From Overlooked to Overbooked, with Luis Baez (Sales, Intrapreneurship, Social Media, Tech)

This episode explores the professional journey of Luis Baez, focusing on his transition from sales to entrepreneurship, and his insights into personal growth and sales strategies.

1. Effective sales strategies are foundational for successful entrepreneurship.
2. Personal growth and self-awareness significantly enhance professional capabilities.
3. Intrapreneurship within corporations can prepare individuals for independent entrepreneurial ventures.
4. Building a personal brand and network is crucial in transitioning to entrepreneurship.
5. Resilience and adaptability are key to overcoming professional challenges.

1. Introduction

Luis Baez discusses his transition from traditional sales roles to entrepreneurship, highlighting key personal insights. Luis Baez: "It actually takes the same amount of effort to close a $20 million deal as it does a $200,000 deal."

2. The Role of Intrapreneurship

Baez explains intrapreneurship at tech companies, sharing how it prepared him for his business ventures. Luis Baez: "I developed the awareness that I was capable of managing a business within a business."

3. Entrepreneurial Mindset

Discussion on the mindset and strategies for building a successful independent business. Luis Baez: "Starting your own business, you have to be an adrenaline junkie."

4. Sales Strategies and Personal Development

Baez outlines how personal development and understanding customer psychology play crucial roles in sales. Luis Baez: "The methodologies are the same, from not knowing you to seeing the transformation."

5. Building and Balancing a Consulting Business

Insights into balancing consultancy with personal life and other professional commitments. Luis Baez: "Ambition is like playing with fire."

1. Embrace sales strategies not only for business success but for personal branding and network building.
2. Foster resilience by learning from each professional setback.
3. Cultivate self-awareness to enhance your business and personal interactions.
4. Leverage your corporate experiences to fuel your entrepreneurial ventures.
5. Maintain a balance between professional endeavors and personal well-being to sustain long-term productivity.

Luis Baez, a Sales Enablement Strategist who has worked with tech giants like LinkedIn, Uber, Tesla, and Google, explains why LinkedIn is the best employment experience he’s ever had, what parts of sales make him feel icky and why you don’t need them, the massive value of community, how the same customers behave radically differently depending on the platform they're engaging with, creating a "water cooler" in a virtual setting, thriving through intrapreneurship, and accepting messiness.

People

Luis Baez

Companies

LinkedIn, Uber, Tesla, Google

Books

None

Content Warnings:

None

Luis Baez
What I came to realize is that it actually takes the same amount of anxiety, effort, process, resources, etcetera to close a $200,000 deal as it does a $20 million deal. The difference is my capacity and my self awareness and self confidence. That swagger that I really only develop from the mistakes that I experienced with customers, the fumbles, etcetera, all of that conditioned me eventually to get to a place where I was comfortable in my process, and I just needed to trust. Top leaders. Meaningful conversation, actionable advice, bulldoze complacency, ignite inspiration, create impact.

Southwestern Family of Companies
Produced by southwestern family of companies, this is the action Catalyst.

Luis Baez
Are you interested in advertising? With the action catalyst, our listeners could be hearing about your brand right here, right now. For details, shoot us an email@infoceactioncatalyst.com dot. Hello, action Catalyst listeners. Today, our guest is Luis Baez.

Jeff
He has been a sales enablement strategist at companies like LinkedIn, Uber, Tesla, and Google. Luis Baez has spent 14 years of his experience in sales and marketing, bringing a breadth of knowledge and experience that spans digital advertising, software, and sustainability with a revenue impact of over 600 million to date. Hi. Good to meet you. You as well.

So, Lucia, talk to me a little bit about your background. How did you get started in the world of sales? It was really by chance. I am the first generation first in my family to pursue a college education, and one of the best outcome, of course, it's like doctor, lawyer, business person, tried being a doctor, hated it, went to law school, dropped out, hated it. And then after that, I had a friend who was working on the marketing team at WebMD.

Luis Baez
She said to me, you don't know this, but you've got this magnetism about you, and you have a way of just commanding people. Like, you have a presence, and I wonder if sales might be for you. And so she referred me in, and I went through eight rounds of interviews for an ad sales job, knowing nothing about advertising or online business or tech or even working in corporate, because up until then, I'd worked nonprofit and legal. That experience cemented, if nothing else, my capacity to sell myself, because I went through eight rounds of interviews and I got a job offer. All right, I'd love to hear a little bit more about.

Jeff
I know one of your big talking points is intrapreneurship. What did that look like for you at a few of these different companies? Yeah, I want to say that I didn't really realize that I was an intrapreneur. I didn't understand what that meant or the capacity for that until I stepped away from corporate and became an entrepreneur. And I started an online business and a consultancy.

Luis Baez
I would sell online programs and consult other startups. And it was then that I realized that I had it so good as an account executive because they handled my legal, they handled my marketing, they took care of everything, all of the overhead. All I did was sell and walk home with the cash. And that's when it clicked for me that I thought that I didn't have the capacity to be an entrepreneur. I thought I was starting from scratch, but I realized that I'd been conditioned for working in that way because I've been an individual contributor working in enterprise sales and closing over half a billion dollars for these bigger companies.

And so I developed that awareness of the fact that I was wearing, or capable of wearing both of these hats, of managing a book of business within a business on behalf of a business, but also being able to do that for myself, for my own team. And so the entrepreneurship Apple fell on my head when I stepped away from corporate. And as I stepped back in, I moved in the path of revenue enablement because I had done all the sales things, I had walked the path of or climbed the ladder from sales support to sales executive to sales leader. And what I came to realize is that my happy place was really in that sweet spot around people development and coaching and guiding people through the sales process. And that's ultimately what led me down the path I'm walking down now.

Because I had a friend who looked at me and said, well, at some point, Olympians stop qualifying for events and they can continue to compete in other events, but they ultimately pivot towards coaching and training the next Olympian. And so maybe that's your path. And sure enough, it was. What were some of the key differences for you, though, from building your own practice versus working for one? I think starting your own business, you have to be an adrenaline junkie.

It's all on you, right, to get started, you're going to get help from other experts, you're going to pull people into projects, launches, development, et cetera. You're going to hire people as you go. But at the onset, it's actually a really long process and you've got to work really hard and diligently to build a network around yourself. But the thing that I am clear about after having had these experiences is that the method, the methodologies, or the approach when it comes to selling or sales, it's really the same when you think about taking someone from not knowing you or understanding what it is that you offer to visualizing the transformation after having worked with you, to seeing results at the end and your capacity to influence and guide and consult. Those are skills that I think are universal, no matter how it is that you're showing up, whether you're an entrepreneur or an entrepreneur.

Jeff
I guess, for our listeners, how would you define entrepreneurs that, you know, preneur. Is someone that has a share of the business and operates and functions as someone who holds themselves accountable for their shares of the business. Right. And so the context for that is coming up in the tech industry. It's no secret that part of the incentives that you see well for working in tech include a salary and equity in the company or options.

Luis Baez
Right. Um, and so when you think about it, if you're receiving shares in the business, that means you own a piece of it. Right? And if you own a piece of it, then the way that you show up needs to be aligned with that, rather than having a passive experience and just clocking in and clocking out. Let go of the title, let go of the ego, and just assume and claim the title of being a boss in this business and show up like one.

Think about how you spend the first hour of your day. Think about the people that you surround yourself with, building your own board of advisors. Think about even the way that you run point on projects, holding yourself accountable and leaving nothing to chance. That shift has to happen with that realization that I own a piece of this business. I'm not just an employee of it.

Jeff? Yeah. So what I'm hearing you say is almost like a mindset of treating your job less like a job and more like an owner. Exactly. Mindset and work ethic, for sure.

Jeff
What are some organizations or companies in your experience that do this? Well, the best career experience I've ever had was at LinkedIn. The culture is bar none. And, I mean, you would expect so right there, the world's largest professional network. And so the ways that you build your career and the kind of career experience that you have are very carefully designed.

Luis Baez
So I borrow a lot of my ideas and my playbooks from the experiences that I had there and from the leaders that I engaged with while I was there. I'm always intrigued by companies that are able to create that culture. Yeah. It is not impossible. Right.

I'm going to say that it certainly takes some time and some effort and investment. It takes some shedding of old skin and old assumptions about how we do business and how we should be doing business. But once you let go and you put your faith in the process and in the methodology, it can be a really wonderful experience for everyone, right? It can be a really wonderful experience for you as a leader to see that your team is optimally productive and people are happy and, you know, you are, you know, trending to hit your own goals, you know, for your higher ups. And then the people who are engaging directly with customers, right, they.

They feel a sense of responsibility to the customer in a very different way. They feel like a stakeholder and an owner in it. You know, we talk a lot on our podcast about the different levels of confidence and expertise at something and how that's developed over time. What was your journey in sales? When did you make some big leaps, and what were some of the setbacks?

How much time have we got left? So, for context, again, I'm someone that's first generation, didn't have any family that ever worked corporate, so I didn't have any sense for how to navigate these spaces. I'm also an l gay man, and so I inherently have connected with leaders and colleagues and people that didn't really make me feel welcomed or found ways to try to throw daggers at my back or interrupt my sales flow or my relationships with customers. I've had some issues really navigating my career, and so I want to contextualize all of it. I think it's really important to recognize that not everyone has this sort of work experience where we get to clock in and clock out.

Some of us have to do double time while we're on the clock. At first, I fumbled when it came to sales and selling. I wanted to control the conversation, be the smartest person in the room, and I didn't want to lose face. There was so much anxiety because I'd never been trained. But as I progressed and I was moving up the ladder, I started to become methodical in my approach.

I started to think about, okay, when I walk into conversations with customers, typical profile, same anxiety, same line of questions. I'm going to make sure that I'm prepared with answers, examples, case studies, stats, et cetera. So it took some time to build that fluency and understanding the customer and very confidently addressing their hesitation and objection. That was, like, one big skill and area of confidence that I developed over time. And then there was this other thing about the mindset shift, right?

Like, once I got comfortable with, like, a methodical or repeatable process to selling, that took away the anxiety from me showing up for that customer, but also ensured that, like, I wasn't showing up and throwing up and actively listening to the customer. Right. Then there was the pursuit of bigger deals, you know, going from selling $200,000 deals to $2 million deals to $20 million deals. The mindset shift as I kept going up in my career from selling mid market to enterprise sales. What I came to realize is that it actually takes the same amount of anxiety, effort, process, resources, et cetera, to close a $200,000 deal as it does a $20 million deal.

The difference is my capacity and my self awareness and self confidence. That swagger that I really only developed from, again, all the experiences that I had, messing up deals, getting the feedback, fighting against all the things against me to get my place at the starting line of the race. But then even just thinking about the mistakes that I experienced with customers, the fumbles, et cetera, all of that conditioned me eventually to get to a place where I was comfortable in my process, and I just needed to trust that it would help me and that I would succeed, moving on to bigger accounts. Truth be told, it was messy throughout, right? But as I moved up, so did my confidence along the way, I had some examples of really amazing leaders.

One of the best examples of leadership that I've experienced to date was at LinkedIn. You know, this was my first tech job. I'd been recruited to work at the company. Super excited. But I'd come from very toxic sales environments and sales floors, where, you know, it's that always be closing mentality.

People yelling at you, running, you know, drilling you on your numbers, you know, like, it was a high pressure, high anxiety environment. So I was conditioned to just, like, always know my numbers, always be ready to talk about them on the spot, you know, just being on, on, on. And it was a vastly different. It was a totally different experience than I was expecting, because my director steps into the room. She was two minutes late.

And she apologized to everyone in the room, plugged her laptop, and projected her laptop on the screen, and on the screen was her calendar, and it was wild and color coded and filled to the brim. And she opened up by holding herself accountable. I'm sorry I was late. Here's where I was. Here's what I was doing.

This is what I'm working on this week. This is how I prioritize your requests. These are the time blocks that I've dedicated to working on these things. These are the meetings that are happening to move on these things. Before drilling us, she held herself accountable and demonstrated to us the way that we should be thinking about our time and how we manage.

I was blown away. Yeah. I love that it sounds like you're also pretty self taught. What were some of the key books, things that you've read or listened to around the world of sales that helped you develop and own your craft? I actually hate most of the sales content that exists.

Okay. I think it's a matter of there are things that are lacking in the sales content that I often consume. And I think that there's a lack of focus on wellness and mental health. When I approach coaching someone, I understand that the way that they think influences the way that they behave and therefore influences their outcomes. When I think about a lot of these authors, gurus and the content that exists out there, a lot of it is about squeezing the opportunity, squeezing the micro moments, squeezing and cornering the customer, and maximizing the value and doubling the deal.

But I think that over time what I've really, what has helped me stand out from the crowd is that I actually dont have that approach. Im not sharky or sleazy. Im not the high pressure seller. Over time I figured out my style and it was really after reading all the books and not feeling like they really spoke to me and then going off and trying my own thing. And I think that actually the books that have helped me the most are actually not the sales books, its the psychology and the copywriting books.

That capacity to master neuro linguistics and persuasion and reading a room I think has helped me a lot more than a ten step process for discovery that is known to yield ten x results. That didnt do it for me. So maybe coming back to you are on double duty, you work for deputy today, but you also have your own consultancy still. So whats been the balancing act of that? Its an imbalanced act, that is for sure.

There are moments where my career requires a lot more of my time and my attention and focus. Then I have to allow for that and create the space for that because I'm still very committed to the work that I'm doing in the ways that I'm growing this still road that I'm walking, I haven't quite achieved everything I want to walking down that path. At the same time, I'm an enneagram too. I'm an empath. I'm an introvert.

I love to just help people. And even though I don't actively, I don't have a full roster of clients at all times like I used to when I was doing it full time, solopreneurship. I still get people reaching out to me, working on some really amazing ideas, really brilliant business models that have a social and equity component to it that I really admire and respect. And as these opportunities come up, I can't say no to the chance to step in and advise and consult and to help implement sales processes or to help interview their first sales hire or even write the job description for that. And thinking about ways that I can help other businesses that deserve a standing chance get that jumpstart and honor the trust that they're putting in me.

It's hard. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Ambition is, is like playing with fire. Sometimes. You've got to know and you've got to dip out.

And I think that over time, I have learned to recognize those moments where my cup is overflowing and I need to set boundaries and I need to also go offline. And that's really important, too, because when you're grinding, you stop producing good ideas. When you're tired and exhausted, not just like the physical fatigue, but when you reach that mental fatigue, no one's going to benefit from it. And so you, you have to go offline. You need to get your sleep, you need to get your workouts in.

I've also gotten into the floating spa. I don't know if you ever had that experience. You get into a sensory deprivation pool. It's a salt water pool. You just lay there and it's like you just melt into time and space.

You have to actively. This is why I mentioned earlier one of the things that's missing from the books that I read often around leadership in sales, it's like you got to take care of number one, and that's the conversation that we don't have enough of. It's like, I am not AI powered. I'm human. My batteries need an intentional recharging.

Jeff
Yeah. It's really important to recognize when that is for sure when you got into your consulting practice. I mean, this is something that a lot of listeners have thought about doing. A lot of our listeners did make that jump for themselves, whatever that business was. What were the biggest surprises for you?

Luis Baez
I thought I had a leg up because I knew business. Right before going into business for myself, I'd worked as an executive, selling to Fortune 500 C level executives, running the numbers, working with all the analysts. And so, like, I thought I knew how to run a business. And so even before I stepped into that space, you know, had the website together, had the offer together, sales pages, the emails, everything, like, set up and running, I was like, yes, I've got this right. If you build it, they will come and I built it.

And then I. No one showed up.

No, it showed up. It was like, okay, I'm not competing against anyone. It's just me at the starting line of this race, right? This is a solo marathon that I'm about to go on and in my fever to get started and to get everything looking just right. I overlooked the fact that, like, I didn't have, like, an email list or a following or anything.

I was starting from scratch. Got the LLC set up, got the accountant, and all these things going on in the background because I thought I knew how to run a business. But it is very different when you are out here, putting yourself out there. There, and there are probably a thousand ways to crack this egg. And it's a matter of testing, refining, and optimizing, but also, like, showing up authentically.

Like, it took me a while to step away from running ads and doing all those things that the gurus and everyone said you should be doing when you're running an online business. Right. I found my sweet spot in teaching and guests teaching and guest speaking. And this is what I love doing. This is the intersection of doing something that I love and doing something that's super effective for my brand and my business.

And so I just want to encourage anyone who's listening to this and going, yes, I hear what you're saying. I don't know. I've tried cracking the eggs 800 out of a thousand ways. Like, what should I do next? Do what feels right and do it well.

Jeff
Yeah, great advice. And so you found part of the solution to your. One of your challenges on starting your business was providing education to your audience as a way to build trust. You chose LinkedIn as the platform for that. I feel like that's what I read.

Luis Baez
LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook groups, because a lot of folks that step into online business and solopreneur and solo practitioner sort of work will often join communities on Facebook. They'll follow other online teachers and things that have communities. And so one of the ways that I would build my roster of clients is, like, jumping into these communities, adding massive value, and then eventually, people would tap my shoulder and say, I'd love to talk to you and learn more. Same thing on Instagram, and then same thing on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, for me, will always be bae.

And it's not just because I worked there. Like, I. I ended up being recruited at LinkedIn because of my activity on LinkedIn. Like, literally, the recruiter was like, you're Ella active. Do you want to come talk to us?

About teaching other people how to use LinkedIn, and it's been the perfect place to showcase my. Myself and the work that I do across every space that I move. You know, a lot of folks will, you know, ask, where do I build my community? Yeah. A different customer intent, if you want to, like, break it down from that.

The same person that I might be engaging with will spend their time on LinkedIn differently than on Instagram. When I engage with them on LinkedIn, I'm offering advice. When I'm hanging out with them on Instagram, we're sharing memes. You know, it's the water cooler versus the boardroom. Right.

And when you think about engaging with your colleagues or coworkers or customers in everyday situations and physical spaces. Yeah. There are moments where you button up because it's time to do business, and there are moments where you let your hair down. And so I have to think about how to create those experiences and virtual settings, and that ultimately was my approach. I had a different presence on each channel, but I was engaging with the same pool of business owners who were on these platforms for their own marketing needs or maybe researching and sourcing customers for themselves.

Jeff
Yeah. Were you kind of a super user, I guess, of this form of, like, does this how you digested your content? A lot of trial and error and a lot of coming up against, like, I actually did not like the idea of using Instagram for business. Right. Like, where I hung out with, like, my cousin, my aunties, my besties.

Luis Baez
I had to set up a business account for business purposes. And I am someone that, like, it was so, like, buttoned up and corporate and, like, you know, didn't want to lose face. It's like I was coming off too serious on the platform, right. And I wasn't getting the results or I wasn't making the connections that I wanted. Lots of learning about how to show up, learning from everyone else, and lots of time committed.

I'm also someone that doesn't actually like to spend a whole lot of time on social media. I try to literally set a timer, open the app, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Timer goes off, we're done. You have to have boundaries, because you could literally spend an entire day on LinkedIn or Instagram and not make a single dollar. Yeah, agreed.

Jeff
You know, with all the experience that you've had today, what feedback or advice would you give a young version of yourself, like a 21 year old Luis, that's coming out. What do you think that 21 year old version of you would need to hear from yourself today? Start sooner and it's going to be messy no matter how much you try. So just get used to that. The younger me was like this perfectionist who had a ten year plan.

Luis Baez
Yeah, I grew up in poverty, first in my family to receive an education. I wasn't going to blow my shot like I had a method. It was a way that I was going to continue to grow and come up in my career. And I think because of that, I delayed starting things or because it wasn't the right time, or I didn't start because it didn't look right or it was messy or it wasn't perfect. But over time, I've learned in the power of progress over perfection.

So if I could go back to my younger self, I would impart that knowledge on them and say, everything you want is going to happen. Everything that you deserve is already in motion. Start now. Done. Slap lipstick on it later.

Jeff
Yeah, that's good. We're going to get you a t shirt made that says that.

So we always ask our guests how success is defined by them because it's such a generic word. When you define success, what does it mean to you and how do you know when you've achieved it? Yeah, that's an excellent question. Success for me means being in control of my time and working on the things that I want to work on when I want to work on them. What influences that is some.

Luis Baez
You know, I have been working since the age of 14 when it was legal to work in the state of New York. My first job was scrubbing toilets at McDonald's, and I had to do what I had to do to save up for college. And I worked three jobs while in college to get through it right. I have always done what I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. And my ultimate goal is to be in control of my time and not do the things that I dont want to do and only work on the things that I want to.

That will be the indicator of success when I have that time and those options. I love that. Luis, this has been an enlightening conversation. Anything you want to guide our viewers or listeners to, I appreciate that. I think weve spent some time talking really high level today, but im really a tactical person.

Step one. Step two, start doing. Start moving. Take action. Right.

And if you are feeling fired up after listening to this and want to do something to elevate yourself or your sales process or whatever that might be, head on over to learnfromlouise.com and you'll be able to check out all of my programs and free courses there. Awesome. Yeah, appreciate that. Luis, thanks so much for your time today. Thank you.

This has been a really fun conversation. Super easy, breezy. I just appreciate the space to just show up as my whole self, tell my story and thank you so much.

Southwestern Family of Companies
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