Christina Brady’s Journey in Tech


“Ladies can’t be in tech” — actually?

From Ada Lovelace to Grace Hopper to Adele Goldberg, girls have confirmed that they not solely belong within the tech and MarTech house however may create their very own legacy. 

In my dialog with Christina Brady, CEO and co-founder of Luster, she says, “In an trade the place fewer than 5% of startups based by males have feminine CEOs, the rarity speaks volumes.”

Christina’s journey into the tech trade is one in all resilience and adaptation. She transitioned from gross sales roles to changing into a number one determine in AI-driven gross sales enablement. With 15 years of expertise in tech, she brings a singular perspective on the challenges and improvements driving the tech and MarTech house.

This interview is a part of G2’s Skilled Highlight collection. For extra content material like this, subscribe to G2 Tea, a publication with SaaS-y information and leisure.  

Heat-up questions

What’s your favourite beverage? 

If we’re speaking about alcoholic drinks, I am all concerning the traditional Manhattan. In relation to non-alcoholic choices, I like my sugar-free vitality drinks — I virtually run on them! 

 

What was your first job?

My first job was after I was 14 years outdated. I labored as a secretary on the artwork college the place I took my artwork courses. When the courses turned too pricey for my mother to afford, I began working within the entrance workplace to assist cowl the prices of my portray courses. 

 

What’s your favourite software program or software program class in your present tech stack?

One software program that has really made my life simpler is Canva. Being an artist, you’d assume that I’d be good at designing. Nevertheless, I am not naturally gifted at designing shows or considering creatively in that format. Canva simplifies the method by permitting me to create beautiful shows rapidly and effortlessly, which saves me from the clean canvas syndrome.

 

What issues at work make you wish to throw your laptop computer out the window?

The most important problem is after I’m caught in a cycle of back-to-back conferences. By the top of seven consecutive conferences, I usually really feel like I am even additional behind. After being on calls all the day, I discover myself drowning in 400 emails and 300 unread Slack messages. After which I would like to choose up my baby from college. It is ironic how the extra I attempt to sustain, the extra overwhelming it turns into, and that generally makes me wish to toss my laptop out the window! 

Deep Dives with Christina Brady

Are you able to inform us a bit about your self and the way you bought began within the tech trade?

Sure! I have been in gross sales for about 17 years. I misplaced each my mother and father in my early 20s and have become homeless. I noticed that my preliminary profession selection would not present the monetary safety I wanted. I used to be then capable of get employed and work as an insurance coverage salesperson, and I discovered that I liked promoting however didn’t love what I used to be promoting. Whereas I found my ardour for gross sales, the product did not resonate with me.

Later, the tech increase of 2009-2010, throughout which I used to be dwelling in Chicago, modified the sport for me. With firms like LinkedIn, Salesforce, and the then-emerging Groupon making waves, I seized the chance to pivot. I utilized for an account government function at Groupon, going through a frightening 60-person group interview course of. It was wild! However they noticed one thing in me and employed me, marking my entry into the tech world. It has now been 15 years since that! 

Wow, 15 years in tech! That’s an unimaginable milestone. As one in all solely 15% of feminine tech startup founders, what challenges have you ever confronted, and the way have you ever overcome them?

The most important problem is that when there aren’t many individuals you possibly can ask for recommendation, and when there aren’t numerous of us who’ve lived what you’ve got lived, it is tough to get recommendation particular to what I would like. As a lady within the predominantly male area of AI venture-backed expertise, discovering a supportive community that actually understands my journey is tough. My background is considerably unconventional for this trade. I’m neither an engineer nor a product developer. As an alternative, I embody the person demographic I am creating options for, which units me aside. 

There are all types of difficulties, from attempting to get time within the room to safe funding to attempting to compete in an trade the place you don’t have numerous girls. Generally, it might really feel arduous simply to get a leg up and be heard and brought severely. As a minority inside this group, I encounter lots of the typical limitations related to being underrepresented.

Regardless of having an unconventional background, you will have made a robust presence on this house and proved to be a thriving chief. How have your roles at your earlier firms formed your method to management and innovation at Luster.AI?

My method to management is obvious and open communication. It’s deeply rooted in my intensive background in improv theatre. For over 12 years, I carried out with Improv Olympic and Second Metropolis and took part in numerous conservatory and theatre packages. These experiences honed my means to assume rapidly, pivot effortlessly, hear attentively, and assess conditions precisely. This expertise has formed how I work together and collaborate with others.

My management type has developed drastically since my first function at Groupon, the place I used to be promoted to supervisor from an account government and needed to handle a staff of 30-35 individuals who have been as soon as my friends. I believed being a pacesetter meant having all of the solutions and by no means admitting uncertainty. This mindset led to isolation, burnout, and the sensation that management won’t be for me.

My mentor, Invoice Bartlett from the Sandler group, helped me discover numerous aspects {of professional} communication and efficient management. That proved to be a turning level for me. I turned fascinated with office dynamics, delving into ideas like radical candor and DISC assessments. I’ve actively used this method whereas constructing Luster.AI. It helped me create a extra clear and candid relationship with my staff. 

For instance, I’ve common open periods the place individuals share concepts and provides suggestions, and we additionally take pleasure in numerous actions that assist us study one another’s strengths and weaknesses. This deep dive reworked my tackle management, making me a extra attentive listener and a greater chief.

And now, as a pacesetter at Luster.AI, I’m captivated with fostering a values-based tradition. I try to create an atmosphere the place people really feel genuine, revered, and empowered. We prioritize open communication and deal with points constructively to construct a supportive office. 

Drawing out of your intensive management journey, you’ve got possible encountered a wide range of challenges and development alternatives throughout the trade. What frequent ability gaps have you ever seen in gross sales groups, and the way does Luster.AI successfully deal with these gaps?

A standard problem is after we fail to determine the distinctive particular person ability gaps till these gaps have already affected key areas reminiscent of our gross sales course of, income targets, or buyer retention.  That is the place we should resolve which ability hole is most detrimental so we are able to retrain workers and goal for higher outcomes sooner or later. 

As somebody who has progressed from an account government to a frontline chief, I’ve discovered it tough to pinpoint what’s stopping us from reaching our income and efficiency objectives. This usually leads to guesswork: is the issue with our gross sales course of, methodology, objection dealing with, or demos? We by no means really know, and this uncertainty drove me to create Luster.AI.

At Luster.AI, we assess expertise at a person stage — be it for a gross sales rep, buyer success staff, or enterprise improvement consultant. It creates a ability proficiency map that highlights every individual’s strengths and areas for enchancment, enabling us to foretell the place potential gaps would possibly influence. As somebody who skilled this lack of visibility firsthand, I noticed that even when gaps are recognized, addressing them may take months with out enough assets.

So Luster.AI is supposed to not solely uncover ability gaps which can be stopping you from hitting income but in addition assist you proactively deal with them.

What do you envision for the way forward for gross sales enablement, and the way is Luster.AI getting ready to steer on this house?

What I’ve noticed not too long ago is many proficient professionals in enablement, studying and improvement, management, and training discover themselves trapped in reactive conditions that have an effect on their effectiveness. The aim is to shift from this reactive hearth drill method to a extra strategic one.

“The way forward for gross sales enablement is all about being prescriptive, proactive, and predictive”

Christina Brady
CEO and co-founder of Luster.AI

Think about if enablement groups may measure every particular person of their group, figuring out gaps and inefficiencies. This may enable them to create a proactive and predictive roadmap for coaching and improvement. Based mostly on data-driven insights, they may acknowledge what kind of programming to implement all year long. Selections like who to usher in as a visitor speaker or what Monday’s staff coaching ought to concentrate on would be told by this knowledge.

From a gross sales chief’s perspective, having a prescriptive, individualized teaching plan for every staff member means realizing precisely the place potential points would possibly come up. This stage of perception permits leaders to fulfill their staff members the place they’re, offering personalised teaching and coaching to deal with ability gaps. The flexibility to take care of a real-time pulse on staff dynamics is already yielding optimistic income outcomes.

Seeking to the longer term, the potential for groups to develop, scale, and develop with this newfound functionality is thrilling. We’re on the cusp of unlocking a wholly new period of gross sales enablement and management, the place data-driven methods cleared the path. This guarantees to revolutionize how we method gross sales teaching and staff improvement, opening doorways to potentialities we have now solely begun exploring

What was a current problem you confronted along with your present shoppers in serving to them enhance their income? How’d you assist them overcome it?

One vital problem at present affecting many firms is instrument fatigue. 

Many organizations have spent a whole bunch and hundreds of {dollars} on totally different applied sciences meant to assist their groups administratively or in income creation. 

Nevertheless, this has led to burnout points, as gross sales reps, CSMs, BDRs, and managers are sometimes required to juggle 10 to twenty totally different instruments each single day. These instruments steadily lack integration, leading to low adoption charges and frustration from a administration perspective.

On high of that, each three to 4 years, we see a shift in how consumers purchase expertise. A whole lot of instances, firms do not observe that shift. They keep on with very inflexible gross sales processes and methodologies that not serve their prospects, however the change feels an excessive amount of of a activity. And so the place we’re attempting to intersect is guarantee that we have now a instrument that could be very particular, very simplistic, and does one thing simply measurable.

Furthermore, we goal to equip groups with actionable insights that reduce by means of the noise, enabling them to focus exactly on what’s essential to drive speedy outcomes with out the burden of extreme administrative duties or sifting by means of complicated knowledge.

“Immediately, simplicity is vital — the extra user-friendly the instrument, the higher.”

Christina Brady
CEO and co-founder of Luster.AI

As we enter 2025, what do you assume are the largest developments in AI that can take over the gross sales panorama? 

There are two massive developments in AI proper now: its potential to exchange human roles and its capability to assist and improve them.

A few firms have come out with expertise the place AI takes over duties historically carried out by people, reminiscent of AI-driven gross sales improvement representatives (SDR) designed to conduct gross sales outreach, or AI methods that generate advertising and marketing emails and create promotional supplies.

I believe there’s numerous nervousness and hesitation round these sorts of instruments and round this development. First, individuals inherently do not wish to get replaced by a machine. And so they do not must. And secondly, there’s the worry of what if I change my whole staff with an AI robotic, after which it would not work.

Nevertheless, within the second development, you will have instruments that aren’t meant to exchange a salesman. They’re meant to present them a metaphorical treadmill to assist them be the strongest model of themselves. And so there you will have AI serving to with administrative duties, serving to individuals to acknowledge gaps, serving to to educate them, and serving to to coach them. 

So, these two primary use circumstances in AI are the large ones that we’re seeing, and at instances, they type of compete with one another just a little bit.

What are your ideas on sustaining a correct work-life steadiness and having your individual time?

For me, it’s really totally different. I’m a type of individuals who embrace a scarcity of steadiness. I do not assume that issues are going to be balanced. As an alternative of steadiness, I concentrate on making significant selections and sacrifices that align with my private {and professional} values, leaving me content material and justified on the finish of the day.

Being deliberate along with your time is important. On the finish of every day, I goal to make the very best selections that decrease remorse and propel me towards my objectives. 

“Setting clear goals for what success appears like in numerous roles is important. Decide the way you wish to allocate your time to those objectives.”

Christina Brady
CEO and co-founder of Luster.AI

In case you goal for simply steadiness, you would possibly spend the remainder of your life feeling like a failure. It is attempting to measure a fish’s means to climb a tree. Einstein mentioned that, and he was proper. You may have to have the ability to settle for the truth that steadiness is not going to occur, and the minute you let go of that restraint that you simply’re placing on your self, it simply turns into about being deliberate and being glad and profitable in a scarcity of steadiness.

Final however not least, what recommendation would you want to present to younger entrepreneurs, particularly feminine entrepreneurs who aspire to steer within the tech and MarTech house?

Some of the essential ideas of efficient management is knowing that you simply need not have all of the solutions or excel at all the things. Your major function as a pacesetter is figuring out what must be completed and figuring out the very best individual for every activity. 

It isn’t about dealing with all the things your self or realizing each resolution. It is essential to embrace the power to say, “I do not know,” and concentrate on surrounding your self with people who complement your expertise and fill any gaps.

So pay attention to what you are good at and your zone of genius, after which be fully open and modest about what you are not good at. Discover good individuals to encompass your self with. Allow them to do their job and keep centered in your zone of genius.


Comply with Christina Brady on LinkedIn to study extra about her journey and the way she is reworking the world of gross sales enablement. 

In case you loved this insightful dialog, subscribe to G2 Tea for the most recent tech and advertising and marketing thought management.


Edited by Supanna Das

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