Helping Companies Drive Revenue Through Relationships & Partnerships | Demand Driver | Content Creator | Sales Execution & Community Strategist

Momentum favors the people willing to rethink, move first, and figure it out in motion.

The same is true in the market. Growth begins the moment you stop clinging to what no longer fits.


Markets shift. Buyers evolve. The companies that stay relevant are the ones willing to evolve with them.

My career started in sales, where I learned how companies actually grow. Over time my work expanded across sales, marketing, partnerships, demand generation, and broader GTM leadership.

Working across those functions taught me something important. Most teams share the same goals, they simply approach the market through different lenses.

Sales thinks in pipeline
Marketing thinks in narrative and demand
Product thinks in adoption
Leadership thinks in outcomes

The challenge is rarely effort...it's alignment.

My work sits in that space, connecting teams, ideas, and market signals so direction becomes clear and execution follows.

Growth rarely comes from one function alone. It happens when sales, marketing, partnerships, and ecosystems move together across the market lifecycle.

I think about growth through the bow tie, not just the funnel. Market insight, demand creation, partnerships, community, pipeline, expansion, and long term value reinforcing each other.

I lead with EQ and operate from first principles. When teams trust each other, messaging reflects real conversations in the market, and partnerships and demand generation move together, results become far more durable.

Before all said above- I was a walk-on D1 basketball player at Ole Miss. That truly shaped how I lead today. Earn it, show up ready or not, and prove what you know you are capable of.

What drives me most is much closer to home…my two daughters.

They are the reason I move with intention, choose courage over hesitation, and care deeply about how I show up in the world. I do not want them to hear what might be possible one day. I want them to see it lived.

Because how we show up matters.

Areas I focus on:
• Sales, marketing, and partnership alignment
• Ecosystem and partner led growth
• Demand generation and pipeline creation
• Narrative and campaign strategy tied to market timing
• Cross functional GTM leadership

Angel investor: Lavender & Vengreso
Contact: amelia@ameliataylor.co
Collaborate: https://app.limelighthq.com/p/amelia-taylor

Amelia Taylor

SaaS fractional Chief Revenue Officer | Entrepreneur

I've been fortunate to serve many roles throughout my career which started in the back office of Wall Street and progressed into product management and new product development, which was a code word for sales.  As an intraprenuer, I developed the skill to sell solutions sketched out on a white board. 

This skill set brought me to Silicon Valley where I excelled working with SaaS startups.  As my skills evolved to a repeatable process, I worked with larges and more established tech companies as a consultant.

I've reached that point in my career where success is defined by not only results but also the process of developing skills in others.  To that end, I take great pride in developing the skills of others and attempt to instill that passion in all managers.

🍷 🍇 Chris DeNoia

I don't want my sales reps working 60 hours a week.

40 is enough.

I've spoken to over 100 CROs in the past year. You know what would make most of them happy? If 80% of their team just hit quota. Not crushed it. Not worked weekends. Just met expectations consistently.

We've made "hours" the goal instead of "outcomes." 
Those aren't the same thing.

Here's the calendar I prescribe for my teams. It's a framework, not a rule:
09-10am → Prep. Know who you're calling and why. 
10-12pm  → Call block. Full presence. Notebook out. 
12-01pm  → Lunch. Actually eat it. 
01-02pm  → Internal meetings, 1:1s, pipeline reviews. Keep these tight. 
02-04pm → Call block. Second wind. 
04-05pm → Close out. Emails sent. Tasks done. Call recordings reviewed.
5pm → Shut it down.
Go to the gym. Have dinner with your family. Recreate. 
Get a full night of sleep. Recharge.

That's the job. Do that consistently to increase chances to hit quota.

The metric most sales leaders aren't tracking: time on phone.
3–4 hours of active phone time per day is the target. 

Most teams are getting 1–2 hours.  That's the gap.

Not time in the office.
Not time on Slack.
Not time in internal meetings.
Time on the phone with energy, with curiosity, with full attention on the person at the other end.
That's what moves the number.

The reps who want to exceed quota and work longer? Great, they'll make Presidents club, commission, bonuses, and promotions are waiting. 

Exceeding starts with meeting expectations first.

A burned out rep cannot listen. Cannot be genuinely curious about a customer's problem. Cannot show up fully for the person on the other end of that call.

The best sales skill you can develop?  Protecting your energy so you can be fully present for 3–4 hours of real conversations every day.

That's the job. 40 hours is enough.

🧘 Chris DeNoia

SaaS Chief Revenue Officer | Entrepreneur | Lean Startup Expert

From behind, I thought this sculpture was a person in agony.

Arms pinned back. Dark. Heavy.

I walked around to the front.
Arms raised. Bright pink. Triumphant. Pure joy.

Same sculpture. 
Completely different story depending on where you're standing.

I've been thinking about perspective a lot lately.
This morning it was freshly painted in her honor for International Women's Day.

In sales, we obsess over our pitch, our process, our quota. We build everything from our angle.  Walk around the sculpture.

The entire sales process changes when you approach it from the customer's journey. What looks like a stalled deal from your side often looks like a vendor who stopped listening from theirs.

The women in my life, professionally and personally, have pushed me to move my feet before drawing conclusions. To look before I call it.

That's a skill. And it's one worth honoring today.

No med school. No residency. No fellowship. Just reps who learned how to have better conversations than anyone else in the room. I know salespeople who out-earn doctors.

If financial freedom is the goal, I don't know a faster road.

I've watched people spend 4 years and $200,000 on a degree to qualify for a $55,000 starting salary. A skilled sales rep can hit six figures in their first year.

No gatekeeping. No credential. No waiting your turn.

Here's what makes sales different from almost every other career path: your income is tied to the value you create. Not your tenure. Not your title. Not who you know.

A 24-year-old who listens better than anyone in the room can out-earn a 20-year veteran in almost any other field. I've seen it happen.

And the compounding is real.

Start in SMB. Learn the motion. Move up-market. Each jump brings a new compensation tier. The skills transfer. The earnings don't reset.

The other thing nobody tells you: sales teaches you how businesses actually work. Where revenue comes from. How buyers make decisions. What problems companies are willing to pay to solve.

That knowledge is the foundation of everything: entrepreneurship, leadership, investing.

The people I know with the most financial flexibility? A surprising number of them started in sales.

Not because they were aggressive closers. Because they learned how to create value in a conversation... and then they never stopped.

Nobody told me this early enough.

I transferred into sales from product in my mid-30s. My salary doubled.

Hopefully this helps someone figure it out sooner than I did.

If you know someone figuring out their next move, send this their way. Or drop a comment — what was the moment you took sales seriously?

How does a fictional post on Substack tank the stock market?

@Citrini's "The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" hit 28 million views on X. IBM dropped 13%, its worst day in 25 years. The iShares Software ETF hit a 52-week low. DoorDash, KKR, and AmEx all fell 8%+.

All from a scenario the author explicitly labeled "not a prediction."

(Link in the first comment if you're one of the few who haven't read it yet.)

I've read this article before. In 2018. About self-driving cars.

Wired published "Autonomous Vehicles Might Drive Cities to Financial Ruin." No more speeding tickets. No parking revenue. No gas tax. Cities would go broke. The dominoes were mapped out perfectly.

Now Citrini maps a new set of dominoes. AI displaces white-collar workers, SaaS collapses, private credit defaults, mortgages crack. 38% drawdown by 2028.

Both articles trace the dominoes falling beautifully.

Both make the same mistake. They never consider what emerges.

And some of those dominoes aren't going to fall the way they think.

Citrini's scenario has AI agents autonomously replacing SaaS contracts and rerouting payments. Sure, an AI agent can code a simple tool. It can order food directly from a restaurant instead of DoorDash.

But can an AI agent navigate the enterprise buying journey solo? Sit through a discovery call, run a security review, get legal sign-off, align three stakeholders with competing priorities, and close a six-figure contract with no human in the loop?

I sell into enterprise buying committees for a living. That's not happening in 2028.

But here's where it gets interesting.

Instead of fearing AI agents in the buying process, what if we designed sales motions around them?

What if an AI agent could facilitate the customer journey? Book a demo autonomously. Qualify itself through a discovery process. Navigate procurement. Surface the right stakeholders.

That's not SaaS dying. That's the next sales motion being born.

The companies thinking about how to sell to and through AI agents are going to have a massive head start. The ones reading Citrini and panicking are going to miss it.

The sky isn't falling. It's rearranging.

Ten seconds. That's how long it took a yoga assistant to get me into a pose I'd been suffering through for minutes.

I've been thinking about that all week.

Phil Mickelson had the worst title in sports: best player to never win a Major. Best short game in the world. Still couldn't close.

He hired David Pelz, former NASA scientist, renowned short game expert. One goal: shave half a stroke per round. Half a stroke is 0.69% better.
6 Majors. 12th all-time.

Reclined hero pose. One leg curled back, leaning on my elbows, quietly dying. Ten seconds later I'm flat on the floor, completely relaxed. One small adjustment from someone who knew what I was missing.

That's what a coach does.

And here's the thing: this doesn't have to be expensive. Growing up, I learned carpentry from my Dad and This Old House. A Saturday morning ritual.

As sales leaders, we coach our reps constantly. Who's coaching us?

Career. Craft. Fitness. Finances. Whatever you do for fun.

Name one person in your life right now who is actively making you better at something. If you're drawing a blank in any category, that's your answer.

PS: I have a great yoga recommendation if you're interested :)

“I’m the person they call when the CRO gets fired”.

That was my introduction in a room full of CROs during the SF meetup of The CRO Collective 

Shots fired.

The average duration of a CRO tenure is 17 months. 

And most companies don’t need them.

If you are a CRO and read this post from Elizabeth Andrew and still rate the answer <5, thank you for the Lead.

How do I know? 

As a fractional CRO/Head of Sales I’m leading multiple companies that are hitting quota. Solo. 

Are full time CROs necessary? 
Not always. 

Could I have done this pre-AI.
Not a chance.

AI is making many of the management roles part time functions.  The hottest job board out there is Fractional Jobs 

This is an adapt or die moment.

Not fear mongering.

Heck, this isn’t even Paul Revere, he ran through this town over a year ago.

And even in my current role. 
I’m an 8.

5x Sales Leader | 3 Exits | Scaled from $0 → $100M ARR | Helping founders build AI-first sales organizations

Last week, I was genuinely mind-blown. 🤯 

Richard Harris™ asked a simple question:

𝐎𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝟏–𝟏𝟎, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝟏𝟐 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬?

So many responses were in the 0–3 range.

Zero.
Two.
“Not at all.”

Then yesterday, Jack Dorsey announced he’s cutting his company from 𝟏𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝟔,𝟎𝟎𝟎.

His explanation?

“𝑊𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑒. 𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔. 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤… 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑑𝑙𝑦.”

Read that again.

Not distress.
Not declining revenue.
Not cost cutting to survive.

𝐀 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.

This isn’t about companies failing.

It’s about companies realizing they can produce the same - or more - with fewer humans.

And it’s accelerating.

If you answered 0–3 last week…
Are you still there today?

This isn’t fear-mongering. It’s pattern recognition.

The winners in this cycle won’t be the ones who deny it’s happening.
They’ll be the ones who:

     • Learn to leverage AI
     • Redesign how they create value
     • Position themselves where human judgment, creativity, and trust matter most
     • Move before they’re forced to

Complacency is expensive.
Adaptation is leverage.

Curious.....where’s your number now? 👇 👇 👇

One of the golden rules of sales and marketing: give value before you ask for anything.

Do you agree with that rule?

Then why is my feed filled posts where the author is gatekeeping their own content. To get it, you have to Like, Comment, or Follow first.

That's the opposite of the golden rule. It's taking value before providing it.

I've played along with the Like, Follow, Comment. 
You know what I got back?

Garbage. Unactionable, AI-generated, copy-paste garbage.

These engagement posts are gaming the algorithm with people hungry to learn what AI can do. 

The "community" is completely hollow.

I'm considering running an experiment. In 4 weeks I'm going to do one of these posts myself and see what kind of engagement it actually drives.

Because attention you borrow through tricks doesn't compound. 

Value does.

undefined undefined

Interim CRO | Consultant

Lean Startup Instructor

Adjunct Professor

Winning by Design

Chief Revenue Officer

English

Italian

I do most of my AI work out of Claude.  Here is my a quick 2-Step process for leveraging the Claude.

First, define the project.  Tell Claude what you are trying to accomplish, use whatever prompt framework you want here.  The important action is the final prompt.  Ask me as many questions as you need before beginning.

That prompt alone help refine all your thinking, and it's not a new tip.

Here is the new tip.

Based on what you know, what is the best place to do this job: Claude chat, Claude code, Claude cowork, the projects, or create a skill? please provide your recommendation and the pros and cons of each.

This will get you in the right place to save time and improve outcomes.

You'll thank me for sure :)

I saw this post from Warren Zenna as I was drafting a someone related post on titles for sales reps 😊

Because I was wonderingwhy we continue to use certain job titles.

Most account executives are… not.
The don’t manage the account when it becomes a customer.

What are SDRs developing? We don’t use film anymore or the dictionary definition may be insulting “to cause to evolve or unfold gradually, to expand through growth, or to bring into existence” huh?

And SDRs shouldn’t be selling anything.  We teach SDRs to focus (qualify) on problems, not the solution. 

You know what titles we like:
I’m you doctor
I’ll be your server tonight, and my favorite 
I’ll be your bartender this evening…

Great, this person can cure me, bring me food and drink. I know what they do.

Has anyone heard the phrase, “I’m your sales development rep” and thought, “great! Just the person I wanted to talk to… “

This is why everyone in banking is a Vice President.  No one wants to talk to an AVP.

I used to tell my team, “whatever title helps you sell if good with me”.  But this may need to be more prescriptive. 

Perhaps we should have titles that instill confidence in the customer. 

Sounds like a future brainstorming activity with Claude…

The CRO Architect | Author of “What Chief Revenue Officers Actually Do” | Founder, The CRO Collective.

Gong just evolved their CRO role into Chief Revenue Architect.

I've spent six years building a company around one conviction: revenue leadership is an architecture problem, not a management problem. 

So when I read Shane Evans' piece, I didn't see a rebrand. I saw a signal that the market is catching up. 

And Gong is doing something most companies won't — they built a 12-week accreditation program to actually develop Revenue Architects. 

Structured training, capstone projects, real capability building. Not a title swap. That matters.

But here's what's still missing from this conversation.

Shane is focused on the revenue team. That's his world and he's right about it.

But the operating system a Revenue Architect has to build within? That's not set by the revenue leader.

It's set by the CEO, the CFO, and the Board.

They define the culture. They control investment priorities. And most critically — they set the success timelines. 

And here's where the system breaks: revenue architecture compounds slowly. The early work is invisible. 

But Boards grounded in quarterly signals can't see it, so they pull the plug.

That's not impatience. That's a structural mismatch between how transformation actually works and how governance is designed to measure it.

It's why average CRO tenure is still 17 months. 

Not a skills gap. A timeline gap.

Shane is right that the CRO role has to evolve. But you can't architect a revenue system inside a governance structure that's optimized to reject it.

So here's the real question — not for revenue leaders, but for CEOs and Boards: Are you willing to build the conditions where this transformation can actually land?

Because without that, you're not hiring a Revenue Architect. You're hiring the next scapegoat.

CRO Readiness is not just a CRO with a proper mandate. 

Its a company thats “ready” - aligned, recalibrated, mandated - to support this new paradigm.  

The CRO Collective

#CRO #RevenueLeadership #B2B #CROReady

AI automations to Slack channels are going to wreck most teams productivity. 

Why does everyone need to see a summary a team need to see a summary of every call? (A summary is designed for human eyes)

Here’s a modification. 

All this information is good, but rather than have everyone see it, colllate it separately into a different Sheet/Doc.

The AI agent can make a running frequency diagram of mentions, objections, feature requests. 

Product checks mentions of feature requests for roadmap.

Marketing checks competitor intel for updates in product positioning. 

Sales management checks objection for training / call review / role play. 

Now the internal discussion goes from
“I hear this all the time”
To
“This feature was mentioned in x out of y calls last quarter”.

When that AI agent is built, ping me.
I’ll be interested…

Actually, I may build that this weekend.

Thanks!

CEO @ Cassidy | AI Agents That Operate Like Your Team (we’re hiring!)

Here’s a no-brainer AI automation every sales team should set up…

We have a Slack channel where, every time someone on the team has a sales call, an automation automatically posts:
- a concise summary of the call
- competitors that were mentioned
- top objections
- feature requests
- deal probability

We set up something similar for customer success calls too, so we can track things like:
- feature requests
- recurring issues
- expansion signals
- general sentiment over time

It keeps the entire company aligned on what customers are actually saying in real conversations.

Access this Agent Template today: https://lnkd.in/eEcMQmEj

"Prime calling windows" is just a fancy way to say "I didn't feel like making calls today." 
I said it.

ABC became "Always Be Calling... but only between 9 and 10." 
I've never bought it.

Reps convince themselves there's a small window each day for success. 
Look at the calendar they're building:

People pick up just before 9.
People pick up at lunch.
People pick up after 4.
People pick up on weekends.

I had a discovery call last Sunday morning. Warm intro, but still -- Sunday. 
We both showed up.

The only metric that matters is attempts per day. 
Not what time they happened.

Your pipeline doesn't care what time it is.

The best time to make that call? Now.

Tag a rep who needs to hear this.

We got the Winning by Design band back together for a reunion show!

Emilia D'Anzica, MBA, PMP leading Account Management / Customer Success for Anagram and looking for an Enterprise Solutions expert.

You'll handle all the big enterprise accounts.  If they sell eyewear, that's probable your account...  From the cool kids frames with hundreds of locations to that warehouse that has cheap hotdogs.  

Come work with us :)

I help leaders turn complexity into clarity and performance into measurable growth. 4 Exits. ICF Executive Coach • MBA Educator • Fractional CCO

View Emilia D'Anzica, MBA, PMP’s profile

♨️ Hot Job Alert! If you love helping customers and have a growth mindset, come join me & 🧘 Chris DeNoia at Anagram (remote)!

The company is fast growing and the team is bright, motivated, and taking over the Eye Care Industry.

Interested? Full job description below. You can apply directly or DM me!

#Jobs #Careers #customersuccess #Sales #Revenuegrowth

WarGames introduced a lot of kids my age to game theory.

The first game theory lesson most people learn is Tic-Tac-Toe, a central plot device in WarGames.  The real lesson: sometimes the only winning move is not to play.

Game theory is an underrated strategic skill. The latest business application, distinguishing finite games from infinite games, is a post for another day.

Here's a simple game that reveals a lot about how you think strategically.

The Setup
100 players. 3 groups. The group with the most points wins.

Group A: 33 players
Group B: 33 players
Group C: 34 players

Each player = 1 point. But there's a catch: Group C never earns points, no matter how many players they have.

You're the leader of Group A. How do you win?

Three strategies:

1. Recruit from Group B. Convince players whose points count to switch to your side. Effective, but the hardest to execute. People don't abandon their team easily when they have skin in the game.

2. Activate Group C. Get sidelined players into the game. Works reasonably well. People who feel like they don't count can be motivated to start counting.

3. Relegate Group B players to Group C. Make opposing players feel like their participation is pointless. This is the easiest strategy of all. It's far simpler to discourage people than to inspire them.

Congratulations!  You now understand how game theory explains American electoral politics.

Real customers pay you before the product exists. 
Most founders never test this.

Bill Gates licensed DOS before he owned it. 
Steve Jobs sold 500 Apple 1's before the computer was finished. 
The Slate Auto paid waitlist is now past $10M.

Sell before you build.

I learned this before I ever called myself a salesperson.

Early in my career I ran new product development. My job was to sit with existing customers, find the problems our products didn't solve, whiteboard a solution on the spot, and come back to the office with a Letter of Intent — a non-binding agreement to buy.

Nothing finished. 
No demo. 
Just a whiteboard and an Expo marker.

This is what the best founders do. 
It's also what the best sales reps do.

The demo is not the sale. 
The sale is the sale.

So before you show your next prospect a demo... have you asked them to buy yet?

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