An excerpt from the book How to Be a Woman in Technology
Post By Cheryl O’Donoghue, MS
Do you want to advance your career? Take Amy Bailey’s advice—think and act like a business owner. But exactly how does one do that, you may ask? Read Chapter 12 in the book How to Be a Woman in Technology, to find out. The chapter, which focuses exclusively on Amy, is jam-packed with practical wisdom and forged by her real-world experiences and a deep desire to assist us all in our journeys. If you’re looking for a way to differentiate yourself even further and make your mark in your company, putting Amy’s words into action will give you an extra edge.
Now, here’s the excerpt:
Amy was in high school when her father leveraged his telecom experience and founded a technology sales company, CONNECTIONS (callaccounting.com). CONNECTIONS specializes in call accounting solutions, and thirty years later the company is still going strong. For Amy, she grew up in the business and had a surface knowledge of the products they sold. While she was fascinated with all the different technologies, she didn’t see herself having a career in tech after college.
Amy managed a retail department for Nordstrom and moved up to managing retail stores for Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers. She enjoyed the work but not the commute. She was in her mid-twenties when she worked for Brooks Brothers in downtown Los Angeles. Her round-trip commute from Orange County was three hours each day. When the company opened a store close to her home, she put in for the store manager’s job immediately. But she didn’t get the position.
“I was devasted,” says Amy. “My dad suggested I work for his company over the summer and if I didn’t like it, I could go back and get a retail job around Christmas. I said, ‘okay, that works,’ and I quit my job with Brooks Brothers.”
During her first week on the job at CONNECTIONS she worked a major tradeshow for Nortel (now Avaya). Though she knew little about what was going on, she was hooked. “That tradeshow was a great entrance for me. I loved the technology. I loved the people. The energy was really cool. I remember thinking to myself this could actually turn into something.”
It did. Amy took the initiative to immerse herself in the business fully. It was 2004, and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) was catching fire as a hot new methodology and group of technologies for delivering voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the internet. It was easy for someone new to become an expert fairly quickly because everything was changing so fast. In a short period of time, Amy became a star salesperson for her father’s company.
“My family is from Iowa, and there’s something about that Midwest stock. You just roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done.”
In the years that followed, Amy built a strong network with many of the people who owned the technologies she was selling. One group of gentlemen, who owned VXTracker (a web-based call accounting system), told her they were looking to sell their company. Amy mentioned this to some folks she knew well from another company she thought would be a good buyer for the VXTracker technology. She helped introduce the two companies, and before long, a deal was made. In the process, Amy got her first taste in channel management. Shortly after she helped broker the deal, the channel manager working with VXTracker left, opening an opportunity for Amy.
Amy retells what happened next. “The new company CEO who bought VXTracker went to my dad and said, ‘I really need to hire Amy because she knows the product better than anybody else. She can still be your channel manager, but I need her to help us bring VXTracker out to more clients.’”
Amy’s father gave his full support and encouraged her to take the offer. He knew that becoming a channel manager for the VXTracker system would be an incredible career move for her. Though Amy left the family business to work for the manufacturer, she was still able to protect her parents’ interest. It was a true win/win situation.
As a channel manager, Amy was part of a team that developed VXTracker into a suite of products. She especially enjoyed training new customers on how to use the application because it kept her deeply entrenched in the technology. Over time, they added more VX products, and the software was relabeled VXSuite.
Her passion for VXSuite was infectious. Her head and heart were definitely in the game, and she felt a strong sense of responsibility for contributing to the success of the products. Her sincere enthusiasm and willingness to do “whatever it takes” led to her taking on marketing for VXSuite, in addition to being the channel manager. Over time, her success in marketing, which helped contribute to the remarkable growth of the VXSuite, resulted in an offer (which she accepted) to lead marketing for the company full time.
Event coordination and oversight accounted for a large part of Amy’s workweek. “In addition to all the events we regularly participated in, we decided to take on the crazy idea of hosting our own annual user and partner conference,” she notes. “We rented out a venue at Lake Las Vegas, brought in fifty partner organizations, and had a channel partner conference all about VXSuite. It was a blast.” It also helped to raise the company’s profile in the industry.
Within two years, the company was acquired again. This time by … (Continued…)
To read Amy’s complete chapter, How to Be a Woman in Technology is available on Amazon. All royalties earned from book sales are donated to Mission Sisters Who Work to help fund the nonprofit’s scholarships and programming for women in business- and STEM-related fields.
Cheryl O’Donoghue, MS is a longtime executive, author and emotional intelligence leadership champion. In 2016 she began a series of personal and professional reinvention “reboots,” which led to her making the difficult decision to leave a productive career as a chief communications officer. She gave away most of her worldly possessions, moved out west to be closer to family, and began to write books focusing on emotional intelligence leadership—a topic she had created and facilitated courses in both business and academic settings for over 20 years. How to Be an Emotionally Intelligent Leader (while Crushing Your Goals) was just published; How to Be a Woman in Technology (while Focusing on What Matters Most) was released last year and How to Be a Woman in Business (while Being True to Yourself) was published in 2018. All royalties from book sales go directly to support the humanitarian nonprofit Mission Sisters Who Work.
Mission Sisters Who Work was co-founded by Cheryl in 2018. Mission Sisters provides women self-empowerment and emotional intelligence resources, as well as scholarships needed to help take charge of their lives, so they are well-equipped to close their own gender, opportunity and pay gaps. The organization has a special focus on serving those from underprivileged communities interested in business or STEM careers.
Cheryl also founded Emotional Intelligence Leadership Resources—a training, communications and coaching company that transforms organizations and the results they achieve through proven emotional intelligence (self) leadership practices. Philanthropy has played a prominent role throughout Cheryl’s life. All royalties earned from her book sales go to women served by Mission Sisters Who Work, in addition to a portion of all earnings from her work through Emotional Intelligence Leadership Resources.
Cheryl can be reached at cheryl@BnEiLeader.com or cheryl@cherylodonoghue.com.