Laura Horner

All right, let's do this.

Hello. My name is Laura, and I am in sales. Please don't leave. Please.

Professionally, I've been in sales for a number of years now. A prize goes out to somebody that can guess. But personally, I've been in sales my entire life.

I would argue, in fact, that we are all in sales, and it's the most unlikely suspects that have helped transform this world using their innate skills. Many of them are among us today. Many of them were likely at this festival as well.

Let's look at some examples. Where would we be if Microsoft wasn't invented? Or would we be here today? Possibly. The world would look a little bit different. But instead, we also have Bill Gates and Paul Allen to thank for all of the coding that they did to sell to other companies, with their passion and perseverance that helped birth Microsoft.

Looking at another example, what about kids? Children. They ask why all the time. It's their innate sense of curiosity and willingness to learn and their ability to influence and to sell us parents all the time.

My kids, I'd argue that they're the best salespeople out there, but my daughter right now is what not to do in sales. She currently wants a treehouse, but the fundamental problem is that we don't have a tree in our backyard. So the persistence is a little much.

How many pairs of glasses would we be carrying right now if Ben Franklin didn't invent the bifocal? He saw a market need and took an opportunity and solved a problem. Same thing with the lightning rod. It's a modern convenience that we all enjoy today because we have electricity, lots of it, and it's wonderful, and it's through the perseverance that he kept trying and trying to create the electricity.

So by now you're probably wondering, what do Bill Gates, children, and Ben Franklin all have to do with sales? This is just a sampling of the billions of people in this world who are all out trying to innovate and to succeed and to transform the world. They use their drive, their passion, their perseverance, and their persistence to understand what market needs are, the challenges out there, and to try and solve for them. They're listening, and they're understanding.

Without influence, it's hard to innovate. Without innovation, our world would look a lot different.

So with innovation, that's one of the reasons why we're all here today, because we want to innovate, we want to transform, we want to make a difference. But as we know, in this DevOps world, this industry is constantly changing. It's hard to keep up. Everything's moving at a lightning pace.

But what isn't changing is the need to move faster and better. And when that happens, you can run into a lot of pitfalls, such as a fear of failure, fear of missing out, and the fear of the unknown.

So I encourage you: how do we start learning? How do we take advantage of all of this knowledge out here? Because there's just not enough time in the day. Coming here is a great way to get started, to see what else is out there, to start influencing your leadership.

So I may have sales in my title, and you all may not, but the reality is that we need each other in order to learn about the different offerings, and how to succeed, and how to transform, so that we can go back and influence our leadership and transform.

So for the industry out there, I encourage you to talk to salespeople, not to be sold, but to be educated. The good salespeople out there will educate you on their offerings and the different solutions that are out there so that you can make the best decision, even if it's not theirs.

For salespeople out there, please seek to understand. Understand the need behind the need and the circumstances behind those needs, because every situation is a little bit different.

Back to the industry. Know you're all here to learn and then to take this information back to influence your leadership to help with these transformations. I encourage you to leverage your inner sales so that you can ask good questions and learn more, because this is a partnership, and it's not just about the technologies and making the transformation. It's about the journey. It's about the entire experience that you're having from start to finish, because we're all in this transformation together.

Thank you.

All right. Give it up, man. Give it up.