A restaurant worker. A college tennis player.
Brandon Barton, the restaurant worker, and Tom Alaimo, the tennis player, didn’t go to school for sales. But through experimentation, networking, and development, they became rising stars in the revenue world. Now, they’re the new hosts of the Pavilion Podcast.
Barton is the CEO of Bite, a digital ordering platform that helps restaurants survive the COVID pandemic, while also branding themselves with customer-pleasing online experiences. Alaimo is a growth account executive at Gong, which provides analysis to sales teams who can then make decisions based on data, not opinions.
Since taking over the Pavilion Podcast in February, the duo has focused on learning. The premise is simple: What can we learn from each other to be better at our jobs? But those aren’t the only pressing questions facing Barton and Alaimo. We caught up with them to ask what they’re doing during the pandemic, what they want people to get out of Pavilion, and how they got their gigs as podcast hosts. Helpful tip: Sometimes it pays to make a cold call.
Work success at Bite, Gong
RCHQ: What are you doing right now at your day job?
Barton: Bite is helping restaurants to represent their digital brand the right way. Many brands jumped to do something to put out the fire, but not enough brands are thinking about how a digital experience needs to continue to be hospitable, not just transactional. And that’s what Bite is. That’s what excites me about what we do.
Alaimo: I’ve spent the last three and a half years building up my own podcast audience for a podcast that I run called Millennial Sales and being a salesperson. And now I’m selling a sales tool over at Gong, starting this year.
How does somebody become a podcast host?
RCHQ: How did you get your gigs hosting the Pavilion podcast?
Barton: (Pavilion founder Sam Jacobs) called me and said, “Hey, you’re outspoken and funny, and I’d love for you to take over the podcast.” And I don’t know if I agreed with either of those things, but I said yes to the podcast gig.
Alaimo: I didn’t get the call from Sam. I made the outbound call. I think it’s so interesting that during the pandemic, Pavilion has helped me probably have the best networking year of my career by far. I’m someone who works well in an intimate, one-on-one, or one-on-few conversation, so having more of those personal conversations and learning from people and getting to know them is one of my favorite things to do. So the podcast was an obvious yes.
Vision for the Pavilion podcast
RCHQ: What do you want the podcast to look like?
Barton: My goal with the podcast is straightforward. I want to showcase the members. My format is similar questions each time, and within 15 minutes, hopefully, we’ll get a small sliver of visibility into somebody’s life and career and what’s worked for them and what hasn’t.
Alaimo: I’m trying to have long-form conversations with people you might see on LinkedIn, successful people, and try to learn more about their story and kind of crack that nut open.
‘The greatest insurance policy.’
RCHQ: Sell us on Pavilion.
Barton: I think Pavilion is the greatest insurance policy that you can have for your career. And what I mean by that is if you’re in sales and want to stay in sales, knowing who the great people are, the thought leaders, the people you want to work for, the companies that are doing great, having direct access to them and then learning from them is the best way to advance your career. You’re going to get smarter by being a part of Pavilion.
Alaimo: Hands down the best community that you can find to accelerate your career.
Tune into the Pavilion podcast every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to hear more from Tom and Brandon.
Listen on Stitcher | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
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