The time is right, and it's the right thing to do!

After a great 9+ year run at Khoros/Spredfast, the time is right to move on.?Working for Khoros has been an amazing experience for me professionally and personally.?I would encourage anybody to consider Khoros that wants to learn from great leaders, and work for a great company delivering awesome solutions in an amazing space.

A few random memories that come to mind when I think back on my time at Khoros: -- Arriving on my first day of work and being shown my desk in an 8 X 8 room with 3 other Sales Directors above the Jos. A. Bank store on Congress and thinking “what did I get myself into?!?”.?This was a big change compared to my previous office environment.?It felt like a dorm except we shared a common bathroom that was used by the public (and sometimes abused by the public), and when it rained outside it would sometimes rain inside one of our offices.

-- Closing a contract with a convenience store chain 1.5 weeks on the job thinking this was going to be easy.

-- Hitting a dry spell for 5 months and trying to finalize a new partnership with a recreational equipment company thinking I would get fired if I didn’t get the contract signed before the EOQ.? *The contract came in at 4:30pm on New Year’s Eve, and then I went to The Handlebar to celebrate the win by myself since everyone else already left the office.?It was a memorable beer.?

-- The noise and quakes from the wrecking ball being used to demolish the Spaghetti Warehouse (now The Capital Grille) next to our office.?

-- Someone (I think it was Games) leaving their fish tacos from the Turf and Surf food truck in one of conference rooms.?I wish I could forget this one.?

-- Getting the opportunity to manage the Twin Cities territory, and learning how amazing Minnesota and the people that live there are.

-- Faking it until we made it and moving into a proper office in the Silicon Labs building.?

-- Having 7+ people crowd into a tiny conference room to listen in on discovery calls for enablement purposes before we had a good way to record them.?

-- Being moved to the “Hot Seat” (also called the “Magic Seat” to put a positive spin on it) next to our CEO and other leaders during Q4 to close out my pipeline before EOQ, or else….?It was a record-breaking quarter for me, and got to move back to my normal seat.?While a bit stressful having nearly daily deal reviews with our leadership team, the experience was awesome.?

-- Going to battle against some fierce competitors everyday – some still here, some gone.

-- Taking the Solutions Engineer (SE) I was working with at the time that never saw snow before to an onsite in Minneapolis when it was 20 degrees below zero.?The experience was crazy – every time the SE went outside his glasses would freeze and he would immediately start coughing.?It was so cold that if you threw water in the air, it froze instantly.

-- The light bulbs turning on thinking I was figuring this market out and hitting my stride. Then missing my number for two quarters in a row realizing I had a lot to learn.

-- Our CEO calling me out during a company meeting by saying "We will hit our number if I close all my deals and then hearing the SDR I worked with at the time yell out “Pressure Makes Diamonds Chandler”.?We hit our number.

-- Having a relatively new SE I was working with being told to walk through a demo from a tiny desk in a small auditorium style room with a large audience that included the CMO of big CPG company in Minneapolis, members of our leadership team since the account was strategic, and absolutely crushing it. ????

-- Playing a tiny role in creating a new category, the anticipation of seeing the next wave report, and watching us become and retain leadership status (back where we belong this year!).

-- At first being a hater of e-scooters, and finally trying one out when no one was in the office during Thanksgiving break and loving it.

-- Fighting traffic for years while they were building the MoPac express lane.?Despite being late to a few meetings and family dinners, I grew to appreciate a little extra time in the car to get my head right.?

-- Milwaukee road trips and supper clubs with customers.?Schwarz's Supper Club was one of our favorites. Only place I have ever been where they serve pitchers of old-fashioneds.??

-- My wife recognizing I needed something to help me reduce stress, and signing me up for my first tennis lessons.?I have been tennis obsessed ever since.?

-- Getting approval to change territories to Illinois and Michigan for a change of scenery and to find new opportunities.?Both states I never spent much time in and grew to absolutely love. *Pequod's Pizza in Chicago - Our lucky restaurant since every time we went there we got good news, and the pizza is oh so great.? *Detroit Sour beer, the RenCen, local restaurants, Corktown, and seeing for myself how Detroit Hustles Harder.??

-- All of the obstacles that sometimes pop up during onsite meetings *Having extra time one morning in Chicago and randomly asking to meet with a company we wanted to work with last minute that was across the street from my hotel, getting the meeting, and then having a fire drill in their building right when the meeting kicked off. *The cyber security incident at the office of an agency in Detroit we were onsite with causing us to do the entire pitch without slides or a demo.?It turned out to be a great meeting. *Arriving 30 minutes late for an onsite with a CPG company out in the middle of the boondocks because we had to drive for 2 hours through a horizontal advection blizzard, and then being asked to reschedule because we were late.???

-- Watching the first SDR I worked with get promoted, move on, and become one of the best enterprise software sellers I have ever met.?

-- Tying a colleague’s shoelace to the office kitchen table while catching up after work without him knowing it, and watching him get confused when trying to get up.?Then, like any good Aggie, using his pocketknife to cut his shoelace from the table.?

-- Seeing something I was part of aired on TV during the super bowl.

-- Covering for colleagues when something more important in life than work had to be the priority.

-- Working through a couple of mergers/acquisitions and getting the opportunity to learn from new leaders and colleagues as we worked through change.

-- Winning the red pants award and being part of an elite group of people.

-- Going through some slumps, but magically finding a way to succeed.

-- Amazing customer summits - Awesome content, hearing amazing customer stories demonstrating the value our solutions deliver, Girl Talk, Flaming Lips, Future Islands, Michelle Obama, getting to spend meaningful time with our customers/partners and learning how wonderful they are as humans and not just wonderful customers, getting goose bumps seeing our leadership team on stage at ACL and realizing I am part of something special, etc.

-- 06, Matt Nyland making sure his team was always hydrated, The Bonneville, the magic fridge, and working late nights in the 6th floor kitchen by myself overlooking Lady Bird Lake.??

-- Working through 3 RFPs with 3 different auto manufacturers in Detroit, and winning all of them. *Getting eliminated from one of them and managing to work our way back into the eval and winning it!

-- Managing the biggest onsite pitch of my career in shorts since I had a cast on my leg after surgery to repair a fully ruptured achilles tendon.

-- Receiving a request from my leadership team the night before the end of a quarter to fly out and sit in the lobby of an account we were chasing the next day so we could get the contract, and deliver on expectations.?It was an uncomfortable trip, but managed to get time with some of the right people, receive the contract the same day when I was on the plane back to Austin, and only arrived 30 minutes late for a performance my 6 year old was in at Paramount theater.????

-- Countless regional events, late night dinners, and early flights.

-- SXSW - Kind of a fog, but the SXSW memories I have are all good!

-- Too many RFPs to count

-- Golfing in Traverse City, Michigan.?Can’t share much more about this memory.?

-- Realizing the wins weren’t flukes, they were a result of hard work and amazing teamwork.???

-- Losing an opportunity with a large insurance company that we were a great fit to support because our biggest competitor executed better than me.

-- All of the amazing people I worked with over the years, and seeing them grow personally and professionally.? *They are all an inspiration to me, and too many to thank.

-- Being acquired by Vista, the CCAT test, Bootcamp, SCIPABs, the change, and the excitement of seeing the company evolve.

-- Getting the opportunity to build and lead the East Coast New Business team.

-- The closing of the downtown office and realizing it was the end an era, and the start of a new one.

-- Participating in a leadership meeting while being relatively new to the team and hearing someone mention they had a meeting in El Segundo.?I responded by saying make sure you don’t leave your wallet, quickly playing “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” by Tribe Called Quest, and then hearing nothing but crickets.?A little awkward, but they needed a little exposure to some good hip-hop.?

-- Learning how to deal with new and awesome, but loud officemates when working from home with my kids because of the pandemic.?

-- Having people I worked with over the years call me for advice, and being able to call on them when I needed help.

-- Seeing members of my team that never managed an enterprise software sales cycle experience the joy of success, learn, and build their confidence.

-- Waking up one day and feeling it was time for a change, and being confident the timing is right and it is the right thing to do.??

-- Being supported by an amazing wife and raising two kids along the way.?????

I have been with this company for nearly a decade.?You only get so many of those in life.?It is easy to get lost if you don’t know how you arrived at a certain point in your life.?Just taking the time to type this (almost a journal entry at this point) helped bring a little clarity to me on where I am so I can get ready for where I am going.?It helped me learn from the challenges I have experienced over the years, relive the successes to get inspiration, feel grateful for what I have, recognize the importance of being surrounded by great/positive people, and build my confidence that I can take with me on my next adventure.?

Ya – this is a bit of a self-indulgent post, but it has been therapeutic for me to allocate a little time to write this so thank you for taking the time to read it.?

Thank you Khoros, and everyone that helped me get to where I am!

?Cheers - CB