiming for. And ultimately, I believe that when the companies invest in the people invest back in the company, and if they're investing in them, not only are they working harder, but their skills are also improving. And so that also leads to just a better company atmosphere overall. And ultimately, since I'm in sales, more revenue. [00:09:06] Speaker B: No kidding. What I'm gathering from what you're saying is, which I talk about a lot, is that you have to have passion for what you're doing. If you don't have passion for what you're doing, then you're going to struggle not only be productive, but also wanting to stick around with the company and be happy overall. [00:09:26] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Passion, I think is incredibly important. If you're not necessarily, I wouldn't say happy because happiness sometimes can be fleeting. There are good days, there are bad days, but if you have a strong why of what you're passionate about, then I think that's what keeps you going. [00:09:40] Speaker B: I just love that. I believe that a lot of the leaders are going in this direction and they're understanding it, but that's why I love to have these conversations because I feel that we're really far apart in a lot of organizations, as far as this goes, where leaders are realizing what they need to do in order to facilitate growth and keep good people within their company. So I know that we talked a little bit about it, but I would like to go a little bit more in depth here. So what would you say are some of the keys to facilitating growth amongst your team? So what kind of things do you do in your job to facilitate growth amongst your team members? [00:10:22] Speaker C: Yeah, one of the things you already brought up is like that passion. We got to have that passion. And so in order to facilitate growth, I always like to begin, and this is what I've done in my current role and in my previous role, whenever I'm trying to help somebody get promoted or even just in training is understand why are they here? What is their ultimate goal? And it's not just, oh, because I want to make money, okay, you can do anything else and make money. But why this job? What specifically are your goals with this job? And sometimes it relates to a career within sales, sometimes it does not. It's a means to maybe something else, maybe it's providing for the family, maybe it's money to start their own business, but really it's about understanding where they're coming from. I think you had fundamentally what's their motivation? And then using that motivation as a way to propel them forward and then more tactical is where are their areas of opportunity? What can they improve on? If you're listening to calls, are there any key performance indicators that they're lagging on and then being able to coach on them? And I think it's also something that's really important, is building an atmosphere of transparency and trust, because none of the other things will happen if there isn't transparency and trust, people aren't going to tell you their actual motives and their whys and their passions if you aren't also transparent. So that's something I strive to always be very transparent. And if I'm transparent, then they can be transparent. And whatever they say stays within our circle of trust, basically. And we know that, hey, I trust you to do your part in helping you become a better version of yourself. And you can trust me that I'm going to provide you with the feedback, the training and the coaching in order to get to whatever your next goal is. [00:12:19] Speaker B: I love everything that you said there. The things that jumped out at me is, first off, trust and respect. As a leader, I definitely believe that if both parties don't have trust and respect in each other, then I do feel that things are going to falter. So a leader needs to have trust and respect in the people that they hired to do the job. And the team members need to have trust and respect that they are going to guide them not only to facilitate growth, but also to get them through their day. I believe that a leader's responsibility is to make sure that the company is a safe environment and that the employee goes home at the end of the day with a clear mind that they're able to spend some time with their families and not have to worry about what's going on at their job or what they did during the day, or did they make a mistake or did they do something wrong or what have you. So that definitely jumps out at me. And I love when you said propel them forward because I do believe that when an employee see that the company wants to propel them forward, then people are just going to go through a wall for you, for sure. [00:13:33] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. It's really motivating when you see somebody take the time to invest in you, because this is going to be a little bit of a tangent, but when I hire people, I'm not hiring for who they are today. I'm hiring for who they can be tomorrow and their potential. And if I'm hiring for their potential, then I have to train and prep them for their potential. [00:13:58] Speaker B: I love that, Patty. I love that philosophy because I feel like you're trusting in your capabilities to say, hey, I'm going to take this person on. They have a great attitude. I feel like they're a strong candidate. I'm going to mold them into the person that I want them to be. And I believe by me molding them in that way, they're going to be content and happy and they are going to be successful at the job. So I totally love that. I firmly believe that is an excellent way to do it. [00:14:35] Speaker C: Thank you. I really appreciate that. [00:14:36] Speaker B: You're very welcome. So, looking at mission vision and values, how does facilitating growth help an organization stay committed to mission visions and values? [00:14:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Growth is essential for any organization. And the quickest way for the company to grow and achieve their overall mission is to have the people grow. And I know I touched on what happens if you don't have that. You can't achieve your goals. If you have a demoralized workplace, you can't achieve your goals. You can't focus on a greater mission if you're constantly in panic mode because you have a revolving door of people coming in and you're just trying to make ends meet with the amount of people that you have, and there's one person doing multiple roles. So being able to be at a place where the company is running smoothly is critical. And in order for a company to run smoothly and achieve its goals, you have to facilitate growth and invest in the employees. [00:15:38] Speaker B: Do you find it when people that are coming in and applying for jobs with your company and you're interviewing them, are you finding it that they are looking to find out what the mission visions and values are of the company? Are you finding that they're asking that more, or is it just that the employer. So you are pushing that out to the candidates so that they want to become part of the organization? [00:16:03] Speaker C: I think it's the first part. I have seen more people care about the strategic vision, the values, the culture of a company a lot more. I think people nowadays, in comparison to maybe like my parents generation, want to work for a company where their values and their mission align with the company's values and missions. So I have seen that come up more often. [00:16:27] Speaker B: I love to hear that because I think that's so important. We spend more time at work than we do with our families, so you definitely have to be comfortable spending time there. You don't want to be in a situation where you're dreading to go into work. You want to be excited to, oh, I'm going to work today. This is what we're going to do, and it's going to be a good day and it's fun. I'm going to work with my team and we're going to have a fun day and we're going to do this and we're going to accomplish a lot. I think that's so important. [00:16:54] Speaker C: Yeah. And you work harder when you're having fun? I have a work hard, play hard. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Yeah. That is a great philosophy, for sure. So who are some of the leaders that have helped you develop the skill of facilitating growth? [00:17:10] Speaker C: Yeah, great question. So I would have to give a shout out to the people at my time at Gosite, when I first started out, I had no sales experience. I was in college, and this was the first time that I had ever done any cold calling. I didn't even know that an SDR was a job outside of that company. And these two people shout out to you guys, if you're hearing this, I wouldn't be here where I am without you. Riley harbor and James Lavastita. Riley was the director of the SGR team. He was my boss. And James Lavastita was the vp of, I believe, revenue at the company. And they invested very heavily in my growth and they saw potential in me that in the beginning I didn't even see in myself. And they did a lot of coaching. They provided me with a lot of tools, a lot of books to read. So I've read many sales books. They gave me the opportunity to practice and fail and learned a lot of very hard lessons while on the roll. And yeah, I have to thank the both of them for where I am today because they invested in me and I am incredibly grateful. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Isn't it great? I have some great leaders also, too, that have developed me. I've told this story in a couple of episodes, but one of my leaders that I had, I would stay a few minutes after the end of the day to finish stuff up because I had the mindset of I want to finish this. So it's not on my mind when I go home. So I'll take 1015 minutes to finish up. One day he came to see me and sat down with me and says, everything okay? And I said to me, I just want to finish this up before I leave so it's off my plate and I don't have to worry about it when I come in tomorrow. So he turned to me and he said, you know what? Andrew says, I just love that you have so much care and passion for what you do and that you care about your tasks, you want to make them. Says, I just want to tell you. He says, I hope that you stay with me forever, but if you do move on to another company and you do end up working for another manager, I just want you to think about the fact that I'm looking at this as that you care. Another manager may not look at it that way. They might look at it as how come Andrew is not finishing his tasks on time? Why does he have to always stay? So he just said to me, he said, just look at the different perspectives of managers and understand that not every manager is going to look at it the same. I'll never forget that advice because I think it was great advice. And I've learned that different managers have different perspective on different things. And sometimes it's not always cut and dry, but they just have a different outlook on things. [00:20:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I've actually would have never thought of it that way. I like your manager would probably have been like, oh, wow, Andrew's putting in the work. He's working hard, staying behind and doing this. [00:20:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Just the fact that he took the time to come and sit with me when he could have just gone home and said, have a good night. See, in the morning, he took ten minutes and we both walked out and locked up together. So it was neat, something I will never forget. [00:20:29] Speaker C: That sounds like a very special moment, for sure. [00:20:32] Speaker B: Yeah. If you could choose one word to describe yourself, patty, what word would that be? [00:20:37] Speaker C: Do I have to explain why too, or just say the word? [00:20:40] Speaker B: You can if you want to explain it. Absolutely. [00:20:42] Speaker C: I guess to go full circle back to the introduction, I would use my one word to describe myself as nurturing. I think I've been somebody that has nurtured others my entire life. I mean, from starting off being very young and being the oldest sister, I've been nurturing my little sister. In high school, I was a captain of speech and debate, and I had to nurture my team in competitions and provide coaching. In college, I was a tutor, so I helped nurture learning for others. And then obviously now in my previous sales roles. I've nurtured different sales reps to move on in their career. And obviously, and most importantly, I would say I've nurtured my daughter. Being a mom has been the biggest blessing of my life, and it has been the most rewarding way to be. Nurturing and facilitating her growth has been just a great gift. [00:21:48] Speaker B: I love that word for you. I think that's the perfect word for you. And I love the fact that you've explained why, and I do agree with you 100%. For me, it sounds like you learned how to be a nurturing leader at a very young age, and I believe that has been the reason why you have been successful and grown with the company. And I believe you're going to continue to grow as a leader because you learned at a very young age. I think we forget when we're young, we do need leaders. I remember playing as I'm going to age myself here, but I remember being a kid playing follow the leader in kindergarten and then also leading as far as what we're going to play, and leading. Okay, you can play with this now. I'll play this. So I think we learn at such a young age that as we grow through life, we forget that we learned how to be a leader. And we just have to be reminded at times that we have been. So when people ask, have you had experience being a leader? You can always say, yes, I do have experience, and I would be a great example. What you just said, I learned at a young age to nurture people, starting with my younger sister, then going through college, nurturing students I taught or tutored, and now my sales reps, and of course my daughter. So you're going to nurture her. And I'm sure that as she starts doing stuff, you're going to see that you've been a leader to her as well, because she's going to start to develop as she gets older, the things that you've instilled in her, and that's going to probably make you the most proud as well, I'm sure. [00:23:38] Speaker C: Oh, she already has. Yeah. I can't wait to continue to see her grow up more. [00:23:42] Speaker B: That's totally awesome. Any final thoughts today? [00:23:46] Speaker C: I just wanted to touch on the fact that you talked about we all learn to be leaders. Maybe we just forget. I really like that we can all be leaders even if we're not in leadership capacity. Everybody can help somebody else to grow, whether that's on their personal life or in the professional manner. So I just want to empower all of you who may be listening to this on how can you help somebody else to grow. [00:24:12] Speaker B: I absolutely love that. That is a beautiful sentiment to end things. I just love that. On behalf of myself and my guest. [00:24:21] Speaker C: Patty, I would like to thank you. [00:24:22] Speaker B: All for listening today. And until next time, be safe and remember that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything. [00:24:34] Speaker A: You have been listening to. Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout. To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe.