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Songs to Sales: Finding a New Forté

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 December 16, 2014

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April 30, 2006: A shiny gown, the Texas Tease, and a brand new diamond on my ring finger that caught the stage lights so perfectly. This would be my last performance on stage.

I didn’t know that at the time. You see, classical music was all I knew to this point in my life. From a very young age I began private classical voice and piano lessons in addition to attending the esteemed Interlochen Arts Camp in Traverse City, MI for 8 weeks in the summers. It was there where I studied with some of the world’s most renowned voice teachers. Throughout my adolescence I had sung for U.S. presidents and toured all over Europe. It was engrained in me that music would be my path.

Until it wasn’t.

I graduated with honors the next day. I was on top of the world until my parents gave me my insurance bills, college loan details, and my phone bill. Life got real. And fast.

I followed a boy to Dallas for his continued education in music. And me? I was a sales professional and didn’t even know it. I was “LinkedIn-ing” before it was even a thing. The only people I knew that had ‘real’ jobs were my friend’s big-shot dads, so I reached out to them and behold: within a week, I had an interview set up in Dallas at a Fortune 500 company. All from networking and LinkedIn.

Corporate life was good to me. I had health benefits, a car with 200K miles on it that ran like a charm, and good beer in the fridge. Life was good.

My job put me in a position to be surrounded by top dollar executives that had everything they could want: mansion houses, dream cars, and private school for their kids. How was I going to get there as an assistant? In corporate, once you had that title it was nearly impossible to get anyone to see you as anything else.

January 2010: 4 years into my tenure, I moved to North Carolina. Through networking I landed an entry-level position in marketing for a small planning firm in Raleigh, NC. I was closer to family and most importantly, ridding my title of executive assistant.

But I still wanted more.

December 2010: I had dinner with two new women I had just met from mutual connections. They told me about their careers in sales; how they network, build relationships, drive BMWs and travel the world. I wanted this to be my life.

One of the women graciously set me up with a recruiter from a local up-and-coming software company. They had some entry-level sales positions but all of them required some sort of sales experience, even retail – which I had none. I could speak 4 languages, sing in front of 20K people, but because I didn’t have authentic sales experience of any sort, I didn’t get an interview.

Then 6 months later, through persistence, my life changed.

I got a call from said recruiter for an assistant to the VP Sales position. As soon as he said “assistant” my heart sank. That’s exactly what I did not want to do. And bonus? Less money than I was currently making.

I said no, and started thanking him for his time. And then out of nowhere – literally – I said I’d like to pursue it further. Call it a sixth sense, or a gut feeling, I went for it. I knew I had to get my foot in the door.

So we met. They liked me, I liked them. I was offered the job. Taking a pay cut, and agreeing to it, is never easy – but I was determined to turn it all around.

And I did.

6 weeks into by brief stint as a sales assistant, I met with the hiring manager for that entry-level sales position. What turned out to be a casual conversation turned into an informal interview without even knowing it.

I was put on the job 2 weeks later!

This is officially where my sales career starts. My official sales career, that is…because I’ve been selling all along, just not on paper.

What I had to explain to hiring managers was that music is selling. You’re selling that you’re a character in an opera. You’re selling the fact that you took French diction for 3 semesters and you really can speak the language. You’re selling that singing in unison with a choir is a vital part of teamwork. You’re selling that getting criticized in front of a panel of world-renowned opera divas sets you up for handling disappointment.

You’re selling that musicians don’t get a second chance in an audition – it’s a one shot deal.

Sales is a performance.

Overnight – literally – I was the top performer and knew that sales was my calling. My silver bullet? One word: LinkedIn.

Remember the part of this story where I networked with my friend’s successful dads to get a job? Those were the first people I called to look at the software I was pitching.

It had come full circle.

I was easily picking up the phone and calling C-level executives in retail. It didn’t seem to phase me; in my mind, they were just people. That executive assistant position had been more valuable than I thought – it taught me how to be comfortable around executives.

It’s never too late to change careers, and bottom line: whatever your profession is, network and leverage all you can from LinkedIn. It has been the single tool that sets me apart from others.

If you’re thinking about your own key change (pun intended), follow my profile to learn the details of how I built my new career.

Thanks for reading my first of hopefully many publications! Special thanks to my parents, Michael, Geno, Clay, James, Norm, Mandi, Heidi, Joe, Chaz, George, Karen, Brandon, Chad, and Jason for believing in me.

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