The Bird's Nest

Alejandro Vega had a resume most people would be proud of — Account Executive at Gartner, building a territory from scratch at Sysco in Savannah, then Seamless. AI, then Prezent. At 28, he walked away from all of it to buy a concrete coating company in Greenville, SC. In this episode, Dave sits down with Alejandro and gets into the real story — not the LinkedIn version. Alejandro traces his entrep...

Charles Thompson grew up one of five kids with a single mom, surrounded by gangs and drugs — and made a deliberate choice to go a different way. He leaned on football, coaches, and his faith to carve a path that took him to Bucknell University and into a corporate career.  In this conversation, Charles shares what it was like being the first in his family to graduate college, living with a host fa...

What keeps someone at the top of the leaderboard for over a decade?  In this episode, Adam Kronemeyer of Sage shares how mindset, personal drive, and a commitment to providing for his family fueled 11 straight years of hitting quota.  We get into the importance of building real relationships with clients—regardless of deal size—and how understanding a prospect’s true priorities can help you naviga...

Most people don’t take a straight path into sales.  Tyler Meckes definitely didn’t.  In this episode of The Bird’s Nest, Tyler hares how he went from majoring in Exercise Science to building a career in sales — and eventually making the leap into Revenue Operations at Eleven Software.  What changed?  He realized the skills he developed in college weren’t wasted.  They were transferable.  Teaching...

This episode of The Bird's Nest features Lauren Szuchan , a top Senior Account Executive at SourceWhale , sharing a candid look at how her sales career truly took shape. Lauren breaks down the early foundation of her sales mindset from her time at Red Bull , what it was like stepping into a commission- and quota-carrying role, and how she evaluates new opportunities when deciding on her next...

 In this episode, Becca Thompson shares her deeply personal journey from medical device sales to launching her own company as a LinkedIn writer and social media consultant for medical companies  Becca opens up about the pivotal career decisions that led her to entrepreneurship, how her experience with breast cancer reshaped her outlook on life and business, and why she’s committed to showing up un...

Joe McNamara, former Marine Officer and founder of the Iron Leader Team, brings a battle-tested approach to leadership that transforms individuals and teams. With multiple combat tours under his belt, Joe now partners with companies and athletic programs to teach leaders how to lead themselves first—then drive results through disciplined, values-based action. In this episode of The Bird’s Nest , J...

Scott Blostein joins The Bird’s Nest to drop a masterclass on landing your next role by thinking like a salesperson. With years in SaaS under his belt, Scott now helps job seekers break into tech by teaching them to treat their job hunt like a sales cycle — complete with prospecting, discovery, and closing. He gets real about his own imposter syndrome, why fulfillment matters more than titles, and...

In this raw and empowering episode, we sit down with Brianna Chapman — a military spouse living in Canada and a powerhouse AE at Offsite — to unpack her incredible story of resilience and reinvention. 💥 From quietly battling alcohol dependency and unhealthy social media habits to quitting both cold turkey…  💬 From receiving disturbing harassment on LinkedIn to courageously going public and stand...

Mando Sallavanti is a top 1% nationally recognized financial advisor with MassMutual and he is not even to his fifth year yet.  He joined for the second time on the podcast to discuss how in two years he has taken his practice from a good level to now speaking in front of hundreds of advisors from around the country on how to achieve his success.  Mando has experienced success some of us only drea...

Collin Strachan was told he would be most likely be blind by the time he was in his twenties.  The doctors proved to be wrong, but that moment at such an early age has driven Collin to living life to the extreme and taking challenges head on.  Collin and his wife started a creative production company, but soon found themselves searching for more out of life.  They turned to Alaska where they found...

Cassie Moreno was living a life we all would want.  A political Communications Director in New York City working on campaigns she believed in and was thriving at and yet she wanted something else.  She wanted to live a life where she was free to travel, express herself, use her creativity and take chances.  She found a role as a Business Development Representative in SaaS, but utlimately found a p...

Grant Cox was a Top 100 high school baseball player in the US in his senior year.  Two years later doctors stated he would probably never run again.  That is when Grant made the decision to live his life on his terms.  His quote then was "The doctors know the surgery but they do not know the person".  Grant had endured tragedy throughout this period in his life ranging from the death of...

Jeff Hatten did not plan on having some of his videos receive millions of views that is what happened.  Jeff is an entrpreneur who in his own words fell into the space of creating humorous videos and helping companies reach an audience and be memorable.  We also talk about Jeff's start where he leaned on words of encouragement from others to get through the start-up phase every company goes t...

How do Business Owners utilize video over the next 5 years?  Ding Zheng and Jake Clare founded EventShark to show companies how to create content with videos that has not been done in the past.  Trade shows now become hours of footage of branding, client testimonials and marketing material.  Tours of a company's facility now are real, interactive and engaging for their clients.  Ding and Jake...

In what way you are you holding yourself back?  This is the question that Rachel Drukenmiller asks her auidences across the country as a world-class speaker and transformation catalyst.  Rachel talks on her own personal struggles, internally and with some of her most precious relationships, and how these experiences have shaped her as a person and as a speaker to tens of thouands who hear her mess...

If there is one thing that Shaun Hervey is not scared to do it is to be himself.  He has gone from the stage with a band and comedy to running his own successful recruiting business.  We dive into how his LinkedIn journey started from a random late night post to running a new business while handling a young and growing family.  Shaun brings his absolute best and does not hold back on some tough qu...

In today's day and age, selling has become a team sport.  Bradley Pastor  outlines how he has done this over his 30-year career in sales.  His interview covers so many relevant topics ranging from how companies should do partnerships, the AE/SDR balance and how he has hired successfully over the years.  Bradley has coached early stage companies throughout his career and his vast knowledge is...

Is a college degree needed for certain roles anymore?  Roy Schumacher and I discuss this question and look at his background, career and journey.  Roy started walking to work at age 14 cutting meat in a butcher's shop.  He started a business and had an ultra-successful career in the fitness industry for 14 years, but struggled breaking into Saas due to lack of experience and a college degree....

Chris Cicconi, the Head of Business Development for Unicrn and a season sales professional, comes strong with his views on how the buyer's journey has changed.  He discusses how certain companies have adapted to this and how some are still selling in a way that buyers do not want.  He discusses personal branding, the role of the SDR in this new age, and how leadership in companies have respon...

Chris Cicconi comes strong in this podcast with his views on how the buyer's journey has changed.  He discusses how certain companies have adapted to this and how some are still selling in a way that buyers do not want.  He discusses personal branding, the role of the SDR in this new age, and how leadership in companies have responsibility to evolve.  It is an episode where we hit on so many...

Troy Barter joins the show to discuss the future of the SDR role in sales and how  the modern day seller can truly control their own fate no matter the circumstances presented.  Troy is a proven sales leader having trained teams at some of the most well known brands out there.  He explains why he decided to build a six hour plus video course that takes his vast knowledge of sales at every level an...

Go To Market is being researched across the globe more than ever. Loren Shumate joins the show to discuss why that is, how the Marketing Qualified Lead of the past is now being replaced with Account Based Marketing and what companies can do to drive growth using this method.  Her wealth of experience in both sales and marketing senior roles allowed Loren to share such great insights into the commu...

Leslie Venetz tells the story of starting her own company, the mindset shift that she had to go through, the lessons she learned in Year 1 and how she has built her sales consulting business to thrive in under 2 years.  Leslie was so open and honest during this episode on the guilt she faced in taking PTO the first year to how she redefined her client focus.  Leslie's insight is super valuabl...

Eric Iannello, known for his funny videos on LinkedIn around the sales community, provides a very thought provoking perspective of defining who we are as a sales professional.  I came into the episode thinking we were going to talk on his amazing journey from fitness into a tremendous sales career, his views on the current state of LinkedIn and what I found was a conversation on his definition of...