Noob School - Episode 15: Joel Lindstrom

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Joel Lindstrom's journey to Datastream is a PERFECT example of following your passions. Ever since he was young, he's loved computers—even built them sometimes. He and John talk about calendar management, Kolbe scores, and how to get the boss to let you bring your dog into the office. Soak in all the wisdom, Noobs! Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, welcome back to Noob School. Today I've got one of my favorite people of all time, Joel Lindstrom. Quick story about Joel. Joel was down on the third floor, and he positioned himself in a small office that was kind of hard to reach. You know, you didn't really go by it very often when you're walking the hall. It was kind of in a cul-de-sac or something. So anyway, I being the sales manager, would always try to go see everyone, you know, at least once a day. and I would go by Joel's office

and he's sitting behind his desk and he'd just give me a wave. Hey, how are you doing? Fine, fine, fine, fine. So one day I lingered for a while. I figured I'll talk to Joel a little bit longer. And so sure enough, I heard some whimpering behind the desk. And he looked at me with the kind of these guilty eyes

and, of course, he had a dog back there. And this is well before that anyone ever took a dog to work. And it was like a lab, wasn't it? It was a golden tree. And this was the one or two times I brought the dog in the office. Seriously, that was the day you decided to do that. And we had a vet appointment. And I didn't want to miss work.

So, you know, bring the dog, sneak him in. He's quiet. He just laser all the time. Right. So. No big deal. Well, now, I mean, you were ahead of the curve because now it's so common to bring your dog with you to work wherever you go. Yeah.

I don't want to get ahead of your questions. But I think one thing I learned quickly was if you hit your number, you can do whatever you want. Within reason. Damn right. You want to sneak your dog in the office? Nobody's going to fire you for that if you're at your number. Bring two dogs, three dogs. Joel also, I mean, I got a lot of stories on Joel.

Joel also, we all had these, it was like 400 people, I think, in the office. And everyone had a placard, like a little placard on their office that said like Sterling or, you know, room 415 or whatever it was. And as soon as someone got canned or left, miraculously, their placard would disappear. and one day we discovered that Joel had all of them. Yeah, you were up on the wall after you left. And the story behind that is I don't even know how it started, but people started bringing them to me.

They saw somebody carrying a box out of the office. They'd go grab their name tag as this Velcroat on the wall because they just threw them away, right? So they'd bring them to me. I'd walk in the desk and there'd be three name tags on my, so I put them up above my office. And that was also very interesting because that office was great because you or I think Larry came down there one time, whatever, sucked their head in, but nobody, like, walked all the way in and turned around.

So it was like, yeah, your dinner talked to me. And above your head is all these names. Hundreds of names, but lots of names. See, I had some good ones. People ask me to this day if I still have any answers, no. I'll tell you more later, by the way. Okay. All right.

Oh, I'll believe you. Well, that's a good point. Well, that's a lot of fun. So, yeah, we always had a good. time working together, that's for sure. So tell the nubes kind of how you got started in sales. What's your beginning story? I didn't know what else I wanted to do. You know, I didn't have any any really strong skills. I had interest in technology and computers and built my own computers and things like that. But I never had the background or the job to do that. It was kind of like you

had to have like a degree in that area or a history working there to get into that. So I figured the next best thing was work for a software company because it's getting me closer to that. And my first job out of college was selling copiers and fax machines for modern office machines, which I know your dad had connection there and T. Hooper and all that. I had no idea at the time there. But I learned one thing working selling copiers. I hated selling copiers because you talk about believe in the product you're selling. And I had to do the whole spiel about leasing copiers.

And it was a very old school selling system, very much like selling used car, do it now, got to have it now. And when I learned about it, you know, all the Japanese copiers, Conica, Canon, RICO, they're all the same. They all have the same interchangeable parts. And so you're fighting against your close competitor saying ours is better when they're really not. And so that's when I knew. when I was selling copiers in my sleep, that I needed to find a new line of work.

And so I knew some people that worked there. I can't even remember who they were right now. But I went there and I have a history of being in, you might say the wrong place of the right time because you were out of town. You were in Europe at the time. I think Larry Clevenstein was, his daughter was born around that time. And if I remember right, the phrase that I heard after the fact, was cheeks and seats.

It was rapid growth time. And so funny story is I got hired and they wanted me to start immediately. I mean, like, can you start tomorrow? We need people. And I was like, no, I want to do the right thing. I want to work a two week notice. In that two week period, I think the stock crashed. And the group of 10 or 20 people I got hired to all got let go immediately.

And so that's what I mean is if I had started when they wanted me to, it would have been a much shorter conversation. So and got it, this is what I quickly got over my sense of embarrassment because Landy gave me, who was my sales manager at the time, he had no territory to give me. So he gave me the junk list, I guess you would call it. He had just come back from the Caribbean and he saw these water desalination plans and said, you know, they must have a lot of maintenance. Call these guys.

So I'm calling up. I didn't know who had the Jamaica, Jamaica territory. And then one of them, this was my favorite one. One of them was a Marietta. I don't know where it was. And a Marietta, for those don't know, I didn't know this at the time, was a rock quarry. I pictured a marina in my mind. And so I call him, I got the maintenance guy on the phone.

I said, so what kind of boats do you have there? He said, son, we don't have boats. We have rocks. We have rocks. All you want. Yeah, yeah. So that's my story of falling into. the sales.

A weird start. Yeah, it was. A weird start. Well, a little tiny lesson in there is Joel was at, he wanted to be in sales, he got a sales job, he didn't like that sales job. And so he found a place through his friends that they could vouch for. And I don't know who they were, but that happens all the time with a good company. Right.

As you just say, well, they're like, hey, we love it here. They're paying us well. They're nice people, you know, they're growing. You're like, oh, I want to work there. For sure. So that's a good lesson for the noobs to take in. Let's cool. So now you loved computers.

You built one in high school. What did you study in college? You know, it's the interesting thing of all these miscellaneous things that I put together with no real plan have all kind of come together to where I'm right now. And what I did, I was originally wanting to be in radio and television. I had this, I grew up on a farm, middle of nowhere in Minnesota. And so I had this idea because I listened to a lot of radio growing up. And this was before the political talk radio. You had more of the Paul Harvey kind of radio guys out there.

And I just thought that would be cool to do. Then I met some of them and found out that I didn't really like most of the people who worked that industry. They were very much into being seen and heard, but not very much depth. And so then I shifted more to marketing. Good question. How did you meet those people? I went and I think I did an internship, but one of the right, one of the radio stations.

They weren't, they weren't bad people or whatever. It just, they just, I didn't mesh with them well. Great, okay. Just real quick, great, great learning lesson there, though, because you thought something, right? You thought you wanted to work in radio and TV. You did an internship. Turns out you didn't like it. Right.

Isn't that great? Yeah. You'd be stuck in radio TV right now, you know, you'd have kind of slid in. Yeah, get information. Every, every experience you have is information that you use to do experiments, basically. find out is this the right fit? Am I the right personality for this? And I would say it's no different for sales because one big lesson I learned is you don't

have to be like everybody else because when I started was Brian Tillotson, Stephen Donahue, other people like that were killing it. And so you feel like I need to be like them. But only they can be them, right? You got to be yourself and be comfortable in your own kind of weird thing. Yeah. That's a great point. And you've always been, I mean, you've been kind of the more computer guy on the sales team.

Right. You kind of like computers, understood them better than most of the people. So great, another great nugget there is, you know, you really have, you only have two choices. You have to try to be somebody else and not do too well at it. Or just go ahead and be yourself. Right. And go with it. Yeah.

Right? Because that's what we got. Within limits. You don't want to lay out all your weirdness at the start, right? You got to get there on time and make the calls and do the things you need to. But within that, adapt it to your own style, your own personality, and make your own. So you don't want to like bring the dog to work on day one. No, don't bring the dog to work on day one and tell them you need two weeks off first day.

Okay. Let's talk about, first of all, how long were you with data straight? How was there seven years? I made it through the whole in-4 transition. And it was, I think, two, three. years after that that I left and then joined at that time customer effective. Right. And so you, you still with them? Yeah, 15 years. I've been there. They, Scott and Michael sold to Hitachi in 2014. And so I've spent almost as long Hitachi as it was

customer effective. Wow. So again, so many lessons today, Joe, the lesson there to me is Joe wanted to get in sales in the computer area. Okay, that was kind of his thing. And didn't like the first place. And really since then, you've almost been at one place because the guys who started customer effective were all data stream guys. Yeah. So you kind of stayed with that same culture in Greenville,

slightly different product. But one thing that I really wish I'd done better when I was at Datastream is got out of my area of the building and walked over to one of the other areas. Because while I worked with some of the service people when they were delivering projects for things I had sold, I don't really know John Wisnett, Rob Parrott, even Scott and Michael. I don't know even to remember if I really met them before going over there. And that's really given me some insight into other parts of what was going on there. And to this day, I work with a ton of those guys who are still there.

People are still there. Dale Simmons is still there. And, yeah, it's just a lot of still footprint from data stream there. Well, what would you pass on to people just starting today or about to start something that you suggest they should do and maybe something they shouldn't do? I would say, I've already talked about some of things that you should do, such as be yourself. Don't feel you have to have to be other people. You know, of course, put the effort into it, make the call. The things that I wish I had learned earlier that I think would have helped me advance a lot faster, time management, hands down.

My first few years, I was just kind of taking things as they come at me. Whereas if you're more strategic and prioritize what's the most important, do that first, take ownership of your calendar. This is something I drill into my team, and my team is in delivery, but it's very applicable sales too. is if you don't own your calendar, other people will. And the things that they'll think are important aren't necessarily the things that really are or meet your priorities. And the old saying time is money, you know, I really understand that a lot more than I did. You can make more money.

You can't make more time. And so that's where prioritizing things, planning ahead. Don't live in today. Look ahead once a week. Have a meeting with yourself. See what's coming up. make sure things are aligned. You have planned time to prep for what you're doing.

That's what I would say. As far as other things, and this is, for example, we would do these taping sessions at crazy times like 7 a.m. One thing I learned while I was there that I would say to anybody, if you're doing something with your sales manager and 7 a.m. in the morning, we had these all-day sessions where every now and then Michael Pace or somebody would have us get presentations, nobody wants to go first. Be the first guy.

Slap your tape down on the deck. Nobody use tapes anymore, but whatever. The idea would be because if you don't do that, you're going to be sweating for an hour or two hours or three hours, depending on what it is. And also, they have other frames of reference. So like three people mess something up. They forgot to say absolutely.

He's going to be pretty sore when you don't say absolutely too. But if you're the first guy, you're the frame of reference, And then you can sit back and relax while everybody else does it. Just being a peanut gallery. That's a great idea. Yeah. Well, on the scheduling, I have also become a nut about how important the calendar is. Do you have like a pilot checklist or anything in the morning?

Do you have a – what is your protected time? I mean, my protected time is usually like 8 to 10. And that way, again, I don't like – I meet with a lot of customers and I find nobody is really good. But also, at first thing in the morning, but I like that time because it sets me off on a good time. But also, I work with a lot of crazy times. I do with a lot of things on the West Coast.

So nobody wants to meet that anyway. So I find that's good. I used to try and protect, like, the very end of the day, but, you know, I can't do that anymore. Yeah. I've also, I've experimented, but I found the morning is your best bet. You can keep your calendar clear, unless the CEO wants to talk or something or a big customer, but keep it clear as long as you can to do your proactive things.

And then all of a sudden, for me, in my case, the afternoon, I'm kind of free. Right. I'm not totally free, but I'm kind of free to schedule things, try things, explore, and get all my main stuff done in the morning. Yeah. And it's a different world for me now because I'm working in, and I lead a team that delivers projects. So I get pulled into a million different ways. But as you see from my Colby score, which the story there is I never took the Colby

at data stream, but knowing I needed to be paired, I did it before I came on here. And so what I've learned from my Colby score was reinforced what I knew is I'm pretty good at being the plate spinner and keeping things spinning. And really kind of what made me realize that maybe the thing with sales is you're always starting stuff. You're always starting finding the pain and starting something with the customer. I like to be the finisher. I enjoy completing things. And what I found is when I was in sales is I would get a customer primed up. I would sell a project or software. And then somebody else would come in and finish it. And you just kind of leave me itching to know kind of how this

turn out. Where being in delivery, I still use my sales mindset and find the pain. And you and quantify it and that, but then actually am involved in the delivery of the outcome. Yeah, well, again, here's the only person who brought the Colby with him, and you all know it's four zero to ten scores, and there it is. So you can see he's got a high implementer. I don't know how to do with a weatherman,

but a high quick start and a high implementer also. And I'll just read the text. It's very interesting because, you know, Joel, I think, has the perfect job. I mean, you are, you are, every, every solution that Hitachi is implementing for these big clients is a little bit unique and different and specifically for them. Right. And you're in charge of making, you know, figuring out what that looks like and then actually delivering it, which is easier said than done.

You've got customizations and implementing all that stuff all over the world. So this thing says, I'm just reading here, okay? You're terrific at stepping into tough situations and concocting daring solutions, making the impossible possible. You lead the way out of dilemmas as you blaze uncharted trails and improvised inventions until you get them working. I'll read that again. You lead the way out of dilemmas as you blaze uncharted trails and improvise inventions until you get them working. So, you know, if I was hiring someone to lead that kind of team, a technology team, you'd be perfect for it. Yeah.

So a lot of times they were walking in someplace where somebody else has screwed it up. Yeah. And we had to unscrew it up. Right. So I think for the noobs, again, you, so many great points today. But that is, that's Nirvana. That is what everyone should be looking for is where do I match up best? you know, where are my talents matching up best?

That's where I'm going to be the happiest. Right. I'm going to be the most effective. I'll probably make the most money. You know, everything kind of combined together. It's a good thing. And I would say, you know, certainly selling copiers wasn't that. I would say inside sales was not that.

Right. You're good enough where you did good at that. But it wasn't like you're happy. Yeah, sitting in a room with no windows just, I mean, I stare at a screen a lot now, but just doing the same thing day after day sitting in a room with no windows. Yeah, but for a guy who was building computers in high school, you know,

to have evolved into this job is like perfect. Yeah, and that's what I even tell my son, he's 13 now or we'll be 13 in about two weeks. And I tell him, you know what, if you can't decide, if you don't have,

either you have a really defined skill, like my father-in-law who was a pilot, his whole career and he knew we wanted to be a pilot. Yeah. But sales is a great way to get information about how you tick because when you come out of college, you don't really know what you like. You might have some ideas, but you don't, you don't have a real. And especially for someone you talk about head trash, for me, starting out, it was I came from a farm and I didn't live around people who had lived in it, who worked in a corporate world before. Yeah.

You know, because you work on a farm. You don't, you don't, you're not in an office. You're not working with a team of people. I mean, you can be, but it's different. And so that was my head trash is like, I'm different than these people. I don't have the experience they do. But then I figured out, and even when I made the move to customer effective and going, working with people who've been doing delivery and development for years, the head trash

there is, I'm different from these people. I've never done that. But then figuring out, here's how. to adapt my unique skill set and my weirdness to it to be successful. Yeah. Yeah. That is a perfect way to look at it. Instead of you're different, that's a bad thing, it's your different.

That's a good thing. Where can that be a good thing, right? I mean, that's the question. Right. Well, that's very cool. So working on a team on a farm, wouldn't that be like a barn raising or something? Yeah. Or picking rocks.

We did pick rocks. Okay. You know, they do that by drone now. I guess you knew that. I have not seen the drone rock, the rock picking drones. Call home. All right. So now it's time for Joel's favorite word.

So I'm doing my homework. Everybody said absolutely. So I'm going to use the word preventive. Okay. I still cannot use the word preventative because if I say preventative, I see Larry Clevenstein in my head like whapping me. Oh. Because it really, it has too many syllables.

It's syllabical. preventive rolls off the tongue better. So it's not my favorite word, but it's one word that the job of data stream altered my vocabulary permanently. So, I mean, it's an inside joke, but what we used to sell was preventive maintenance. And some people would say preventative. Yeah. And it does.

You know, maybe it sounds a little more important. Yeah. It's being intentional about what you say and thinking before you say. Yeah. That's a good one. Well, Joe, I got to say, I really love doing the podcast with you. Yeah. It doesn't surprise me.

I thought we'd have a good, we've always had a good time together. Yeah, we have. Ever since the dog incident. Right. Yeah, I've got, I've got a number, I've got another dog story. I don't know if you remember this one. So we were in, this was one of the very first Bill Garcia seminars. And we were at the, was the embassy suites?

It was one of those hotels. I don't remember which one. The embassy on Verde. Yeah, I think it was the embassy on Verde. And we're going through the, you know, trash on the lawn and all that stuff. And I get a call on my flip phone because this is before smart smartphones. And it was one of my coworkers who was on a different team. And he was watching my dog because we were getting our house painted.

He was calling me to tell me that unfortunately our dog Charlie had been run over by a car. And I took the call and I said it down and I said, I said, I'm going to have to go. my my dog was was killed and you thought I said my daughter and so you came out like Joel are you okay I said yeah my dog was my dog was killed oh I mean it's still bad yeah but not yeah but then I caught up on my Bill Garcia trading what trading ones for fives whatever yeah well he's he's got a great website yeah I've seen it yeah he's good well get him on the We'll get him on the show one day. That would be good.

I wonder what it'll cost me. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. See what you could get him to negotiate. Do like a restaurant or something, have him talk the waitress down or something. Well, you are too, man. Thank you very much.

Yeah. Appreciate you, Joel. Thanks, John. All right, man. Thank you. Thanks.