Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where
we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five
Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders
and experts who will share not just their expertise,
but the milestone moments that have reshaped
their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in
the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome
to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host,
and today my special guest is Rebecca Gebhardt.
She's a best -selling author, a former top 1
% sales leader with over 20 years of experience
leading sales teams that have generated over
$50 million in revenue. Rebecca specializes in
guiding emerging sales leaders through the transition
from the sales leaderboard to leadership. Welcome
to the show, Rebecca. Thanks so much for having
me, Sheila. I'm excited to have this conversation.
So tell me a little bit about how you got to
doing this today. I will give you the short version
because 20 plus years is that can be a long story.
I got my start in sales when I was in college
and I'm the middle of seven children. I was attending
Marquette University and I had to pay my own
way through school. And I saw a straight commission
job that said you make an average of $7 ,000
for the summer. You have to work 80 hours a week,
but you can make money. And so that was my first
introduction into sales. I was terrible. And
then I got better. And then I started managing
people. Then I started recruiting people. Went
from that company to a sister company where I
built an insurance agency. And so I would sell,
I would recruit, train, manage agents from several
states around the country. And then I burnt out
from that at age 33. as many people do who love
their jobs. And those high performers were the
ones that are at risk for burnout. So I was one
of those that burnt out. Didn't quite know how
to quit because I wasn't a quitter, but I was
able to gracefully bow out and say, I'm going
to stay home with my family, which I did for
about four years. I was a very bad stay -at -home
mom. I loved that time with my children, but
I was just, I don't know. I did a lot of personal
development during that time. I had my COVID
trauma, you know, the stuff that the self -realization
people went through of what am I doing with my
life? I had that in my early 30s. And then I
launched Rise Up Consulting, my consultancy,
in 2018. And at first I was focused on female
entrepreneurs, how I can help people sell more.
And then I got a huge influx of sales leaders,
realized these coaching conversations, all of
them were having the same problems, the same
opportunities. I was on repeat. So I created
a group program, which I trademarked. And then
I realized I want to take this to corporations.
So I fired all my coaching clients. which I loved
dearly, but we kind of ran out of the contract
and I said, I'm not going to do coaching anymore.
I'm going to work specifically with corporate
sales leadership teams. And that's what we do.
So we have an on -demand program for emerging
sales leaders. And we also collaborate with the
visionary sales leaders at organizations who
know what their organization needs. They just
need a subject matter expert and someone who
can understand how to duplicate a system. That
takes the genius out of their head and kind of
helps duplicate. So that's how I got to where
I am. I have other stories to tell, but I don't
think we have enough time for all of those. Well,
it's interesting. So when you started the coaching,
was it women in sales, the ones that you were
coaching? Because you said you started with women.
Or was it a mix? Yeah, no, it was it wasn't a
mix. It was it was really women. That was where
my heart was at the time and still is. I mean,
I love rooting for women and helping women succeed.
But then I did get approached by men and 80 percent
of salespeople for 80 percent of sales leaders
are men. Sales is full of men. I'm like, well,
this is really silly. I'm cutting out. huge target
audience and people that can do really well because
it wasn't a necessary niche that I needed to
be in. I know some consultants that strictly
focus on women, but yeah, I didn't. But it was
just this evolution of referrals and then, hey,
would you work with a man? I'm like, yeah, I
actually work. I would. I work really well with
men. And most of my clients now are men. Not
all of them, but many of them are. What would
be like one main difference between the challenges
that a man or a woman face when they're in sales
or sales leadership roles? That can be very nuanced.
And I don't have the, this is just a gut. This
is my experience and from my heart and from my
gut. There are issues that are unique to women.
And there's issues that are unique to men. I
think women, instead of the conversation being
around, I'll share a story of this perspective.
I had attended a conference that was focused
on women, women going through different pivots
in their life. And the women who got on stage
were accomplished. But overall, the vibe of that
conference was men are stupid. Men, they just
go for things when they're not they're not ready
for them. And it was I'm like, we should take
a playbook out of a page out of the men's playbook
then. Like you should go after something even
when you're not 100 percent confident about it.
You know, I think that's why I started creating
these programs because I needed them. Right.
And if I can provide men or women some content.
that helps them get more competent, which leads
to confidence, which leads to courage to go after
that next role. That's all part of the process.
And I needed that so that I wanted to create
that. But men in general will go after things
when they're not 100 % confident and women just
wait. And unless you actively work on that mindset,
I think that's like a big one. There are some
different... um social things with men and women
but I I think it's very important for every woman
to have a group of women to rely on but make
sure you are being mentored by at least one man
you are in a group with men um because your proximity
and being in those groups and there are a lot
of there are men who will shut you out but there's
a lot of great men who will bring you in and
my career has personally been influenced by men
who brought me into the fold And women. Right.
I just I think it's. That might be a little bit
different answer to your question, but it's just
I think we need to go what's working instead
of complaining and thinking the world's against
us, which is not what you were asking. Right.
But I just think that mentality of being like,
what do we have? The world's conspiring to help
us. Who can we partner with, male or female,
that can help us get to the next level? So you
state on your website that sales and sales leadership
development is broken. I want to learn a little
bit more about that. It is broken. It's so broken.
The more you get into some of the data on development,
the more crazy it becomes. The effectiveness
of it is really broken. 70 % of organizations
view the effectiveness of their leadership development
based on how participants feel. Their reaction
to the program, not what they learned, not what
they're going to use, not how that connected
to the results. It's really broken. And sales,
there's a lot of great sales trainings that could
do a better job of being implemented into the
organizations if their sales leaders were trained.
And so that's one way that sales leadership is
broken. One way to fix it is to take all the
good stuff that's being taught in sales training
and make sure that that person's direct sales
leader is part of that and they are coaching
and they're making those habits that they can
actually apply the sales development that they
just spent a ton of money on. Sales leadership
is broken because it's just not done. I remember
reading a stat from the Harvard Business Review
and they said that the average age someone receives
their first leadership promotion is age 30. but
their first leadership development is age 42.
So that's 12 years of trial and error. That was
on average. And I looked at that stat and I kind
of went, so I went down a, and I reflected a
lot about that. I went, I'm going to make this
my niche, right? But then I looked at the data
on sales leadership and couldn't find any. So
our company did our own survey. 80 % of sales
leaders are given zero training once being promoted.
So the status quo is severely broken. All of
the research that's been done for 40 years says
that the manager has the biggest impact over
someone's success. And so we have this. You know
what? If you figure it out in sales, you figure
it out as a leader. Just work really hard. It's
like, well, there are specific things that if
you taught to every sales leader, but especially
when they're new and they created good habits,
that creates an ROI over someone's entire career.
And so I feel very passionately about that. And
that's why we've kind of gone all in with this.
But it is, yeah, it's broken. The training's
broken. It's over a decade. I mean, that's just
fascinating to hear that, you know, they go 10
years before receiving the training. And with
leadership, I think sometimes, you know, people
get those positions. Maybe they broke, you know,
all these quotas. They were great sales people.
But to be able to motivate, especially in a sales
position, which is, you know, kind of like cut
through what you're having to meet these numbers
or you're, you know, not performing, that must
be a challenge. All right, so in your consultancy,
you focus on strength -based goal setting and
role alignment to allow people to show up as
their best selves. And you use a Colby Consulting
or a Colby Index, and you use a Leadership Profile
Circle. I wanted to learn more on your website.
Can you tell us what these measure and what they
do? Yes. So I think that strength -based goal
setting is a competitive edge. Strength -based
sales coaching is a competitive edge. And the
Colby Index and the Leadership Circle profile
are two assessments that I just got certified
in Leadership Circle within the last year, but
I've been a Colby certified consultant for several
years. You want to make sure that people are,
they enjoy the work they do. They have the skills
to do it. And it's a good match. And so the Colby
Index is a way to judge how or a way to assess,
not judge, because they're all strengths, no
matter where you fall. So the short version of
this is Colby figures out conative strengths,
that what is someone's MO, their modus operandi?
What is the way in which they do things when
they care about something and they're free to
be themselves? And there's three parts of the
mind. There's think, feel, do. And the think
assessments are like the Wunderlich test. We
have IQ tests. We took standardized tests in
school to show how smart we were. The feel part
of the brain, there's assessments for that. There's
DISC, the Enneagram, predictive index, lots of
those. But the do part of the brain is subconscious.
It's like this mental force. It's this innate
talent. And the Colby Index is the only one that
does that. And so if you have, in my world, if
you have a salesperson who is selling a highly
technical product, maybe they sell a medical
device, medical device, right? Like this, they
need to be hands -on. They need to, right? Because
they're in the operating room with surgeons sometimes.
helping them. And they need to know every last
detail. They need that. Someone like me, I'm
not into the details. I was on a phone call yesterday
with my assistant and I went, I spelt that wrong.
There's always a mistake on something I do, and
I'm like, whatever. That's why I have people
around me who are into the details. I'm just
moving too fast, you know? So I would not be
able to sell medical devices, not because I'm
not smart, but because I'm not into the details
that much, and I'm not a hands -on person. I
am a visualizer. There are some people who need
to follow a process. And if you have someone
who needs to follow a sales process, but that's
not how they get their best results, they get
their best results when they cut through, you're
going to have a problem. And so the Colby Index
is one of the only assessments you can actually
give during an interview process because it doesn't
discriminate, inadvertently discriminate. So
you can't use all assessments in the interview
process. You can use them once you hire someone,
but you can predict where someone needs to be
to be successful. The leadership circle profile
is about all of our strengths, but some strengths,
when we work harder, they get in our way. And
some strengths, when we use them, they help us
scale. And the top half is if you score high,
it's a 360 degree feedback. So on the top of
the circle, if the people around you see as someone
who is thriving and scaling, you're going to
be up there. Or if they see you using your strengths
and you get in your own way and you're surviving,
you would have a lot filled in on the bottom
half of the circle. And it has been proven. And
that's more for executives and mid to senior
level leaders would complete that. Anyone can
take a Colby index and anyone can take a leadership
circle profile. But it's really meant for your
leaders a little bit further up the ranks. You
can connect their creativity to how well the
business is performing. So it has a correlation
to how the leader uses their strengths and business
metrics. And so it's really powerful. You can
get someone on a leadership development plan.
And what that does is it helps check your assumptions
and biases and how you view the world. So is
your operating system one that's focused on vision?
and purpose? Or is your operating system focused
on your identity and your anxiousness and your
reactivity? So I'm not doing it justice explaining
it like that. I know there's more information
on the website and there's more information on
both of their corporate websites about that.
And I'm not an assessment snob. Those are just
two that I'm certified in. I just think any assessment
that people can take to gain better self -awareness
and understand how they are perceived by the
people around them helps them massively do their
jobs better and help them progress further in
their careers. Absolutely. You know, without
that feedback, you don't really have room to
grow. Sometimes you don't know where you can
improve. what you can do with those strengths.
I would love to learn more about those. So where
can my listeners learn more about your programs,
these assessments? Can you share? Yeah. So we
have several fun things happening over here at
Rise Up Consulting. So my second book, Leaderboard
to Leadership, How to Earn and Excel in Your
First Sales Leadership Role is going to be published.
Probably by the time this podcast gets out there,
it'll all be already beyond Dale. But that is
really for people who want to excel when they
get into leadership and for organizations really
concerned about making sure they have a strong
leadership bench. We have individual programs
for emerging sales leaders and for leaders in
general. We actually have two of them. And then
we have a Rise Up the Ranks Academy that people
can reach out to us. But all of that's on our
website. riseupconsultinggroup .com. And then
I live on LinkedIn typically. So people can connect
with me there. I'm posting frequently and interacting
with people. And I just love it because my curiosity
gets fulfilled by a lot of the great content
that's on LinkedIn. So what is your next milestone?
My next milestone is the publication of this
book and then the continued expansion of our
sales leadership programs. And so we're going
to be, I'm going to be hiring more people to
be facilitating those to help organizations and
individual sales leaders be better people, be
better leaders, lead with more purpose and become
more visionary so that it impacts. their ability
to recruit great people, their ability to retain
that talent, and then increasing revenue along
the way. So just a lot of expansion happening
over here for my next move. So what one key piece
of advice can you offer to a sales leader or
an aspiring sales leader to meet or surpass their
goals? The advice I give is kind of our tagline
here. And it's what I say to anyone, no matter
if you're in, it doesn't matter where you are.
If you want to succeed, you want to do the things
that matter for the reasons that matter with
the people that matter in a way that matters.
And so this is really about focusing, right?
There's so many, there's so many distractions.
What would be nice or, you know, what would give
us validation really matters and it doesn't,
you know. So getting really clear on what you
want, why you want it, how to help other people
get that, connecting great minds together to
optimize teams. I mean, that's the stuff that
matters. And so that line. Do the things that
matter for the reasons that matter with the people
that matter in a way that matters is a really
great gut check to go through those four different
things and say, am I doing this? But if you do
those four things consistently enough, you don't
have to be perfect all the time. But if you do
those four things consistently enough, you will
be successful. What a wonderful insight. Well,
thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks
for having me. This was fun. And thank you to
all my listeners for tuning in to another episode
of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.