The Podium

I have the project management skills of a baby carrot. Here are 4 essentials to managing my 5-9 that helped me scale to 6-figures in revenue (without getting fired from my day job): ↳ Keep it separate. I don’t keep any of my side work on my work computer. I have to physically open another laptop to work on side sh*t. This keeps me honest and focused during the workday for my w2 and also helps me stay organized. ↳ Have a source of truth. Systems are ESSENTIAL. I run almost every aspect of my side work thru Notion. I keep track of finances, use it to share and collaborate on content and house all of my contracts, drafts + ideas in one central hub. ↳ Organization is everything. And it’s my WEAKEST skill. My version of organization used to be one folder labeled “Important stuff” that I would dump everything in, never to be looked at again. With Notion AI, regardless of how I structure my folders, docs or projects it can help me retrieve, summarize and organize all my information regardless of where I put it in notion with a single prompt. Bonus it can helpp me search thru Google Docs + Slides for vital info. No more spending hours digging thru digital archives to find the stats slide from that one prezi I did 8 months ago. Lifesaver. ↳ Time block EvErYtHinG. I keep my 9-5 my sacred, and work on side stuff before or after hours and on weekends. I have a calendar that maps out when I do the things. Scripting is a block. Recording is a block. Editing is a block. Copywriting is a block. Even admin. If I don’t put it on my calendar and honor what my calendar says, it just disappears into the attic of my mind. Am I perfect? No. But these 4 things have helped me go from absolute chaos, to somewhat functional and productive at both my day job and my side hustles. This post was sponsored by Notion:) I used them long before we ever collaborated and will continue to run my whole side business on the platform. If you want to check out Notion AI, go here ➡️ https://ntn.so/ZoeAI #NotionPartner #Notion #NotionAI Ps. Can we just acknowledge the utter ridiculousness that is trying to film your day? So silly.

Some tips for goal setting from smarter people than I- How to set goals you ACTUALLY hit in 2025: ⬇️ Goals without systems are just pipe dreams. If you set a goal, and don't break it down into the habits, activities and milestones required to actually hit those goals, you're going to wake up on December 1 2025 WOEFULLY behind on your goals. Here are the strategies I have found that helped me hit my actual goals this last year and will help keep me on track for 2025. Write down identity statements: - I am a distance runner - I run a successful side-hustle - I am a "title I want to have" at my W2 Now take those identity statements and think about milestones or measurable goals that would align to those identity statements. Example: I am a distance runner: I want to run 2 half marathon's and a full marathon in 2025. Break that down further. >>> I need a training plan and schedule for those races. I am downloading an app to plan out my daily/weekly/monthly running schedule. I also should probably eat like a "distance runner" and come up with a nutrition plan. ^^ The long-short of it. What does someone who embodies this identity do? How do they behave? What does their day/week/month look like? Then create a plan/system around it that rolls up into the measurable part of the goal. Here are a few of my 2025 goals: - Don't get fired - Don't d*e - Exceed $100k in side income - Scale YT, IG + Newsletter to 10k each - Spend 6+ weeks working outside of the US:) What's one of your 2025 goals? Call your shot below! #career #goals #lifeadvice ♻️ Repost to remind your teammates it's time to make those new year's resolutions they won't keep. (Or maybe with this framework, they do in 2025!)

Meaning you could be the best at what you do, and if no one knows who you are, someone less talented than you will beat you every single time. Lesson 3/24: Visibility beats ability. A conversation with Finn McKenty 🍕 reminded me of this a few weeks ago. The reality is, people don’t just buy from people they can trust, they buy from people they KNOW. In order for people to know the value you bring they have to at least be aware of you. The remedy to this conundrum? Person Brand. If you don’t know where to start, here’s what i’d do if i was trying to build a brand from scratch today: 1. Start on the platforms your ideal buyer is spending their time on. 2. Share educational or experiential content that showcases your expertise around a problem you solve. 3. Write/create content for a specific person/persona. 4. Write/create in your own tone of voice. 5. Pick a cadence and stick with it. Consistency over frequency. If you need a recommendation? 2x a week to begin. 6. Engage regularly with peers, prospects and potential mentors. ^ Rinse and repeat 2-6 What would my friends with a personal brand add to that starter pack? #24of2024 #career #personalbrand

24 Lessons from 2024 (part 2): Give from a place of abundance and abundance will follow. >>> But what does that mean? Time and time again when I have given without expectation, I’ve found that karma comes back for me in really cool and unexpected ways. But early on in my career it was really hard to feel like I had value to give to people. Like no one was hitting me up for sales advice 2 months into my SDR role (and they shouldn’t have 😅) So how can you “give” when you feel like your short on resource and expertise? simple. your time. Like when I was a lil baby SDR I was broke as hell and couldn’t afford to donate to a charity or anything that tangible- but I could volunteer. In fact my company at the time gave us a bucket of PTO for volunteer work. So one year I partnered with a local food bank and sent personal thank you videos on behalf of the organization to 100 of their donors. Felt good:) ————————- So I’m super proud and stoked to announce that Apollo.io just launched our #coldcallforcharity directory. It’s literally a directory we are building of charities and causes in need of some help generating donations this season… AND sales people willing to donate some of their time to cold call on behalf of these causes to help fundraise. Costs either party $0. But matches your fantastic cold calling skills - to a need you can help fill. It’s really special:) I’ll be cold calling on behalf of a charity next week (and filming it for your entertainment) 😳 If you are: - a charity in need of help fundraising - a seller who’s down to help a charity by cold calling in their behalf - or just a person willing to spread the word that this directory exists … peep the reg page in the comments & consider liking, reposting or tagging a friend in the comments to help us spread the good vibes this season. Something magical happens when we throw goodwill out into the universe. Has a way of making its way back to us ✨

Just came back from leave to a mountain of stuff. Here’s how I’m tackling it all to catch up as quickly as possible: ⬇️ 1. Wake up and realize we implemented Okta while I was out 2. Find out you need Okta to log into slack 3. Panic because you don’t know your IT team’s email address because you always just slack them 4. Realize you cannot log into email without Okta 5. Figure out you cannot set up Okta without your email 6. Panic text your boss at 9a because you still haven’t started working. 7. Zoom decides to update, just for fun 😩 8. Rejoice because you remember you’re still logged into your email via Superhuman on your phone. 9. Get back into everything 🧘♀️ Now the real real: - slack 0 - inbox 0 - running to do list as you get to inbox 0 - 15 minute impromptu zoom with Joshua Garrison to catch me up on any critical context or immediate needs to address - have him graciously give you the day to catch up on all the things - get project updates from every cross functional project i’m involved in (what did i miss) - time block the rest of my week to make sure by friday i am fully back on track - start tackling sh*t tomorrow Extended PTO for med leave was a gift. But coming back to a nightmare hell-scape of work often deters people from taking the time they really need. PTO is PART of your compensation. It’s necessary for your mental health. Literally nothing is that important. TAKE THE PTO- and give yourself some grace (and one business day) to catch up on all the things. Then get after it! We aren’t curing cancer here folks:) It’s just SaaS 🤓 #pto #worktips #honestlycorporate

“What the hell does Zoe do for work” This is 60 seconds of my family trying to explain 😆 They were all kinda right and mostly wrong. Who else had the “so what is your job again?” conversation with their 94 yo grandfather for the 6th year in a row? Yep, you read that right, my grandpa has been 94 for 6 years now.. At least my little sister knows i work @ Apollo.io - i credit pur excellent social media presence for that because there is no shot she remembers anything i tell her.

“What the hell does Zoe do for work” This is 60 seconds of my family trying to explain 😆 They were all kinda right and mostly wrong. Who else had the “so what is your job again?” conversation with their 94 yo grandfather for the 6th year in a row? Yep, you read that right, my grandpa has been 94 for 6 years now.. At least my little sister knows i work @ Apollo.io - i credit pur excellent social media presence for that because there is no shot she remembers anything i tell her.

The human brain is truly incredible. It works around the clock, 24/7 from the second you’re born… and stops the moment your boss asks for an impromptu project update in the marketing team meeting.

4 things I would do as a brand new #SDR to speed run to the top of the leaderboard (hint; don't wait for someone to hand these to you, go get them for yourself): ⬇️ It took me 3 months to land at the top of the leaderboard and if I had to start over again today, I'd still do these things. 1. Shadow the top performer. If you're in office, ask to have the desk next to them. Pay attention to everything they do: - How they approach their day - What their calendar looks like - Their tone on cold calls - How they speak/listen in meetings - The way they write emails Be a sponge. 2. Listen to sales calls every. single. day. CS calls. Sales calls. Wins. Losses. Listen to all of them. Maybe skip the 2 hour murder mystery podcast while you do admin and listen to call recordings instead. At Apollo.io we use our Conversations tool (it's freeeeee) or you could even get scrappy just listening to zoom recordings. Use what you've got but RECORD sales calls on your team ANNNNND listen back to them. 3. Become a product EXPERT. You should know this thing inside and out. Whether you have a super technical product or you sell a tool you use in your day to day, it shouldn't matter. One of the BEST ways to learn the ins and outs of your product is to ask to shadow your support team. Listen to customer escalations. Read help desk tickets. You should know how your product works, how it breaks, how your customers commonly use it and how they're finding value from it. Marketing will give you a 1 pager- ditch that. Learn the product for yourself. 4. Find a mentor. Preferably one outside of your business. Find someone out in the wild, who is a step or two ahead of you in their career. Because you may be an SDR today, but 2 years from now you might want to be an AE, a Manager, a Marketer or heck, you might want to run your own business. 🤷🏻♀️ Find folks ahead of you, meet with them on a regular cadence and be thinking about your current role thru the lens of it being a building block for your next 2-3 moves. What would you say is number 5? ♻️ Repost so an SDR pal can hit the ground running in their new role. #sales #salestips #careertips

My 5-9 outside my 9-5 looks a little like this: ⬇️ -Sign off of my W2 by 6p most days -Gym (sometimes, cuz you know we gotta cry on the treadmill) -Come home + make dinner -Hop on my laptop in bed and write (either the newsletter - dropping soon!- social copy, video scripts or ghostwriting content for clients) -Spend at least 30 minutes scrolling IG/TikTok for video ideas ↪ I live in Canva (where I made this logo), Notion + CapCut ↪ I check my content calendar, follow up on invoices and prospect weekly ↪ I capacity plan for the next month at the end of the current month ↪ I spend 2-3 hours on Saturdays wandering Pinterest and working on brand ↪ I shoot content in the evenings and on Sundays ↪ I edit content at night most nights ↪ I check Stripe once every 2 weeks because I often forget to invoice people like an idiot Not saying it's a perfect system or that I recommend every part of it to anyone else, but it works for me. It's chaos. But it's organized chaos. I feel really lucky to be able to do something so similar in my day job as my side gig. It's the kind of work I absolutely love doing and brings me a lot of joy/fulfillment. Influencer marketing and content creation is just now hitting it's stride in B2B and I feel really fortunate to be in the middle of it all. G2 interviewed me a few weeks ago around my thoughts on my role and Influencer marketing in the B2B space. I'll drop the convo below if you want to check it out:) ‼️ Ps. Would you wear this sweatshirt? I made this logo in Canva. I run all my influencer partnerships, ghostwriting, speaking and social selling training through the little ghost. Gila Shapiro 🖍️ told me my logo sucks, but I kind of like it. I'm currently working on a Day in the Life video 5-9 edition to show you how I spend my evenings and weekends working on this side stuff If 7 or more people comment "Gila is wrong, your logo is cool" I will order 20 more of these sweatshirts and send them out following my DITL video:)