Sam's mantra is GSD. No, that isn't a flu medicine or a brand of hair straightener. It stands for "Get Sh*t Done". And he does, constantly.
Sam is a passionate RevOps professional and is a big name in the turbulent world of early-stage B2B SaaS start-ups.
Head of Revenue Operations at Vortexa, Sam has bought his expertise and insight into the space. He's also known for executing the combined mission, vision, and passion of CROs, CMOs, and CSOs alike.
Join Sam at this year's AntiConLX Global, where he'll be speaking on all the Ops - MOPs, SOPs & RevOps!
We chatted to Sam ahead of his session to get his tips, tricks and insights:
We want to hear about you, marketing legend. Give us a quick overview of what your company does and your roles and responsibilities there!
Vortexa makes its mission to open the world of information across all energy flows. At Vortexa, I head up the Revenue Operations effort, we sit at the juncture between process, people, and technology to maximise our commercial efforts.
What, in your opinion, makes a great AntiConLX Global presentation?
Something that is informative, original, and challenging! It's so important to learn from peers and see all the different ways that challenges were approached and sometimes duct taped together!
What bull$hit industry advice do you hear too often?
#### is / are dead! It's easy to offer an opinion, it's harder to offer a solution to how they would actually implement a fix.
What’s your biggest industry gripe? Don’t hold back!
Definitely knowing it all, no-one likes a know it all. With all the myriad of combinations of technology & strategies, it isn't possible for one person to know it all - ever!
What advice would you give for starting a career in the industry?
There are so many great resources out there - for free, that there's almost no excuse to stop learning. I would say that something that helped me immensely was starting to see the world from a platform agnostic viewpoint, even if your current platform is X, it's worth hopping into platform Y and familiarising yourself with it.
We’ve all read about Mark Wahlberg’s insane 2:30am morning routine, filled with golf and cryo-chambers. What’s your personal morning routine?
As a father of a 14 month old, my morning routine is a whirlwind of nappies, changing, breakfast, and travel to nursery!
What up-and-coming trend or tech do you predict will take the industry by storm?
Semantic ML is promising. I like what Gong is doing with their linguistic machine learning, I think that some kind of combination of scripts + emails will provide some great insights to commercial leaders on their pipeline and the real state of deals.
What was your first job, and how did it help you develop in your industry?
My first role was at a mobile marketing & advertising company, I landed a gig as a B2B marketing exec, so got to learn the ropes of content marketing, the inbound process, and email best practises. I'd say the thing that almost immediately struck me and set me on the operations path, was how terrible the marketing automation systems were, and how convoluted and confusing daily / weekly marketing operational work actually was, constantly thought whilst I was there, there must be a better way
Who's a public speaker you admire, and what makes them good at what they do?
Unpopular opinion, but Jordan Belfort despite all his previous misgivings and history, is a fantastic orator, passionate about what he does, and manages to convey & inspire a passion with every piece of content. Really hard to not learn something which is great.
If you could recommend one book, podcast, tv show, magazine, or piece of bathroom stall graffiti, what would it be?
1984 - Orwell. With the proliferation of tracking & automation in our world, sometimes you have to step back and consider, just because you can do something, should you.
What is your favourite marketing campaign of all time?
Probably the 3M unbreakable glass container with the money inside. Really smart way of showing not just telling how good the product is.
Can our audience expect any future projects on the horizon, personal or professional?
Sure, trying to branch out this year and give others breaking into the industry a leg up, keep an eye out for some upcoming training courses!