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Welcome to The Adapter’s Advantage: Breakthrough Moments that Lead to Success, the podcast that brings you insider stories of the moments that mattered—turning points on the sometimes rocky road to success. Our guests are leaders in sales, training, enterprise learning, and academia, who share how they’re adapting to the changing world. These interviews are informative, inspirational, and based on real-world experiences to help listeners learn how their organizations can adapt to change. The host is Mark Magnacca, president and co-founder of Allego, the workforce training and readiness platform built for distributed teams.
Episodes
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Tuesday Jan 17, 2023
Melissa Finnegan possesses a broad depth of experience that comes from 25 years of service in the financial services industry. She currently serves as VP, Learning and Development at Lincoln Financial Distributors, Inc.
In this capacity, Melissa and her team are responsible for conducting product, sales and technology training for all employees, which includes training on Lincoln’s annuity, long term care, life and small market retirement plan businesses. Her team supports individuals and teams in developing the skills and behaviors they need to achieve high performance and growth for the role they are taking, the role they are in, and the role that they want.
Melissa has a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University. She is licensed in Life, Accident, and Health, and holds FINRA Series 6, 7, 26, 63, and 65. She is a certified instructor of SPIN Selling and holds the Certified Business Coach designation. She also has her black belt in Kenpo karate.
Show Notes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-finnegan-34802914/
https://www.lincolnfinancial.com/public/professionals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Kenpo
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Emily Mason is a senior learning strategist specializing in sales training at ResMed. ResMed is a pioneer of solutions that treat and keep people out of the hospital, empowering them to live healthier, higher-quality lives. Its cloud-connected medical devices transform care for people with sleep apnea, COPD and other chronic diseases.
Emily has over 10 years of experience in medtech and pharmaceutical sales and sales training. Prior to joining ResMed, she held positions as a sales trainer at LEO pharma and sales roles at Pfizer and King pharmaceuticals. According to StrengthsFinder, her number one strength is “Futuristic”.
Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Northern Kentucky University.
Show Notes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-mason-36534726/
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/254033/strengthsfinder.aspx
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
William Harmon is chief client officer for Voya Financial. In his role, Harmon leads the health and wealth sales, distribution and relationship management teams at Voya. He and his team support Voya’s efforts to deliver holistic solutions that help employers and their employees address their health and wealth needs and achieve greater financial wellness. He also serves on Voya’s Enterprise Leadership Team.
Prior to this role, Harmon oversaw all aspects of Voya’s Corporate Markets business, which includes 401(k) and non-qualified plans. Harmon was responsible for sales, relationship management, strategy and profitable growth for all segments of the market. Prior to joining Voya in 2017, Harmon served as senior vice president, Core Markets, for Empower Retirement.
Outside of the workplace, Harmon has been very active with nonprofits that serve the special needs community, which is consistent with Voya’s own commitment to serve this community through its Voya Cares effort. This includes Adam’s Camp, a group of nonprofit organizations providing a variety of therapeutic programs for children with special needs and their families, the Special Olympics, Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Association, and the Arc of The Farmington Valley (Favarh).
Harmon holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Show Notes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-harmon/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hire-thru-retire-podcast/id1559794591
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Ken and Nick Valla are co-founders of The Valla Group, a sales effectiveness firm recognized as a modern sales training company. The Valla Group uses researched-based, proprietary content and an innovative, scalable approach to learning. Its customers include Amazon, Citrix, Autodesk, BASF, Avaya, Dekra, Siemens, Anthem, Crowe, and Verizon.
Ken Valla is president of The Valla Group. With 30 years of experience in sales, sales management, and sales strategy consulting, Ken specializes in B2B selling to help companies transform and maximize the results of their sales organization.
Ken has sold and implemented over $80M in sales effectiveness solutions and worked with over fifty Fortune 500 companies. Ken’s projects have helped these customers to measurably improve sales performance resulting in millions of dollars of return on investment.
Nick is vice president of strategic sales at The Valla Group. With over 10 years of experience in sales, Nick has been a high performing producer at every organization he has worked for. Prior to starting The Valla Group, Nick sold for Citrix Systems, Wilson Learning, and Allego, where he helped grow the company’s mid- market presence from startup to sales enablement leader.
Show Notes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-valla-0b72b73/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-valla-72592828/
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/b2b-sellers-need-sense-making-sales-strategy
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
Cheri Lytle is Managing Director, Head of Chase Wealth Management Advice and Strategy at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Cheri has an extensive track record of developing leaders and advisors, implementing organizational change, and managing merger and acquisition integrations. Cheri’s organization provides market insights, investment expertise, practice management, and tools to enable financial advisors to help clients achieve their financial goals.
Born a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, Cheri graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Psychology and a Master’s degree in Business Human Resources & Labor Relations.
Cheri began her career at General Electric Aircraft Engines, leading global systems initiatives across ten countries. She then held various leadership positions at Bank of America within bank branch operations, credit card, and small business.
Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase, Cheri was head of advisor strategy and development at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where she led the advisor development program for 3,500 advisor trainees and implemented practice management strategies for 15,000 financial advisors. Previously she led human resources and leadership development for Merrill Lynch.
Show Notes
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheri-lytle-9503a0147/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/jpmorganchase/
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Sales influencer, keynote speaker, strategist, and author Lori Richardson runs the sales strategy firm Score More Sales, which helps company leaders in SaaS, tech, telecom, manufacturing, distribution, financial services and professional services solve sales issues and grow revenue.
Lori founded Score More Sales in 2002 to help companies grow revenues through strategic sales efforts, using lessons learned from 20 years in B2B sales and leadership roles.\
Lori is the author of “She Sells,” written to help company executives and sales leaders find, recruit, retain, and promote more women into sales and leadership roles. She hosts the award-winning podcast, “Conversations with Women in Sales,” and is an expert worldwide on creating inclusive sales teams. Lori also is President of Women Sales Pros and the creator of the She Sells Summit.
Show Notes
https://www.scoremoresales.com/
https://twitter.com/scoremoresales
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scoremoresales/
https://womensalespros.com/
https://womensalespros.com/podcast/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sales-secret-book/
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Ryan Thompson, Senior Director, Global Sales Training at Medtronic, has twenty-two years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He is a seasoned executive and people leader of international teams and large-scale change initiatives.
Currently, Ryan leads the Surgical Innovations global learning innovations team that is focused on identifying, piloting, and implementing the latest technologies used in the learning and development space.
Ryan is a proud member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and in 2019 founded the Medtronic American Indian Employee Resource Group driving inclusion and diversity across the organization.
Ryan is a co-founder of the VTA: Ventilator Training Alliance, which created a transformational ventilator training solution during the pandemic. The VTA app provides a free multi-vendor library of training and product materials for medical professionals. As a result of this work, he received a 2020 Global IT Award, 2020 International Stevie Award, and the 2021 Medtronic Star of Excellence Award.
Ryan received his B.S. in Science Business from the University of Notre Dame.
Show Notes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-thompson-a24b2a93/
https://www.potawatomi.org/
https://www.medtronic.com/covidien/en-us/ventilator-training-alliance.html
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Todd Hartley is the rockstar of remote selling, video marketing, and sales optimization. He’s one of Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery faculty speakers and delivers high-octane keynotes all over the world.
His track record of being years ahead of his industry is why billion-dollar companies, celebrities, and world leaders hire him to develop their sales and marketing strategies. Some of his clients include 23andMe, Justin Timberlake, MD Anderson, The Home Depot, and an American President.
Todd’s tactics earned his ROI-focused video, marketing, and sales optimization agency, WireBuzz, a spot on Inc 5000’s list as one of the fastest-growing privately held businesses in America in 2020.
Growing up, Todd struggled with dyslexia and attention disorders. Today, Todd is a proud alumnus of the University of Arizona, an advisor to the Chairman of the President’s Cancer Panel, and a board member for the American Society of Breast Surgeons.
He is also a member of the SALT Center advisory board — University of Arizona’s academic support program for students with learning disabilities and attention disorders.
From 2003 to 2007, Todd led digital marketing campaigns for ClearChannel & iHeart Radio. Todd’s early prioritization of video as a business tool catapulted his career as a digital marketer, agency owner, and keynote speaker.
Show Notes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/videotodd/
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Jon Ferrara is a serial entrepreneur, CRM pioneer, speaker, and leader in the relationship economy, which is the foundation of social selling and modern-day sales. He's been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Social CEOs, one of the Top 10 Social Salespeople in the World, and one of the Top 100 Marketing Influencers.
Ferrara is the founder and CEO of Nimble, an award-winning social sales and marketing CRM for individuals and teams. He launched Nimble to help people nurture their personal and business relationships across email and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Nimble is ranked #1 in Overall Satisfaction by G2 Crowd.
He’s best known as the co-founder of GoldMine Software Corp, one of the first Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs). In 1999, Goldmine was acquired by FrontRange.
Ferrara is an advisor to multiple start-ups and established companies. He also donates time to local business colleges and entrepreneurial programs including the Entrepreneurial Program at USC Marshall School of Business.
Show Notes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvferrara/
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Friday Jun 17, 2022
Mitchell Haber, regional sales director at OneAmerica Financial Partners, is a top performer who has trained thousands of financial advisors. His leadership and guidance for the regional offices includes sales, marketing, and service. In this episode, Mitch shares how he pivoted during the pandemic to find creative approaches to serving customers and the advisor community, the importance of disrupting complacency, alternative ways to deliver content, and the value of strategic partnerships.
Show Notes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchell-haber-21931a14/
https://www.oneamerica.com/
The views and opinions expressed in this material are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of any of the companies of OneAmerica. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy.
About OneAmerica®
A national provider of insurance and financial services for more than 140 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products.
Other entities referenced are not affiliates of the companies of OneAmerica unless otherwise noted.