151: Open & Honest Insights On The Last 90 Days As A CEO Of A High-Growth Software Company With Kyle Porter

What's going on everybody? Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of Make It Happen Mondays with your host, John Barrows. This episode is brought to you by our partners, Sales Loft, Vanilla Soft, Vidyard, and Gong. Today we have Kyle Porter, CEO of Sales Loft, joining us. Please join us for Sales Loft's first virtual summit for sales leaders on June 16th. Here, they're going to bring together the top minds in sales to provide actionable and inspiring content to level up your career and your revenue org. We'll see you there. Let's make it happen. Good afternoon, everybody. This is John Barrows. Make It Happen Mondays. Hopefully you had a good weekend. I am here with a dear friend of mine and somebody who I respect at the highest level for very, for a lot of different reasons.

And I'm super excited to have him on right now because we've got some important shit to talk about. So Kyle Porter, CEO of Sales Loft. How are you, my friend? Well, I'm doing pretty good, John. You know, all things considered, the world is crazy out there. I think there's a lot to be concerned about, but there's also a lot to be grateful for. So, you know, really trying to blend a fine balance there. But nonetheless, very excited to be here with you. I always enjoy this. This is, I think, my second Make It Happen Monday. But you and I go way back and we've had many, many videos and chats over the years. So thanks for bringing me on and excited for all the things you're doing in the sales community.

Yeah, likewise, man. And you're right. I mean, we were just chatting right before we got on this. Like, these are times that, you know, I've been through three, I've been through two weird downturns, right? I bet, you know, 2000 is when I started my first company, and that was a really bad economy. 2007, that was my second company. That was a terrible economy. But this is something like nobody's ever seen before. Between COVID and the protests and everything, like the amount of shit that's happening right now, the weight of what is happening right now is insane. And so what I wanted to chat with you about, you've always been one of my favorite leaders in the sense that, and you've heard my, you've heard me say this a million times before, which is, you know, if there's ever a company that I personally would go work for again, which, unfortunately, I won't, because I got my own little company here, and I'm doing my thing.

But it would be sales loft. And the reason is because the culture... Well, it'd be honored to have you, by the way. I appreciate that. But the reason is because of the culture that you've been able to create there, right? And I think now more than ever, leaders need to really start to figure out how they can lead through this weird time. And so if you don't mind, if we could kind of take a step back and walk me through how you... Let's start with COVID. And how you as a leader saw it coming? And where were some of the milestones for you to say, holy shit, we have to adjust here? And then how do we communicate without our team? So do you mind kind of backing up? Because I know for both of us, Rev 2020 was kind of the inflection point for this, right?

Would you mind kind of walking us through that? Yeah, sure thing. So, well, first of all, thanks for the mention of the culture. You know, I believe that the biggest sustaining, differentiating advantage that any company can have is organizational health. And organizational health is the clarity and alignment on what the company is doing. Everybody's in the same boat, rowing the same direction. And you've got a set of values that everyone stands tight toward. And so that's been my mission from day one with the company. And it's just an honor to see that you recognize that. And I really greatly appreciate it. Appreciate it. Well, you guys are also... I mean, I didn't just recognize that. Weren't you the best places to work in?

Haven't you been the best places to work in Atlanta for however many years? Yeah, we've had number one best place to work in Atlanta three of the last five years. And I think this year we came in second place. So congratulations to the mortgage company who ousted us. They must be fantastic over there. But yeah, we're always fighting for that spot. One of the things that was really neat is to see us on the glass door, I believe it was number seven or eight in best places to work for all software companies. So that was really, really cool as well. But back to your question, you're talking about COVID. And I think, you know, for us, we've been hosting the REV conference, formerly known as Rainmaker, for this would have been the sixth year of the annual conference.

And we had it all lined up. We had thousands of people in attendance, hundreds of speakers. We had just incredible people. Spike Lee was coming. And I was so excited to hang out with Spike and to learn from him. And, you know, as we got closer and closer to the date, I think the date was early March when it was scheduled to happen. And it was late February. I believe it was the week before the week of February 17th. And we started to look at it. And, you know, there was some news and some kind of rumblings. And China had kind of spoken up about coronavirus. And, you know, we started to say we started to get concerned for whether we would be able to put on the experience that we hold ourselves accountable to delivering for our customers.

And there were a few cancellations. There were a few kind of concerning moments. Sastra at the time was doing all sorts of prep so they could still have the event. And I remember, you know, when I was talking with Sydney Sloan, our CMO, and she kept talking about all the things we could do if we were going to keep it going. And at the end of that call, you know, we just looked at each other and we said, this isn't going to be the sales loft experience that we hope for and demand of ourselves to deliver to our customers and partners. And we made the decision we were going to cancel the event. And it was gut wrenching because this is millions of bucks that you've already thrown into. I mean, we didn't get our money back from speakers who we had already paid to be there, you know, and in the hotel and the, you know, you commit to a bunch of rooms and you've got flights and everything.

And, you know, we said we're going to eat it and we're going to figure it out. And, you know, we did some of it digitally. We're going to do some more of it in next week digitally. So, or two weeks, so folks can tune into that. But that was the beginning of really understanding that this thing was serious. Yeah. And so, so when you really started to recognize that, so Rev 2020 was it, right? But then from a business, from, from just sales loft specific, right? I know for me, it was the same week, right? Rev 2020 was the same week where that was the, oh my God moment for me because you canceled it two weeks. So I was supposed to be in San Francisco Monday and Tuesday. I was also supposed to be in San Francisco Wednesday to do a training.

So you guys canceled two weeks before. So my Monday and Tuesday freed up. I was then supposed to be in, so getting on a plane Monday that Wednesday canceled. And then I was still supposed to be in Chicago on Thursday and Friday. And I literally got canceled as I'm on the plane. Like the guys like, don't come. We just did. So I was like, holy shit. So I pulled like a full all hands meeting on Thursday recognizing, oh my God, this is way bigger than I, than I thought. And for me personally, for us, we have 70% of our revenues were onsite training. So for me, it was like, oh my God, we had a $4 million number this year that we were going for. There was no way we were going to even come close to that.

And I had to immediately restructure and rethink about how I was going to approach things and also communicate with my team about what the fuck was going on. So where was that moment for you as far as the business discussions? Because I think the Rev 2020 as hard as it was, that's kind of a moment in time sucks. We're going to suck it up here. But now we are in this weird position from a business standpoint. Nothing's normal. Everybody's emotions are all over the place. Clients are leaving, you know, like left, right and sideways. So walk me through from a leadership perspective in your leadership team. What was that discussion like? And what were some of the things that you changed or had to address?

And then how'd you communicate with that, with your team, with, with your employees? Yeah. So the first thing that happened, so we, we communicate a lot with the staff. I founded the company in 2011 and in December, 2012, I decided that I needed to have an email every single Sunday night to the company, to our mentors and to our investors and advisors. And I haven't stopped that email ever since 2012. So that's eight years running of sending a Sunday night weekend email. And in that email, there's all sorts of formulas we can get into later if you want. But I follow a process to send that email. And the whole idea is I want to communicate to the entire sales loft team to educate and inform them of the things that I would want to know if I was an employee of the company.

And so that's the whole idea behind that. So we already have this really good rhythm. We do a, at the time we did a biweekly all hands meeting. We've got a formula and structure for that. But we, right after that kind of second week in March, we shifted it to a weekly all hands meeting. And then there were some grumblings. I think some of the West coast companies started to say, we're going to work from home. By the way, nobody in Atlanta was talking about work from home. And we have 75% of our workforce in Atlanta. And so what we did was we set up a day and I think it was like, I think it was the week after, I think it was that, that second week of March, we set up a day to be a work from home trial day.

And we set it up like a week in advance. We said, this Thursday is going to be a work from home trial day. And what happened was, is the news kept getting worse and worse and worse. And the case count kept going up and up and up. And we had that trial day and we just said, Hey, we're going to meet online and we're going to do it again tomorrow. And then over the weekend, we're like, we're going to do it for the, you know, until we say we're not going to do it anymore. So we went, you know, pretty cold straight in. The IT org got thrown for a little bit of loot because we really were going to just do a test day. And then people were going to come back Monday, but, you know, we had to figure it out from then.

But I think you get it. I mean, we're a SaaS company and, you know, I've got a, I'm in a zoom room in my house in Florida. Right. And like, you know, we're all set up to be able to communicate effectively and we're working hard to make sure that we can all do that. But I think, you know, it's, it was a moment for us, but I think the bigger moment was when we started looking at the long-term implications of this event. I started planning for that. And that's what I was going to go to next, which is how do you even look long-term, right? Because one of the things I also want to share with the audience here is how does, how executives and leadership have had to change the way they make decisions and change how they look at the future?

Because I don't know about you. I mean, you're, you know, way bigger than I am as far as number of employees and revenues. But right now, I mean, there's a couple of milestones for me. One is the end of the PPP, right? So we, as a small business, we got the PPP and we were able to, you know, use that to, but that ends in June. There's a milestone for me to see, am I generating enough revenue to keep my thing? And my priorities changed drastically. My priorities went from growth to hit 4 million to immediately 2.5 overnight, but that wasn't my goal anymore. My goal was to retain all my employees, right? My number one goal was to retain my employees. And I said, okay, let's go PPP. We got that.

Great. Now, you know, at the end of that, I can maybe look to the end of the year, right? For what we do. I can look to the end of December, but I don't know about you. I barely know what the fuck's going to happen tomorrow. So how, for you as a leader of a funded company with VC backing, with a shitload of customers and a shitload of employees, how are you making decisions right now? And how far are you looking out to make those decisions? Well, I had a mentor once tell me that, you know, you take your hands and put them in front of you, put one close and one far away, and then you can't focus on both at the same time. It's impossible. But shift that focus back and forth. And that's my job as a CEO, to look at that and to look out in the future.

There was this quote from Jeff Bezos. He came in, I don't know, it was a year and a half or two years ago, and just delivered an incredible quarter of results. And the analysts and the reporters had asked him, you know, congratulations. And he goes, I'm not trying, you know, that quarter was created years and years ago. I'm working on the future here. And so, you know, I think when it comes to sales, just a little bit of background on us. Four years ago, we were a 40 person company. And now we're just under 500 people. So the growth of the staff has been incredible from, you know, just a sheer volume of new hires and onboarding and training and learning and all that. And then the other perspective is that I've always wanted this to be a long term play.

You know, everything that I've thought about with regards to this business is how do I create something that's built to last? And so when you look at the mission of Sales Loft, and I think you can relate, and of course, we've talked about this before, but we envision a world and a future where sellers are loved by the buyers they serve. Now that to me is like one stop short of saving the world, right? And that's a big, big goal. And that's going to take a lot of time and effort and energy and staying power. So for us, it's how do we create that long term future so that I can ensure that Sales Loft is around five, maybe even 10 years from now, making an impact and driving this, you know, change that we want to see in the world.

So that was kind of the underlying core of everything that we did. Now getting down to some of the details, you know, talk about a little bit about growth for us. In 2015, we started out the year as a $200,000 business, ARR. And we grew that to two, and then two to eight, and eight to over double that. And then we doubled that again, and we doubled it again. And we're tracking quickly towards this $100 million ARR milestone, which is like a really good kind of solid milestone in the business of, you know, in the life of a SaaS company. But at the same time, we also were planning on raising another round of capital. If you look out in the marketplace, there's really not a lot of players in our category, but there are a few.

And, you know, some of them are more capitalized than we are, and have raised additional rounds of financing. So SalesLoft is raised up to a Series D, $125 million. Our close competitors raised $230 million over an E-Round and is back on the street today. And so, you know, we had planned on raising this round from crossover funds who would lead us up to an IPO after we hit that $100 million milestone. And that was scheduled to be, you know, the fundraiser was scheduled to be early next year. So I started thinking, okay, this is certainly changing the world. The economics, demand is going to change, even though we help our customers work from home and sell from anywhere and have the structure and cadence and rhythm and accountability and data and results.

We still have companies that sell to the travel industry or companies that sell point of sale systems to restaurants, right? We have companies, you know, every type of industry. And so we knew it was going to affect them. And so what I said was, okay, what would happen if we never raised capital again? What would this business need to look like in order to avoid the necessity of ever needing anyone's money ever again? So call it a path to profitability, call it a sustainable growth plan. That was option A to look at because that's kind of a worst case scenario. And so we looked at, okay, well, we need to do this with our finance. We need to slow hiring here. We need to take some of these investments that we've made that we're not going to double down on or we're not going to, you know, focus on right now.

We're going to move that out into the future. And so we started looking at all those changes that would need to be made. And someone told me, they said, Kyle, they go, you got two options here. You can wait to make a decision. You can wait till you hear more news and then make a decision. Wait till you hear bad news and make a decision. Or you can make some decisions now and wait till you hear good news and make a decision based on that. And so we started to trim up the organization in ways that would be effective for us. And now what we've done is we said, okay, now let's look at those investment opportunities. You know, we've revised the plan. I think everybody needs a worst case scenario, a best case scenario, and then, you know, and then like an expectation scenario.

We did all that. And then, you know, now on that plan, that kind of revived plan, we were 126% of that plan in May. So we're starting to go, okay, where can we invest? What's going to change? You know, what's changing? What's not? Those sorts of things. So a lot of that's going into it. I know that's a monologue, but... No, no, I love it. I mean, because it just, it gives insights to, because I think that's what everybody's trying to figure out, right? I mean, with the people I'm like reps and I'm working with, it's like, how do I understand how things have changed from an executive level so I can speak to that? You know what I mean? Of how, you know, because a lot of people, I mean, I know you're wide open with your organization and how you communicate with them, but a lot of reps, they don't have no insight into CEOs, how decisions are made and that type of stuff.

And so, you know, I think that's important. And you've also had to make some hard decisions along the way with that too, right? And I'm wondering how you're approaching hard decisions right now, because I think a lot of companies are out there like have to make some, right? Whether they like to or not, because of this restructuring, because they might not have gotten funding and they were planning on that. They're having to either a lay off people or make hard decisions of not investing in things that people were really looking forward to. How are you approaching that right now? And from a decision standpoint, but then also a communication standpoint, and I know you have the open communication with the team, but are there any nuanced ways right now that you're delivering bad news?

Let's put it that way. Yeah. Well, I think so. There's one thing that I've been thinking a lot about, and it is capacity of an organization up against the demand of their solution in the marketplace. So the demand for our products and what we offer has been skyrocketing. I mean, the growth numbers alone dictate that. And, you know, it's been proven by analysts and the best companies in the world that businesses need a sales engagement solution to be effective in delivering their customers with an incredible experience, but doing it at scale to maximize revenue, right? So that exists, but that's going to fluctuate over time as the economy does things. And this is a moment where that's not, you know, it's not on the tip of everyone's mind to go spend a bunch of money on brand new software.

They're going the other direction, right? We have a project right now, and I think it's $400,000 of reduction in software spend just across the whole board, right? And it's a project, and I think we're tracking, I don't know if we're going to hit it, you know, but it's something we're working on. But I think a lot about this demand and capacity because you see a lot of businesses out there, you know, we have a lot of capital in the bank. We have a lot of runway. We weren't planning on raising money until next year, and we didn't need that money, but we wanted it to scale up so we could get to that IPO path. And so from our perspective, what I'm seeing is there's a lot of companies that say, okay, we're going to hire, we're going to have our, you know, bunch of sales reps or a bunch of customer success reps.

And what's happening is that all of those reps are eating off of a pie, let's say, and that pie is shrinking. And it's going to kind of ebb and flow, but that pie is shrunk with COVID, no matter what industry you are, unless you're new. Yeah, exactly. And so what's happening is now you have your reps eating less of that pie. And what I never want in the organization is for the standard of being a loft or to fall below some sort of certain threshold where the people here aren't able to thrive and live their best life. When I started the company, the whole idea was, you know, I had so many incredible experiences with people in my community. And I wanted to create an environment where they could learn more, do more, become more, take their talents and skills, learn to serve others, find fulfillment and thrive in their lives.

And so I always want our environment to be that. And I think that's why you see the engagement scores, you see the best place to work, you see the, you know, the low attrition, right? You know, all these things are because of that and because of the executive leadership team and, you know, everyone picking up and running with the values. But I never wanted that to be the case. And you see that out in the marketplace. And so, you know, when you look at, oh, we've got investments to go into a brand new market, or we're testing out this segment. You know, those are things that we can't necessarily commit. Those are, you know, people in those areas are going to thrive. And so, you know, we're going to slow down hiring.

Some of the organization is going to trim up so that we can be lean and mean and last the life of this business and not be dependent upon any sort of external situations. Yeah. And I think the challenge there is to how to do that, you know, without sacrificing the morale of the organization, right? To say, hey, look, you know, unfortunately, we have to let a few people go for whatever reason, not that we wanted to, but we're trimming things down, or we're not going to make that investment that we were going to. And with all the hits that are coming right now, it's like, like, like those type of things, how you communicate that is critical in this point, so that reps aren't just because it's I mean, it just seems right now, it's like bad news after bad news after bad news.

You know, you want to you want to balance that positivity with reality, right? Like, I'm trying to be positive as much as I can, but I can't ignore the shit that's going on right now, man. Like, you know, Morgan and I were having a conversation. And he's just like, dude, like, I don't know if I can, like, we're doing trainings, right? And we're two hours where we're trying to keep people fired up. And like, both Morgan and I are waking up going, Jesus Christ. I mean, him specifically, right? Because of, you know, what's going on right now with the protests. And I'm like, you know what, Morgan, we just got to focus on what we can control, right? Which is, and I always say my little acronym, you know, effort attitude and how you treat people.

But how are you communicating the negative news to not, you know, ruin morale, but also balance the reality of the situation that we're all sitting in with the, with trying to stay positive and optimistic. Yeah. I mean, it kind of goes back to that. If I was an employee of the company, what would I want to know? And the answer is everything that I can possibly know. And so for us, it's, I mean, it's, here's the bank account balance. Here's the forecast of the bank account balance over the next three years, based on this scenario, based on this scenario, based on this scenario. Here's where we've made reductions. Here's where we think we can make investments in the future. I mean, it's like, my goal is to bring them to a whole nother level of business understanding in those conversations and give them just this super depth of transparency so that they feel part of the team.

And, you know, for us, there's like a kind of post COVID go forward team. And that team's on a mission. And we're, you know, we're, we're in the same boat together. And I'm working really, really hard to listen to the staff and to our lofters and anything that's coming across. We went through, we do this thing called change curve training. And the whole idea is like as a CEO, when a big decision is made, I've gone through all this thinking about it, mourning the loss, considering alternative. And I'm all the way at this like new beginnings, right? I'm over here at new beginnings land. And I'm like, it's going to be great. We're going to go here. We're going to do, but everybody else is somewhere back on that curve.

And I remember my first thought about the change curve was, Oh, my job is to pull them up to me. Right. And it seems reasonable, but I realized I was dead wrong. My job's not to pull them to me is to meet them where they are. And so we do a lot of that where we just sit and we're like, we're not going to talk about the future today. We're going to talk about where we are right now. And we want to hear from a few of you. We want to hear what's concerning, you know, and let people express those feelings. So I think a lot of people, you know, everyone has feelings, right? Most people do one of two things with them. They kind of push them down and hold them inside them. And some of them, it kind of blows out, you know, with like steam.

Right. And for us, what I wanted to do is, you know, what I want to do, and I've learned for myself is vocalize those, feel those feelings, and then move past them. Right. And, and it takes various differences in time, depending upon what those feelings are and what the event is. But we do a lot of that kind of stuff. And there's a ton of trainings, just a lot of time to, you know, really dig in and show that we care and, you know, show that we're on the journey together and that they know what, you know, what SalesLoft is all about. I love it. And so you, I mean, you said something interesting there, like you show them the books, like you show them all the details of the books as far as, and then the scenarios of cashflow and that type of stuff to, to, to like, I mean, I guess how much is, what curiosity, what don't you show them?

I think that's going to be an easier. Salaries. Okay. We don't show other people's salaries. We don't show, you know, if someone has health related concerns, HR type stuff, you know, individual, you know, situation. Like when we make acquisitions, we don't tell the company until we get to a milestone. Um, you know, so we're kind of doing that behind the scenes. Um, we're pretty much 100% transparent on the financing. Um, very transparent on executive hires. So I just hired a CRO and, you know, I told the company the day that we contacted recruiters and said, we're going to start this, this search. Um, I mean, we, we're hiring for a chief product officer right now, and we have a head of product in at sales loft.

Who's an incredible guy. And at one of the meetings we had an offsite, he said, we were doing a straight, a SWAT analysis. And he goes, one of the opportunities is to bring on a chief product officer. No one ever thought the guy in charge of product would have said that. And, uh, and so we told the whole team, you know, and, and, and we just, we're, we're pretty damn transparent about pretty much everything we can be. Um, you know, as long as it doesn't get into someone's personal details, um, you know, in any way. And I'm the same way. And I think I've always kind of felt like transparency is the best thing. Like I, what I told my team was, here's the deal. Uh, you're not going to be surprised unless I'm surprised that, that was my, that was my promise to them.

Like you won't wait. We won't have a Monday morning team meeting and have me be like, sorry guys shut, you know, three of you are fired five, you know what I mean? And, and we're going to have to restructure. Like, unless, unless I found out Sunday night, something drastic. Right. So to me, I, I was just like, okay, here's our financials, everybody. Here's what PPP is going to do for us. We need to drop everybody's salary down to this point. I'm not taking a salary or I'm taking a, you know, very low salary for a period of time so we can get through this. We're going to take this two months at a time. And I will tell you, we have to hit these metrics or else at the end of that, we're going to have to make some hard decisions.

And, you know, and I, and I, and everybody's been like so overly enthusiastic about working together to get through this. Cause I think that's ultimately what we have to do, right. Is as, as organizations to get through some shit like this, if you don't come together on this, you're going to fall apart easily. Right. And, and I think that's, that's a, that's a message I think from a macro standpoint of where we are right now as well. Um, and, and, and let's transition to that, which is right now, how are you dealing with people's emotions with what's happening right now with the protests? I'm curious from your perspective, because that's one thing I'm, I, I will tell you right now, I am personally struggling with what the fuck is going on right now with the protests, right?

I'm doing a lot of internal, like, like looking at myself, like making sure that I'm not part of the problem, even though I might think I'm a cool, yeah, you know, and like there's, there's systemic things that are going on right now. And I'm dealing with, for instance, Morgan, right? He's black and he's, he's, he's trying to, he's a kid pretty much. He's 27 year olds trying to process this. Uh, I got my customer success person whose husband's a cop and they're getting harassed even in Concord, Massachusetts, which is like, you wouldn't think would be a hotbed of anything, but they're getting threatened. So I'm just, I'm letting them vent. I'm letting them talk, right? We're, we're having discussions around this stuff, but how are you helping people deal with the emotional side of, of what's happening right now?

Or is it like, do you want to, Hey, let's stay focused and do our thing or, Hey, I'm going to pretty much let you do what you need to do in order to get through this. Like, where's your, where's your approach to this, uh, this new fucked up thing that we're dealing with? So I think, you know, John, for me, um, this is an area of growth and uncomfort for me because I'm learning so much every day that I didn't know before. And, you know, about who I am and about the privileges that I've had and about, you know, the environments and scenarios that others have gone through. Uh, you know, I think there's been a number of milestones in my life that have really helped me learn, um, about equality and, uh, about racism and about, uh, you know, the pains and the struggles that, uh, the black population have gone through.

And this is one of those milestones, no question at all. And so, you know, for me, I spent the weekend with my wife and, you know, I just kept looking at the internet and just in shock and horror and, and scared because, you know, this, this is something that I just don't comprehend like they do. And, and that's really my first mission has been to understand as best that I possibly can. And that means having conversations and asking questions, um, and, and letting them know that I know I don't know. Um, and so that's been the first piece for me. And the second piece is, you know, what can we do to show solidarity and to, you know, stand with our black colleagues and brothers and sisters. And, you know, for sales off, we've been having this program for, um, the last two years and it is, uh, uh, a donation program.

So basically if you're an employee of sales loft, you can make, um, you can make nonprofit donations up to a certain level and sales off will match that donation. And so what we've done today and, um, and yesterday and really announcing it tomorrow, I think many of them know it's coming. So no surprises, uh, we're going to double down on that matching program so that we can make a significant financial contribution. Um, I know that's not the, that's by far and away, not enough and, uh, not all that we can do as an organization, but it is something we can do immediately. And I think there is a shortage of, um, of capital inside of these great organizations who are fighting this fight. So, you know, that's one that we're doing.

And then we have, um, um, a diversity and training expert that we bring on board, um, throughout the year, multiple times to do trainings and certifications and, and group sessions where we learn from one another and tell each other our stories. And, you know, really it's all about understanding the things you don't understand, um, you know, about race. And, uh, and so we've, you know, fired that up as quickly as possible. So that starts next week and, uh, you know, all of our lofters will have access to those programs. And then we've got employee resource groups that we've, you know, really, uh, mobilized very quickly, uh, you know, led by individuals in those communities, uh, you know, to really start to have these conversations.

So I see sales loft, not as, uh, um, as any way commanding the change, but definitely facilitating and investing in our people and supporting them through that change. Uh, and so that's really where, where our head's been at from that perspective. And I just can't thank enough, the great people at sales loft to keep me educated, um, keep me informed and, and are coaching me quite frankly on the things I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think that's the key. It's like, you know, we all knew what's sad. What's sad about the Corona to me is that, you know, I look back at nine 11, right? Nine 11 was a, was a, another massively disruptive. Right. But the, the thing with nine 11 was after nine 11, there was such a sense of unity, right?

There was such a sense, like, I don't care if you were black, white, poor, rich. If I saw you on the street, I'd be like, you're a fucking American man. Rock on. Like we're, we're going to get through this together. But now with COVID it's, it's such an evil thing because it has separated us all. And now I don't know about you and I don't know how, you know, it's like in Atlanta, but it's like when you go out now and you have the mask on, you're looking at everybody else, like, stay away from me, get away from me, as opposed to a hot, a smile. You can't even see people smile anymore. So it's segmenting us so much and it's, and it's isolating us. And I'm, and, and I don't know. And, and, and I think that was part of the powder keg that exploded with, with this, you know, with all these protests as well, because it was such pent up for 400 years, but there was also this pent up, I'm now sitting at home, nothing to do and I'm frustrated in general.

And then shit that happens, like what the fuck? And I'm trying to figure out how do we bring people together that, that have different views? I'm going to take this in a little bit of a different direction because I, I, I, I'm personally struggling with this. People who support people that I don't, I don't write people who have views that I don't, it feels like we are moving in such an opposite direction that there's no middle ground anymore. And I'm trying, I'm trying to engage in conversation. I'm trying to get people's, but people, some, it seems like people are so dug in to their perspective of things that it's, it's hard to open up the conversation. Are, are you seeing the same thing? And, and, and have you done to build a bridge, if you will, of, with people with other, like from other perspectives, are there things that you've seen work?

Yeah. You know, when it comes to politics, I work really hard to keep that out of the company. Yeah. I mean, like race though, politics and all these different things that, that people are coming from different perspectives, how do you unify? I think you got to have your mission and, and you got to be on that path and you have to have focus and clarity and you have to, and everyone has to know that they're loved and cared for within that, you know, within that, within that environment, that team. And I don't think you can cover for all the external things that happen and go on in people's lives. I mean, you know, we, we stand out in, in, in this scenario with Black Lives Matter because it is such a big injustice and it does affect our team members and our community so much that we want to, you know, put a, put a flag in the ground on that one.

But with most things politically driven or motivated, you know, human rights is kind of, human rights is necessary to step up when you see evil, I think. Yeah, exactly. But outside of human rights, I think, you know, we're, we're pretty, we're, we're pretty just about the mission of the business and about serving our customers and making the world a better place. And we know when great sellers are out there delivering an incredible experience to their buyer, that they're helping everyone get better. They're helping those companies. If you're, if you're sitting around a dinner table, a salesperson sitting around a dinner table with their spouse or significant other or family or friends or whoever, and if they had a good sales day, that environment is a positive environment.

If they had a good sales month, that's a, that's a positive environment, right? And those companies that are selling well, they're able to hire new people. They're able to invent new things. They're able to change the world with productivity and, and solving people's problems. And that moves markets, it moves economies, it moves countries. And so, you know, in essence, you can take this world of sales and it goes all the way back to the beginning of time, you know, people selling silk in a wagon, right? Like people are changing each other's lives through barter and commerce. And, and we look at that as a very important mission. And I started this company, like I said, you know, cause I wanted to create a better environment for our people.

And that was all about love. Like if we come in and as the CEO and founder and at my leadership team, uh, you know, the definition of leadership is service to one another. And to certain, to me, serving someone is synonymous with the word love. And if we come in and we love our people better than anybody else, they're going to turn around and love the customer better than anybody else. And they're going to serve and find fulfillment and find growth and find happiness. And so that's really where I spend the most of my attention and time. You know, if it, if it's touched on human rights and my people's human rights are at stake, I'm going to fight back, but Hey, most of the other stuff, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, move on with the business and what we're doing for our customers.

Yeah. I think that's the, that's the, the, the pillar that I'm standing on is just, uh, lead with kindness. You know what I mean? Like you hear it and you'll hear me say it at the end of this, you know, I always tell people no matter what happens at the end of the day, even if you've had a shitty day, if you can go make somebody smile, you had a good day. Right. And just to try to at least control what you can control as far as how you treat people. And, and I think that's it right now. It's like with all the other external factors, you know, there's that, okay, we have to focus on getting our job done, right? So that we can have money to, to pay bills so we can support the economy and we can do all that other stuff, but we can't ignore the weight of what is happening right now.

And so give what I did, I'll, I'll share this with you. I implemented just yesterday, uh, uh, I called a my day, which is Fridays. So Fridays, Fridays, I call my days. And what they are is we've basically moved to a four day work week. The fifth day is you, you cannot, nobody owns your calendar, but you on that day. Cause during the week, just kind of like you, I'm sure like, you know, people are all over my calendar. I get a meeting out of nowhere. I'm like, okay, you got a customer. I got to try. Okay. Well, I don't have any time that I have control over for my day. So I'm implementing Fridays as my days. And I'm allowing, uh, you know, myself and everybody else to own that day. Now, if you want to work during that day, you can work during that day.

If you want to take, if you want to catch up during that day, you can catch up. If you want to take off, play golf. If you want to go donate your time to a worthy cause, right. Then go do that. It's kind of, you know, it's a little bit of the one, one, one philosophy with, with Benioff and stuff, but it's that, it's that give them, give your employees that day to, to not focus on work, but to focus on the stuff. And that's how I'm trying to at least segment the, the, you know what I mean? Like, okay. Like when we're working, we're working everybody. Like, I don't want to ignore what's going on, but we have to, we, in order for us to survive and for all of us to pay our bills and to service our customers, we have to get our fucking job done.

And if we, if we're too distracted, it's, it's not going to be good for anybody. That's awesome. Yeah. We did the same thing with, um, we, we designated eight Friday, we didn't do every Friday. We designated eight Fridays through the end of the summer. Uh, I think like when it was at the end of the quarter, we left that Friday. Uh, but, uh, you know, we did that and, um, and the response has been tremendous. And, uh, and I have a feeling that nothing's going to skip a beat with the organization because the, the engagement and the appreciation that, you know, I've heard our team tell us that they get from this, that's coming back in one way or another. If it's the attitude, if it's their schedule is, you know, they don't have the distractions as they're able to engage better.

I know that our customers are going to benefit from that. And we did it where like customer success and support are staggered so that we always have coverage for our customers. Um, but that was one of the things that we've done recently. And I think it wasn't my idea. I wish I could take credit for it, but it was our, um, head of people op, CK. And she's just tremendous. And she's been my guiding rock through this whole entire thing. If there's any lesson for any leader out there, it's surround yourself with incredible executive staff who can hold you accountable, who can take the ball and run with it, uh, who, when they tell you they're going to do something, they do it. And that to me is like formula for everything that sales loft is that we've gotten to where we are, you know, have to give them credit.

Yeah. I was actually going to finish with that, which is, you know, who are you leaning on right now to, to, uh, help you learn and get through this? And is, is that the answer is your, your, your close executive team or is there another, absolutely. You know, I'll tell you when coronavirus kind of, when it first started, um, Jason green, who's one of the founders of emergence capital, they invested in sales off series a and have invested since then. Um, they're incredible. They did box Yammer success factors, Viva. They're a huge investor in zoom, even post IPO. Um, but he's meeting for CEOs of his portfolio companies to come on with two gentlemen. One was the former CFO of success factors.

Uh, and the other is the CEO of bill.com. And they both told stories of going through the last economic downturn and what they did. Both of them reduced the size of their business by 40, you know, 40% out of, took 40% out of the business, but then both scaled back up to incredible outcomes. And they walked through why they did it and how they did it and what they learned and what they would have done differently and how they communicated it. And, uh, and that was incredible for me. And so Jason's been, um, a mentor, a guide. I've got a handful of other mentors throughout my life, my father, uh, my wife, uh, but that executive leadership team is just the core for me. And, you know, they're there to assist and help.

I wish I could be in there in person to hug them. Right. Yeah, exactly. Awesome, man. Well, any other, um, any other thoughts, uh, or, or things from a leadership standpoint that you think other people should be paying attention to that they might not be, you know, I, I, uh, come on to this. I, I wrote down two quotes that, um, I have, I have a, uh, Evernote file of all the quotes from the history of the sales off journey that have influenced me and impacted me. And, uh, they're in no particular order, but for some reason, number 63 and 64 belong to you. And so I just, I wanted to share these back with you because these are so impactful to me. Um, the first one says, don't think you're better than anyone else, but know that no one is better than you.

And I remember the day you told me that, and I wrote it down and, uh, and I love that quote and that it's carried with me. And the other one says, don't can, this is to the reps out there. Don't consider yourself a sales rep. Think of yourself as a business professional that happens to be in sales. And I know I've used that, uh, 50 times throughout the journey. And I just want to thank you for those incredible quotes. And they've got, they've got a place next to like Ralph Waldo Emerson. And like, I mean, these are like next to David, Henry David Thoreau quotes and MLK quotes. You haven't made the wall up here yet. One day we'll get a John Barrow's picture up there. I love it, man. Well, I appreciate that.

Yeah. I mean, I think, I think we all got to pull inspiration from certain places. Right. And, and you got to find your, you got to find yours. Um, well, I'll tell you if any, any listeners want that, um, Evernote, I've got the Evernote file. It's every single quote that I've used to influence me and to lead my team over the journey of sales loft, which is now approaching almost nine years, which is crazy to me. Um, but, uh, if you want that, just email me, Kyle at sales loft.com and I'll send that over to you. Yeah, man. If you could email it to me, I'd love it. I'd love to take a look at some of those. Awesome. Of course. Oh man. Well, always a pleasure talking to you, Kyle. Um, any, any last, um, things that, you know, as far as people like what, what sales loft is doing, where they can communicate any, any things that you guys are leaning in on right now?

You know, I think, uh, and we talked about earlier how every company out there can benefit from a sales engagement system right now. There are two forces at, at odds to one another in your sales team. One is your customer demands an incredible experience and quite frankly, they deserve it. And on the other hand, you want to make your business scalable, profitable. You want to be able to forecast off of it, invest in it and know that you're going to get an outcome for the investment. Those two things are at odds. We've cracked that code with the sales engagement platform. And we differentiate from any other company in the breadth of the solution that we offer in the marketplace today. So we've got a full cadencing solution that I'm sure many of your audience and that you are aware of.

We've got a conversation intelligence platform, and then a deals management platform, uh, all rolled into one and we're serving thousands and thousands of customers from some of the biggest and greatest companies in the world to, to small businesses. And we'd love to help out anyone out there, uh, who's in need. And, um, you know, you can reach out to me directly, Kyle at sales off.com. And then the last thing I would say is, you know, in the, in the grand course of, of American history of world history, uh, we've had bumps, bruises, hurdles left and right. I mean, I was reading about the civil war the other day and all the nastiness that came from that. And, um, you know, in world war II and Vietnam and, you know, imagine like sometimes when I'm stressed out or things are going crazy, I think like, imagine if I was in a bunker in Nam right now, my life is so much better than that.

And so, you know, I just say like the human spirit can't be stopped and we will absolutely get through this. We're going to be on the right side of history and come out with stories to tell for years and years and years. And, and I just encourage everybody listening to do the things today that one day when you're on a rocking chair and you're bouncing your grandkid up and down on your knee, you're going to be proud to tell them that you did. And this is your time to do them now. I love it. Yeah. It's just, you know, people, I keep saying, people will remember how you treat them right now. Coming out of this, you treat them, you know, you, you do what you can to help people out in this scenario.

And I believe wholeheartedly in the, what goes around comes around philosophy, because I've seen it too many times in my life to ignore it. And, you know, if, if, and that includes customers too, you know, customers and vendors and that type of stuff, like you, if, if you treat them right, if you help them through this, it'll come back to you and you'll be, and to your point, you'll be able to sit back and be proud of it. You know, if you're not proud short-term, you'll be proud long-term of what you were able to, the mark you were able to make in this world. Um, cause if you can make a difference in somebody's life, then that's what it's all about. Right. No question. All right. Well, do I get to tell them to go out there and make it happen?

Absolutely. Feel free. Well, actually one more before, because wait, wait, before you do, uh, let's, uh, cause you have one more thing. What's, what's coming up in a couple of weeks? Cause I got, I got my video all set for that and I'm fired up for it. The, the, uh, the virtual summit, right? Yes. Sales off virtual summit. I believe the date is the 16th. If I am, I want to make sure. Um, yeah, I think it's the 16th of June and, uh, we would love to have anybody there. Of course. Um, it's going to be awesome. And, um, John Barrow is going to be there, of course. So, you know, it's going to be awesome. We've got other incredible speakers, June 16th, 1 PM to 5 45 Eastern. Awesome. Cool. Well, I will give you the last word, but before I do, uh, as I always say, hopefully everybody got as much value out of this conversation as I did.

Um, if you're not checking out sales loft, please do. We use sales loft. We're huge believers. Uh, again, not just the technology, but the company itself and, and, and the culture, uh, that you guys have created. It, it's, it, it really does make a difference when you work with good people. And so, um, as I always say, just try to make somebody smile today. And cause even if you had a shitty day, if you made somebody smile, you know, you had a good day. And Kyle, I will leave you with the last word, my friend go for it. Well, John, you're an incredible ambassador to the sales community. And I've looked up to you since the day I started this company and I appreciate everything that you do. I know that you work your ass off to serve those in the sales world and you're doing an incredible job.

So all those that are out there listening, you're doing the right thing by, uh, investing in yourself and getting better. And I look forward to seeing you make it happen. I love it. Thanks, Kyle.