From Theatre Kid to Sales Leader

I joined Carmen Sederino on Beyond the Keynote to discuss performance, preparation, and the critical need to preserve human connection as business and technology converge. My professional foundation was built at this exact intersection.
While conducting early doctoral research on how groups establish trust within physical versus online social networks, I transitioned into tech sales during the late-1990s dot-com boom. Operating as a sales engineer for a 26-employee startup that was rapidly acquired by Vignette, I witnessed the organization scale to 6,000 employees and a $9 billion valuation in just six years. This foundational volatility taught me that sustainable market success depends entirely on minimizing your own ego to solve the client's core pain.

Whether motivating a global sales organization from a keynote stage, advising a portfolio company as a private equity board operating partner, or engineering an enterprise go-to-market strategy, communication remains an exact discipline. Today's commercial environment requires extreme intentionality. In my upcoming book, The AI Handbook for Sales Professionals (Spring 2026), I outline how modern sellers must utilize advanced algorithmic tools to streamline corporate intelligence and research, rather than treating AI as an emotional cheerleader. True commercial authority requires rigorous execution. As I prepare for my upcoming TEDx talk, "Reclaiming Our Humanity in the Age of the Algorithm," my ultimate thesis remains unchanged: those who double down on empathy, trust, and structural perspective will inherently out-pace automated pattern recognition.