Making it Happen with Sales Communication with Amelia Taylor

[00:00:00] Brad Seaman: So let’s let’s start, give me your, so give me your story up to this point, and then let’s talk about let’s talk about sales and kind of what’s happening in your, kind of in your market today, your job, your role and what you’re learning along the way.

[00:00:18] Amelia Taylor: I was going to jump into a sales career. He always had this vision in my mind, growing up of having this, you know, the big white house with the white picket fence and the dogs running outside and the kids having a picnic, you know, the whole little Southern story that you think of this stream, but it was way.

My family kind of put in front of me and that’s kind of what my sister has done. And I never thought about from my side, my perspective, my wants or my needs, or what made me tick made me, you know, really. Just have passionate about things. I never thought about me. I thought about what was put in front of me and then, okay, this is going to be my life one day.

I’m going to meet someone, get married, boom, boom, boom. Those are the steps you take. And so I, I went off to school and university of Mississippi and went there solely for wanting to go have fun and not knowing a soul and just say, I’m going to go and enjoy myself, which I did. Just side note. I bite a girl on my floor that in my dorm, she kept going and going and going to all these different basketball meetups.

And she would just go play and she’d play with the guys too and stuff. And I, basketball was my saving grace just in life. I mean, it was my basketball coach to this day from high school is still a mentor of mine and it was my outlet and my. Just survival mode. When some things went upside down, growing up, just my mother passed when I was 15, she had breast cancer and you know, what’s the 15 year old do with that.

You know, you, you go rogue or you just, you know, shut down or whatever it may be. And there’s no, there’s no ham handbook or guidelines to say like, this is how you handle things in life. When this happens, then, you know, you take it for what it is and you figure it out. Thankfully I was instilled with good morals and values and wisdom to know, you know, let’s not go totally shit.

Let’s not go totally wild. You know, I did, but also too, you know, cling onto something and sports for my thing. I mean, 100%, but the whole goal was to not go to college with that being my thing. My, I wanted to create something new for myself without knowing anything. But I, I see this girl and she keeps going to these basketball things.

I’m like, all right, I’m going to try. I’m just going to try to go with her one time, because she kept inviting me, inviting me. And I kept saying no. And so I go by there one time and it was a bunch of the girls who played at Ole miss. And they were like, why are you not walking on with Maggie this girl?

And I was like, I don’t know. You know, I just don’t, I want to have fun and all that. And they were like, well, we have fun. And we still. I was like, shoot, let’s do it. So I walked on, made the team didn’t play much, but can say that I did it. And that’s an accomplishment right then and there. And so that was kind of my, my something I climbed on to in college, but I went to school for hospitality management.

I can’t cook. I can’t do anything. I’m really. To be honest. So I burned like the hello, fresh rice, like that’s where I’m at with like my cooking abilities and her being on it. Totally transparent here. And so I, I still, in the back of my mind, I had this idea of life goes this certain way. You go to school, you do this, you do that.

And you get a job, you meet someone. So first. Job pretty much out of college. I jumped into the sales role at this startup in Atlanta, and I learned the ins and outs pretty much full cycles, full cycle sales, which was great. And gave me I mean, I was totally clueless of what I was doing, which is a good thing too, because I think a lot of people have too much information now to where they spend a ton of it out.

And then they have nothing left in their back pocket to really leverage. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew that I knew how to influence people and I could talk to people. And so I was doing pretty much group bonds for AAA members. So it was four, it was creating these packages at these hotels then that were AAA approved and all that.

And I would come up with these different offerings that would be sent to AAA members and stuff say, I would like. Just hadn’t kind of negotiate and figure out helping people in the very best way possible to give them more business. And what the foundational aspects were of sales, you know how to go about doing sales without really consciously doing, you know, knowing what I was doing.

It was very subconscious. So I learned that there was more so a talent that I had than a full on skill. And so it was refining the skills, which was a huge thing. How would you define

[00:05:20] Brad Seaman: the difference between talent and skill?

[00:05:23] Amelia Taylor: I think skill is something that has to be learned. I think talent very much so is going to be God-given it’s going to be more of a natural thing that comes to you.

You don’t have to, I think they’re both equally important. I mean, there’s the phrase, hard work, beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard and I totally agree. There’s also going to be these there not, everyone’s going to be, you know, the LeBron James of the world, you know, not everyone’s going to have this crazy talent, not everyone’s going to be stuffed very where he can just like, shoot any shot that he wants to makes it, you know, there’s, that’s straight like God given talent, but there’s the hard work and the skill and the, the dedication to.

They, they put into refining that craft, you know, you’ve got to work on your craft in order for it to be fully, just capitalized on. So it’s a good question though. You know, cause a lot of people, I did a post about it recently on LinkedIn about skill versus talent, because it is something, you know, our salespeople that are with more skill or more talent, but.

It’s interesting. What a lot of people were saying, what was

[00:06:36] Brad Seaman: the overall feedback from the, from the book, a lot of your stuff. And I didn’t see that,

[00:06:41] Amelia Taylor: Ever all feedback it ways what to say a lot of a was going back to the whole hard work, beats talent. And so a lot of people had headset and the hard work and, you know, the talent is going to go behind the hard work, just because those two outwards.

And who are talented if they’re just going to sit there and just think like, oh, I can rely on my talent. Like, I’m good at this. I’m great. Whatever, but not trying to refine your craft and work on it and, you know, learn new things along the way and keep up with industry trends and different approaches.

And the world has shifted. And it, when it comes to sales, you’ve got to learn how to keep up. You there’s new things happening all the time. There’s advice spitting out everywhere. And a lot of things, you know, big thing for me. There’s a lot of advice out there. You don’t have to take it all. You can listen to it all.

Don’t take it all. Lot of people think they’ve got to take it all, assess it all for themselves.

[00:07:39] Brad Seaman: Well, here’s the thing about advice that I so listen to a lot of podcasts and this story particularly pops out to me is I’ve got a friend, who’s got a blinds blinds company, and he he’s a part of this. I think you made you call it like a blind summit.

So there’s six other companies across the country. They all sell blinds. They get together once a week. And the they meet in a city and they just talk, they’re all on the same same revenue, same employee. And they just talk about what’s going on in the space and how they’re growing. And he told me this story and I thought it was really, I thought it was really interesting and it’s going, gonna apply here to advice.

He said, every person in this group had grown their business a different, a different way. So one guy is going to grow it through billboards one. Guy’s going to build it through commercial. I built mine through going to ho going to the homes on, on site. The oh, shoot helped me realtor. What’s the name of the, what’s the name of the ho the first home in the neighborhood.

Oh, so, so, so we divorced so model home. So he would go around to the model homes and build relationships with the sales guys there. And then he had another one that built on SEO, but here’s the thing. Every single one of those companies had tried another channel and it didn’t work. And so I think when you think about advice, there’s so many different kinds of advice and it’s so conflicting, like, and and, and you’ve got to figure out what I think the point of this story is you got to figure out what works for you.

And it, you got to figure out what works for you. And then when you got to try other stuff and you got to put the time in, right. I think that’s the other piece of the story is like, in a lot of these cases they did what was natural for them. They tried to move into an unnatural channel and they didn’t give it enough time, but,

[00:09:24] Amelia Taylor: No, like the uncomfortable, they don’t like change people.

I am one of those weirdos that loves change. I’m all for.

[00:09:31] Brad Seaman: Well, like I heard, I heard one time. So if you take personality tests, which I’m sure you’ve taken it, you’re different. Most people are high in stability, meaning that they don’t like change. Like the mass, majority of people are really uncomfortable with change.

And I mean, I think that’s just an a, it’s just inevitable, right? I mean, so change can be really dramatic or.

[00:09:52] Amelia Taylor: It can’t be, but it can also, I mean, it’s all about mindset, where’s your, you know, but people are the way that they are because of where they’ve been to. So there could be some traumatic event that was a massive change in their childhood that made them think about change in a super negative light.

You know, for me, there were aspects of my life growing up to where change was really tough, but. I there’s also, you know, you take an assessment too. I’m a high D and I, you know, if you’re doing a discipline and I’m where I’m like bringing on challenge, accepted sorta thing, and let’s have fun with it at the same time, opposed to, I need the stability and I’m gonna freak out if I don’t have it.

So it’s all about. Certain things shape who people are, but it’s also that they you’re born a certain way. You’re creating, there’s definitely

[00:10:47] Brad Seaman: a band, right. People, people have, have, have certain have certain bands for sure. Have kids and you’ll see, see that.

[00:10:55] Amelia Taylor: Amen. 100%. I mean, so get this. So yesterday I’m on the hunt for a new.

Because our dog, the elf on the shelf got eaten by the dogs. So I see the elf on the shelf yesterday morning. It had been all set up and whatnot for my girls, my two girls, they were five and seven. And the Alpha’s a big deal. Yeah. So princess sparkles, she’s a big deal. So she

princess, the dog is a pit bull who is humongous. And I don’t know what we’re doing.

[00:11:38] Brad Seaman: Oh, see, I was thinking like a good name for a big pit bull. Like that would be princess sparkle, sales, hoping. And then she didn’t like sweet little like blinged out.

[00:11:48] Amelia Taylor: No, we literally, I I’ve been following this lady in Mississippi. Who’s like this crazy breeder of these beautiful dogs and I’m like, I want.

So hit this girl up on link or on Instagram. And she’s like, yeah, I got literally like the most beautiful group of puppies right here. Like, I will give you this crazy deal, whatever. Like, I went to school in Mississippi, like we just had these like a few mutual connections and stuff too. So she was like, yeah, like, I’ll help you out.

I drive to Mississippi, I pick up this dog and the dog comes back home with me and the Tyson who wasn’t. Whatever may wasn’t the Mayweather

was like right around that time. And so I was like, same of Tyson and ran with it. And my girls were like, yeah. And I was mean, but he is like, gosh, Almost seven months right now. And he’s right at a hundred pounds and I’m thinking what? Yeah,

[00:12:49] Brad Seaman: that’s a, that’s a big dog. And then he got, he ate princess sparkles so we

[00:12:53] Amelia Taylor: can get a hold of princess sparkles.

And so yesterday I’m thinking, okay, I had to go find another one of these $32. On the shelf. Nobody’s got these in stock. So I’m running around a different, like Target’s, Walmart’s trying to figure it out and I’m like, this is going to me. We go crazy. I’m going to lose my mind. And I’ve got like calls that I’m on while I’m riding around looking for a new princess sparkles.

I mean the whole shebang. And it was one of those days where I was like, you know what? You gotta just laugh about it or I’m going to lose my mind. And so going back to this whole mindset thing, it’s like, you just have to have. The mindset of either like you can’t lose your mind over a little things. Like what matters, what doesn’t matter.

And how are you going to take on things that are unexpected changes to the, you got to deal with not saying that this is a huge ordeal, it’s an elf on the shelf. Right. But to my kids, it was. They would have been like traumatized by this thing. Did

[00:13:50] Brad Seaman: they see, did they see princess sparkles to get mold?

You’re able to protect

[00:13:56] Amelia Taylor: them? Yeah. Hence the sparkles had a checkup at the north pole, so she had to go.

[00:14:03] Brad Seaman: That’s a good mom. Move your move. One time. I had to go upstairs to put the. Tooth fairy money under the, under the pillow. And I got caught. So I acted like the tooth fairy got stuck under the, under the, under the pillow or under the covers.

I was like, go get it. And then I was like making it. I was like, oh, flew away. So there was no, it was, I made it look like it went right under the car and then just disappeared. But

[00:14:33] Amelia Taylor: yeah, but you do, that’s the whole, you gotta bend a little bit. You gotta be able to like, have it and adjust and realize.

Life goes the line and you’re going to have to just deal with whatever craziness comes your way. And

I mean, that’s it, it’s the where, and that applies to so many things in life. So where, if it’s, if your mindset is where you say, okay, no matter what challenges I’m going to come across. I’m going to take a step back and not be in this circle, you know, in the tornado of it. Because I think when you’re in that tornado, you get a totally different view.

It’s just mindset. It’s hard though. It’s easy to talk about David Goggins. We’ve talked about David.

[00:15:21] Brad Seaman: Oh yeah. We ha we had a really, really good, we had a really big conversation

[00:15:24] Amelia Taylor: about yeah. Yeah. Which I didn’t, I still have not looked up what you shared with

[00:15:29] Brad Seaman: the book. You’re going to get the book living.

Hold on. I’m going to

[00:15:32] Amelia Taylor: get it for you. Sarah Blakely

[00:15:35] Brad Seaman: here. We’re going to, yeah, we’re going to get, we’re gonna get you the book we’re sending,

[00:15:39] Amelia Taylor: like I’ve told like five people. This and I’m like, well, where is that? I’m like, I don’t know. I just know this little bit of this story and,

[00:15:49] Brad Seaman: oh, it’s, it’s hilarious.

It’s hilarious. You’re going to enjoy it. I, you know, I tried to share it’s it’s so funny. So funny. Yeah. I’m going to get you the book. We’ll get you the book. So so talk a little bit about, so you, so there was a couple of things in our first conversation that, that popped up. There’s one. When you talked about making.

The basketball team. You said the words, oh, I, you said, Hey, we’d been going to the, the open gyms and I’m playing these girls. And I was like, I can do that. And I said, no, I think those are, I think those three words are like the most important words you can tell yourself. And like, when I hear somebody say that, I’m like, okay, I want to hire, I want to hire you.

I want to talk to you. Cause that’s self-belief right to watch somebody do something. And then to say, oh, I can do that. That’s nothing I can, I got that. I can, I can do that same thing. And if you can’t say those three words, you’re gonna struggle at whatever you do at anything, you know? And so to be able to look at something or somebody and say, you know, I think those are probably the most, the three most important.

Important words. And I think it just comes down, comes down to self-belief. Right. So that, that popped out in our, our conversation. I think the other thing and I don’t know how much we covered of this, but, you know, I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, you ha I think I joked with you that you were like the number one SDR on the, on the internet on Thursday.

And then I realized you posted it about yourself. You posted it by yourself. So you weren’t really, the number asked who the number one was

awesome. So, so talk a little bit about kind of your journey. Talk about how you got this seamless and what you guys are doing. Kind of your role there and just the transformation that you made from you know, beyond a realtor to, to be in an, in software

[00:17:40] Amelia Taylor: sales. I either through happenstance circumstance, all the above.

Okay. I found myself as single mother of two little girls and living in Tampa, Florida, whole families in Atlanta. And so I had to figure out, okay, how am I going to make ends meet and the very best way with what I’m good at doing. And so through having self-belief and looking at what other people were doing and friends of mine and whatnot and asking questions.

Learning and thinking I can do that. Like I can do what you’re doing. I can make more than you. I can do better than you kind of thing. It’s where I said, okay, I’m going to move. We’re going to move to Tampa, Florida where my girl’s dad is at. And so for them to be closer to him, have that relationship too.

And then I am going to just dive into software sales assessment. And how’d you

[00:18:36] Brad Seaman: decide that, you know, I I know I saw a professional boxer one time talk about how he got it was a champ talked about how he got into, he said he watched boxing and it was like, oh everybody, the boxes is rich. So I’m going to be a boxer.

He decided I just, everybody that’s in software sales has a nice car. I mean, how did you decide you want to be in software sales?

[00:18:57] Amelia Taylor: Ask the questions. I mean, I think that’s a big thing. People are just afraid to say. Just be themselves and show up and just say, Hey, I don’t know anything about this, but just tell me, like, is this something that you’re where, where the pains for you?

Are you thriving? Do you feel good about this? Like, are you happy? You know, is anybody going to be happy doing software sales? Like for their entire life? Maybe? I don’t know. Am I happy with where I’m at? Yeah, because I’m helping people and I. Also profiting from it too, you know, it’s, we’re, I’m, I’m getting a return on my investment and ROI on myself as well from the season planning through making it not about the sale, it’s about the relationship.

So I’ve honed in on what I’m good at and where I set myself apart from others that has allowed me to build my personal brand and become. Kind of an entity of my own under the seamless umbrella, you know, where that’s, that’s something that a lot of reps they, they don’t realize they’re able to do. They don’t

[00:20:04] Brad Seaman: realize coach you on that.

Like, are they, when you come into a seamless, are they walking you through like how to build your own personal brand? Or is that something you guys just kind of pick up and learn on your own?

[00:20:15] Amelia Taylor: Nope. So I am been doing some of the coaching on that, actually. So I. Started doing it by just being observant and asking questions from people who were building their personal brand and just creating relationships by simply connecting and starting a conversation, not selling, not pitching none of the above, but which some of these influencers and people that are big and the tech space and the tech world and the SAS industry, you know, to where.

I just showed up and was human. And just that, Hey, like, love what you shared here, ask the question that’s valuable, you know, and just be, you know, friends basically in the same network and just grow it that way with, you know, intentions down the line of hopefully having something developed from. But you never know what seeds you’re going to plant.

You know, you never know what fruition is going to come from that when you are just putting kind of a footprint somewhere, when you show up and you are authentic and you are genuine and you bring value to someone. That’s going to set you apart from simply showing up and just pitching right away. So, so I came into seamless and I, I first was at a company in St.

Pete Florida, and I loved it. It was great. It’s kind of where I learned south as a whole. And COVID had all that and I was like, you know why there’s not a lot of growth opportunity here. I’ve got to make a change. So. Seamless kept popping up on my radar. So I said, okay, I’m going for it. So went through the motions within the interview process, they gave me an offer.

I said, yes, absolutely jumped on them. My first week working, I flagged Brandon, our CEO and our CRO and our VP of sales. And I said, if we ever haven’t sold enterprise division, I want to be the one to take that on because I know I can do it. And. I’ve worked in the enterprise space before. I feel good about being able to have that business acumen and being able to speak high level and to bring the value the right way without just like phone, hang up phone, hang up, you know, just dial, dial, dial.

There’s more to it. There’s the, there’s the whole account-based marketing mixed with account-based selling kind of portion of things that you’ve got to find

[00:22:42] Brad Seaman: that time. Was there no enterprise when you come on, is there no enterprise?

[00:22:48] Amelia Taylor: Yeah, there still isn’t it’s me.

Hello? I am enterprise commercial. Yes, there are. So I work with our sales directors. There’s six or seven of them who have teams under them. And they’re just the more established people who have been. Around sales for a long time. You know, they know what they’re doing. They understand the ins and outs of enterprise.

So I work with most of our sales directors and we’ll just kind of tag team things and tackle them together. So like tech talk is a big one we’re trying to tackle right now, Instacart. We’ve got them on a pilot, just big names that are gonna make a big dent in

[00:23:38] Brad Seaman: this. Like you said, are you, so are you trying to sell a Tik TOK or you’re trying to.

[00:23:43] Amelia Taylor: Neither I’m trying. No, I’m trying to sell the tick tock,

tick tock. We’ve got a team of their reps, but you wouldn’t even think they would have like the whole business development team. Like I, you know, it’s like things that people don’t think about doc does their own outreach. So we, I step in, I reach out to them, you know, one of the girls over there who handles partnerships and.

She ended up going. She went to university of Mississippi as well. So left are kind of a little note that was like, Hey, Hotty, toddy, whatever. And

I started it just like that. And she was like,

she said, the Hotty toddy back and we set up a call and went from there. But it’s all about. Personal, but not in this, like over personable way to where you’re a part of a sequence and a cadence and people know exactly what you’re doing.

[00:24:47] Brad Seaman: That’s, that’s that’s so awesome. Okay, great. W what do you feel like the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the last 12 months?

[00:24:56] Amelia Taylor: You’ve got to have opinions and being able to speak out. I think that’s a huge thing. I mean, you’ve got to form your own opinions. You’ve gotta be able to think on your own and not in develop your own beliefs. There’s going to be things that people are going to put in front of you, your entire life that are going to be things that either, you know, when you’re a kid.

Well, there has religion, whatever it is, it’s those things are instilled in you and you’ve got to learn what you believe growing up. And then it’s true in sales, you’ve got to have your own beliefs and alignment with your values and what you believe align with what the company’s values are and the leadership, what they actually portray and what they, you know, they don’t just say their actions speak on that too.

Then you’re going to thrive. You know, it’s where you’re in a good position. You’re in a good place. And one of the big things over here hear seamless is taking action. So I’ve run with that one, like a crazy person. Like I’m literally, I’ve got literally right here. My sticky note that says, take action, execute, make it happen.

And action is still an action because it’s so true. It’s where if I don’t take action, that’s just simply an inaction. I’m not doing anything. I’m one of those, I’d rather go full force and figure things out and apologize later if needed, but by trial and error and having my own vision and beliefs in something it’s been named, it’s positioned me in a really good way to be able to kind of build this pillar within seamless, that was missing that it’s kind of.

You know, liaison between sales and marketing, that we didn’t have that alignment really established. And there were some partnership opportunities we were missing out on. There were a few things that were just, you know, not being honed in on enough and through. A lot of like our reps there, they’re just dialing all day, which is great.

And for me, I’m a hunter. I like to go find the things I want to be able to have that satisfaction and gratification of, oh, I found this on my own. I went and did the work and I, you know, I like to have that. I did the work

[00:27:13] Brad Seaman: start out as an STR. Yes.

[00:27:17] Amelia Taylor: Yes. I started out as an STR and I’m not doing like full cycle sales stuff right now.

It’s really a, it’s a growth period right now. And figuring out kind of where I fall. So I’m, I’m doing strategic sales and I’m going alongside the sales directors through the whole process. I’m not closing the whole thing out. They are, but I’m learning a lot, which is my big thing right now is that I’m learning so much more than I would say in the.

Four or five months and a half ever, you know, in my whole sales sales career, by simply just executing and just making things happen by saying, this is what I think we need to do. And I firmly believe this. And I think this has been the betterment of the company or my personal brand for what we’re trying to establish for revenue coming in at all the above and just running with them.

And so it’s created a ton of opportunity.

[00:28:16] Brad Seaman: Now what’s the one thing, what’s your favorite thing I’m going to we’ll we’ll plug, it’d be seamless. I know you guys are on a, on a tear. Brandon’s Brandon’s got everybody running towards a, a billion dollars in an IPO. So what’s your favorite thing about which has been everything about seamless.

[00:28:32] Amelia Taylor: There’s good people. There’s people who genuinely care there’s people who. And if people in operations who will joke around with me about things who have kids who know the craziness of life, you know, who they are, who know who I am past Amelia seamless employee, you know, it’s, there’s a deeper connection to just, oh, you’re just another employee.

So I think that’s something that a lot of people do at seamless though, is. There’s you get to know people in other departments. I don’t think a lot of companies hone in on that enough to where they create those relationships because when push comes to shove and you need something in operations done like immediately, and you don’t have like a psychic over there that you’re like, Hey, hit them up real quick.

And you’re like, can you please help me out? Like, I have CS for all this morning who I needed a list of something and they’re kind of backed up and I was like, I’m skipping the line. I’m coming to you. Can you help me? And she’s like, I got you. You are amazing. Thank you. But, you know, it’s where, you know, you got to have your people and you just find your people and your, your tribe within.

And I’m stainless. It’s taught me a lot, but they’ve let me run with things in my own way. They’ve given me a lot of leverage to where I’m able to. Implement certain things to a degree I’m able to champion things more. So you know, certain things that I say, Hey, I, I’m not seeing this being as fruitful as it could be, or, Hey, what do you think about this idea to where they’ve trusted me to run with our president’s clubs stuff, to have those conversations with people who’ve generated a certain amount of revenue using seamless and more sales summits that we do.

I do all the outreach to get people. I’m speaking for those and you know, different events and things that we have, which is great because the trust has been. And still just because I, you know, there’s not the, let me micromanage you and see everything that you’re doing. It’s like you’re showing results.

So here you go. Here’s a little bit more.

[00:30:40] Brad Seaman: Well, this was Amelia. I wish we had recorded some of the previous conversation. This was great. We had so many, it’s almost, I will probably have to have you on again because there’s a lot of stuff we talked in the first conversation. I wish we’d recorded it. Cause there was so much great material, but let’s have you on again.

This was awesome. I love, I love talking to you and excited to

[00:31:01] Amelia Taylor: hear. I can’t wait to read it.