Lynn Hidy has been helping inside sales teams and sales leaders for years. Her new book, "Mastering Inside Sales Leadership: Your Get-It-Done Leadership Success Guide" is available January 8th.

Lynn and I sat down to talk about sales leadership and career pathing in sales.

More about Lynn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnhidy/

Learn about her new book here: https://masteringinsidesalesleadership.com/

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Episode 212 here, with a great sales leader named Shay Keeler, VP of Sales at Common Room.

Shay spent 4-1/2 years at Outreach, starting as an Account Exec and getting promotions throughout her stay there. Now she is at Common Room as VP of Sales. We talked about her meteoric rise in various organizations - what it takes to get a promotion into a new role or one you've never done before, and how selling is different in the age of AI.

More about Shay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shay-keeler-9a640632/

More about Women Sales Pros:

we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Jaime Diglio and I have a lot in common when it comes to our beliefs for success in sales.

Mindset is where it's at - first and formost. Jaime created a program that takes you from your "WAR" room in your head into you "WIN" room.

She agrees that the most important first sales conversation is the one you have with yourself.

Are you down and need a boost? Listen to this episode and we'll cover tips and ideas to help you get into your own WIN Room (WIN Room and WAR Room are TM by Jaime)

Jaime talks about the importance of Emotional Intelligence for your self awareness, and Social Intelligence so that you can understand others.

She says "The New ROI is the Return on Interaction" - building trust vs losing trust, and being clear on your goals and values.

More on Jaime: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimediglio/

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Hear some of our favorite takeaways from the following Conversations with Women in Sales guests:

Jen Waltz

Ayana Gardner

Amber Hayes

Ashley Wilson

Kelly Hippler

Cynthia Cross

Erica Ettore

Tracy Young

Laura Lakhwara

Dr. Jane Sojka

Kayla Burke

You can catch the FULL episodes of any of these snippets on iTunes or on Youtube - start by going to https://womensalespros.com/podcast/

We're on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@loririchardsonsales

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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It is an amazing new book: "Women and Power: Your Guidebook to Risk, Resilience, and Confidence" by U of Cincinnati sales and marketing professor Dr. Jane Sojka released in August, 2025. It's all about ways women can rise within a B2B sales career - and it happens to be good for men, too - and really anyone who wants to be more successful with their ideas, goals, and plans.

There are four parts to the book:

Part 1: Self-Limiting Beliefs

Part 2: Resilience Strategies

Part 3: Confidently Communicate Competence

Part 4: Lift as You Climb

This book rated a 10 out of 10 with my book rating system - is a must read for anyone wanting to feel more determined, strong, resiliant, competent, and confident.

More about the book: Amazon link here.

More about Jane Sojka; https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-sojka-bba54522/

Women & Power: Your Guidebook to Risk, Resilience, and Confidence is the ideal resource for women who are held back by their inner voice. Based on Dr. Jane Ziegler Sojka's national award-winning class at the University of Cincinnati, this book brings Sojka's techniques for eliminating self-limiting behaviors and common communication habits directly to you. Whether you start on page one or at the area you feel you need to focus on first, Sojka's system allows women to close the gender gap in skills critical for success in sales. With options for reading on your own or with a group, the strategies and tools for reflection and practice offered by Sojka's professional development course can now be followed by thousands of women of all ages and from all walks of life.

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Kelley and I had a great conversation about her sales career - some of the highlights below:

As a seasoned Chief Revenue Officer with over 20 years of global commercial leadership experience, Kelley specializes in driving sustainable revenue growth and transforming sales organizations.

She is a strategic, data-driven, people-first leader committed to achieving challenging goals through thoughtful planning, relentless execution, and clear communication. She values success, accountability, and perseverance, ensuring she leads with a strong will to win while empowering others to align with a shared vision and building teams that scale. Kelley thrives in scaling B2B businesses through modernized go-to-market strategies, optimizing operational efficiency, and building high-performing teams. Whether revitalizing mature organizations or starting from scratch, she's consistently delivered top- and bottom-line growth while navigating ambiguity and executing on ambitious targets. Currently, Kelley is Chief Revenue Officer at Briefly Legal, where her leadership spans marketing, business development, and customer success, all with a focus on creating scalable processes and fostering collaboration across functions. During her five years as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) at Forrester Research, her team grew company revenues 51% through organic and inorganic growth, reaching a company high $538m in revenue and $1.13b in market cap.

More about Kelley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelley-hippler/

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. @womensalespros

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I had such a wonderful conversation with Channel Sales Leader and Mentor Jen Waltz.

As Chief Information Security Officer of Imagenative, Jen is:

FOUNDER and CISO. Empowering Your Business to Scale, Secure and Succeed.

She helps with: Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies: Help partners build, deliver, and manage cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions. Enterprise IT & Digital Transformation: Adopt next-gen technology solutions by enabling the right partners, distributors, and vendors. Cloud & SaaS Enablement: Accelerate cloud, cybersecurity, and SaaS adoption across industries. Technology Distribution & Supply Chain: Evolve from traditional logistics providers to digital orchestration. Channel & Partner Ecosystem: Enable VARs, MSPs, and SIs to build profitable, service-led businesses.

More about Jen:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenwaltz/

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We are looking for our 2026 sponsors!

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Listen to Ashley Wilson, Co-Founder of Momentum and the great conversation that happened. We talked about her career journey from sales and marketing to co-founder status.

We also talked about the adoption of AI and how things are changing. For years, in sales we had trouble with the data that lives in conversations on sales calls and in written form has long been left out of crucial follow up by reps.

AI is here to help sellers who sell complex services and products assist as the "co-pilot" to take away all of the tedious, busywork of research and note taking.

Sadly, a Harvard Business School associate professor reasearched and found that women are adopting AI tools at a rate 25% less than men.

Women in business - it's time to dive in!

Momentum has gained lots of traction lately due to client success stories - below are some resources, including visiting Ashley's profile on LinkedIn.

Ashley Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilson820/

Momentum case studies on AI use: https://www.momentum.io/case-studies

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and @womensalespros on Instagram.

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Nhungly Dang and I had a great conversation around what four careers her parents expected her to do, and how she found her way into business and ultimately leading SDR and BDR teams to great success. Now she leads PipeVisionIQ as a consultant after more than 12 years building front line sales teams.

Nhungly has developed SDR workflows that are data-driven, technology-driven and adaptable to any organization's environment. ✅ She helps growth-stage and enterprise teams fix SDR chaos fast—without a massive budget or overhauling your tech stack. ✅ She designs repeatable, scalable, and measurable outbound workflows that drive consistent lead-to-opportunity conversion. ✅ She aligns sales and marketing efforts so your SDRs are focused, productive, and delivering real pipeline.

Reach her on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhunglydang/

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We are part of Score More Sales.

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Laura Lakhwara leads GTM teams and customers in transformative strategies that empower businesses to streamline operations and scale efficiently with AI, automation, robotics, and data-driven insights.

She has an incredible background from working at IBM, a first-ever partnership with IBM and Apple, and other companies like UI Path and Softbank Robotics.

We had a great conversation - her expertise spans market entry strategies, enterprise sales, customer success, and fostering customer-centric cultures that drive revenue growth and long-term partnerships.

Follow Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralakhwara/

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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I had a great conversation with co-author of the new book, "The Activator Advantage"'s Karen Freeman. Here is some information about the book from DCM Insights:

There is a growing problem in the professional services industry that is often acknowledged but rarely discussed openly: clients—even long-standing ones for whom firms have delivered unquestioned value in the past—are much less loyal to firms and partners than they once were. But top performers have figured out a radical new approach that is redefining what it means to be a "rainmaker" in today's professional services market. Drawing on a comprehensive, quantitative study of nearly 3,000 professional services partners, The Activator Advantage identifies the five types of partners found across the professional services landscape and shows how only one of them—the Activator—drives consistent growth.

Karen and I talked about what activators do: commit, connect, and create.

Take a look at the book information here: https://www.dcminsights.com/activator-advantage

More about Women Sales Pros - we have a website, we are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Subscribe to our 2x a month news, and share the podcast with others! We'd love a 5 star rating and comments on iTunes if you are so moved! It really makes a difference.

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Thank you for sharing these stories! We want to inspire women to consider a sales career, stay in a sales career, and / or get promoted into leadership in B2B sales. We champion our male allies as well.