“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace, the soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things.”
- Amelia Earhart
Hi, I’m Rebecca (aka “Bex”). I'm a a Stanford-educated management consultant-turned-tech sales leader on a mission to create a new class of sales in Silicon Valley by sharing with others the secrets of my success.
A wide-eyed college grad.
It was fall of 2004, and my future career was well underway. As I walked home from a buzzy midtown happy hour, still a wide-eyed college grad, my mind raced. I struggled to make sense of the Managing Director’s behavior I’d seen at the office that day. Recounting it to my girlfriends, one of them, who worked at another investment bank nonchalantly replied: “He’s a rainmaker. He does what he wants.”
Fast forward 3 years, after proving my storyboarding and 2x2 matrix skills over many late nights in the office that summer, I earned a full-time offer from BCG. As I jubilantly signed their letter that arrived with a magnum of champagne, my mind flashed back 15 years to a choice my single mom had offered me: she could buy me the horse I yearned for if I went to the local public high school. The other option: send me to a private high school so I could have more opportunities to buy the horse of my dreams someday. I have never been one to choose the easier, less spectacular route, so the choice was obvious.
Hard work and sacrifice opened doors for me to attend a great college and business school. A management consulting career was a proven path to high earnings, client impact, and continued growth. It was perfect for an insecure overachiever like me, never satisfied with simple, easy, or status quo.
Charting the uncharted course.
I returned to work after my second maternity leave in February 2013. Sitting in my glass corner office, gazing across the SF skyline on that particularly sunny Friday afternoon, I thought about the partners whose signatures were on the Business Development Award I had just received. I admired their gorgeous homes, cars, wardrobes and, most of all, their influence at the firm. It occurred to me that they were salespeople without the stigma. But making partner was several years away and the work-life balance was a struggle, even part-time. I knew there must be a better way… and that's when I realized what had been staring me in the face.
I liked Nick the moment I met him through a former BCGer that summer. He was the CEO of a hot Silicon Valley startup. He gave me a 7-figure quota – a chance to prove my value – and I quickly became the top rep, nearly doubling my consulting salary. My phone rang after closing the deal that put the company over its revenue target. With signature enthusiasm, Nick congratulated me and then asked, “Bex, can you teach others to sell like you sell?” I loved the autonomy I had as a rep and honestly wasn’t sure if I could. But it was a chance to make even more impact. I promised him I would try and accepted the VP-level role.
As I stood on stage at the 2017 Kickoff, the entire company roared in applause. My eyes swelling with pride, I hand over the coveted “Sales Rep of the Year” lucite to the rep on my team who had a near 7-figure year. He had closed the largest deal in company history but I had done something else: I taught a consultant how to become a sales superstar. There was no greater reward than that, but buying the horse of my dreams with my earnings was certainly a nice perk. Could I help others become rainmakers? For now, feeling like I had finally made it was enough.
The only woman in the room.
I get the call from the headhunter in the fall of 2018. I’m excited about the impact I could make building a sales and marketing org from the ground up. The CEO calls as I’m pulling into my driveway and asks me to join him and his three co-founders. A knot in my stomach tightens immediately after I accept the offer, but I don’t have time to wonder if I chose the right startup. I brush off the uneasy feeling as nerves and run inside to hug my kids.
Fast forward a year, I over-delivered on all my goals: grew deal sizes by 5x, revenue by 4x, and the go-to-market team by 3x. As the co-founders pop champagne to celebrate another record-breaking quarter, I can no longer ignore the mounting feeling of unease.
In 1:1s and the next board meeting, I challenge the rest of the leadership team to make the tough decisions needed for continued customer and team success. But I had delayed the difficult conversations for too long and my feedback is not well received. A few weeks later, we went our separate ways. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the challenges life would throw at me.
Finding my courage.
Six months later, I stepped outside to lock up our chickens while listening to the news about the country shutting down. Looking up to the clouds emblazoned by the setting sun, I reflect on my time in the smaller job I’d taken so I could make long overdue changes at home. I woke up many days with a feeling of dread: relationship struggles, trying to have it all as a daughter, sister, wife and mother. Helpless and strong all at once: struggles most women know well.
My mind flashed back to being that gangly teenager with a mentally ill sister and distant father who never learned she deserved happiness. But nothing could match the gut-wrenching terror of almost losing my 10-year-old child—an expected cancer diagnosis in the middle of the pandemic. Over the 18 months that followed, I found strength I never knew I had. I think back to the film crew at our house who captured my son’s story for the hospital’s Foundation and am reminded of all the people who helped save his life. I remember the magical moment the doctor shared my son’s scan results after months of grueling chemotherapy and procedures: he was in remission.
I felt a massive weight lift and it suddenly hit me: I have nothing else to fear. For years I lived for others’ approval; now I cared nothing for it. I never felt so free.
New beginnings.
I am no longer a wide-eyed college grad. I witnessed the same bad behavior from “irreplaceable” rainmakers I’d seen in investment banking and knew I could no longer accept the toxic culture that surrounded me. It was time to speak up. I felt this was a crucial moment, not just for the world, but for my world as well. I was ready and determined to make it rain my way. In the decades since graduation, I enjoyed successful careers in consulting and tech, created two amazing children, and won blue ribbons at dozens of horse shows. I began working with a coach who helped me discover my deeper purpose and identity. I realized that the chapters of my career, and all of life’s hardships weren’t done to me; they were done for me. They gave me the courage I needed to chart the uncharted courses, to fight the hardest fights, and to never EVER give up.
Rebuilding my life during Covid has not been as easy as the Beyonce song version, but it was 100% worth it. I awake with joy and gratitude, feeling the warmth of the California sun while drinking my morning coffee listening to the birds sing. I am fulfilling my purpose, present for my children when they need me, riding horses at a level I never imagined, and giving back to the cancer community.
I have forged a new path for consultants into tech and created massive impact at several organizations through my unique approach to sales. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned and help others discover the path to the C-suite that changed my life. This is just the beginning.