WMYT - What makes YOU Tick? Tech Leaders Career Stories

Richard and Tolu @ Tick Talent
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Conversations with high-performing tech leaders, breaking down the decisions, failures, and strategies behind exceptional careers. It all starts by asking "what makes you tick?" Designed for founders and operators who want practical lessons from people who’ve built, scaled, and led in the real world. No theory. No hype. Just insights you can use.

  1. 1d ago

    How to Hire for Collaboration and Prep Every Sales Call With AI | Field Notes WMYT Edition

    This is a WMYT takeover! Rich Washington and James Bissell are back from their summer break with a new episode of Field Notes.Two topics, two big ideas for any revenue leader building a team and a sales process right now.First, collaboration as a hiring criteria. Rich explains why a lack of collaboration fills a company with dividers, why 89% of mishires come down to attitude and cultural misalignment rather than capability, and the four levels of culture from compliant to collaborative. Second, the lack of planning in sales. James makes the case for just-in-time coaching, blocking 15 minutes before and after every key meeting, and using AI to prep, from reviewing a HubSpot opportunity in Claude to scenario planning with Grok in the car. 🎙️ Hosts: Rich Washington & James Bissell🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/🔗 Connect with James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bissell1/ Brought to you by Tick Talent, go-to-market recruitment for early-stage tech startups: https://www.tick-talent.com/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. #hiring #collaboration #salesleadership #recruitment #salesenablement #salescoaching #discovery #salesplanning #AIinsales #financialstorytelling #B2Bsales #GTM #revenueleadership #fieldnotes #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #jamesbissell #salestips #hiringforbehaviours

    How to Hire for Collaboration and Prep Every Sales Call With AI | Field Notes WMYT Edition

  2. 5d ago

    E.142 - Why the World's Best SaaS Companies Are Betting on Customer Success to Drive Revenue

    Marco Carrubba is a customer success leader who has spent his career at some of the biggest technology companies in the world, including Microsoft, VMware, and now LinkedIn. In this episode of Making Revenue Tick, he joins Rich to unpack why customer success has moved from a support function into the commercial engine of the world's best SaaS businesses, and how AI is reshaping the discipline in real time. We discuss: 1. How customer success became a revenue-owning function 2. Why 70% of job skills will change by 2030, and which won't 3. Why most companies aren't seeing ROI on AI 4. How the biggest companies actually roll out AI 5. What token-based pricing means for customer success 6. Why human relationships still win in an AI world 7. What Marco is most excited and most fearful about Brought to you by Tick Talent, go-to-market recruitment for early-stage tech startups: https://www.tick-talent.com/ Where to find Marco Carrubba: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcocarrubba/ Where to find Rich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday, Best Bits every Sunday. #customersuccess #SaaS #B2BSaaS #AI #revenueleadership #NRR #customerretention #netrevenueretention #GTM #gotomarket #tokenpricing #futureofwork #AIskills #makingreveneutick #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #marcocarrubba #linkedin #customerexperience

    E.142 - Why the World's Best SaaS Companies Are Betting on Customer Success to Drive Revenue

  3. Jul 19

    The #1 Mistake US Tech Companies Make When Expanding into Europe

    Michael Schirrmacher, the current RVP New Business at Zuora, has spent his career building and scaling for US tech companies. This is a Best Bits episode covering the single biggest mistake US companies make when landing in EMEA: hiring one AE to break open an entire continent. This is a Best Bits episode covering the single biggest mistake US companies make when landing in EMEA: hiring one AE to break open an entire continent. We discuss: 1. Why hiring a single salesperson to open a region is sink or swim, and why Michael advises avoiding it at all costs 2. What it actually feels like to be the first hire, sat in a home office 5,000 miles from every colleague 3. The Bloomreach story: an AE 18 months in, genuinely good, and still set up to fail 4. Why dialling a solution consultant in from the States tells your customers you are not serious about their region 5. Why hiring a leader first works better, and why that leader should be a VP or GM rather than a manager 6. Why the head of Europe and the head of the East Coast are called peers but do completely different jobs 7. Why you cannot scale a region from a base of individual contributors each running their own operating system Brought to you by Tick Talent, go-to-market recruitment for early-stage tech startups: https://www.tick-talent.com/ Where to find Michael Schirrmacher: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelschirrmacher/ Where to find Rich: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday, Best Bits every Sunday.

    The #1 Mistake US Tech Companies Make When Expanding into Europe

  4. Jul 15

    E.141 - The AI Talent War: Why Some People Are Suddenly Worth Millions

    This is Jacob's fifth appearance on What Makes You Tick, and it's the wildest yet. In the last 90 days he has negotiated over $50 million in lift across deals touching eight billionaires. Jacob Warwick is an executive negotiation coach who helps senior operators negotiate better salary, equity, titles, and severance packages. He has worked with leaders across tech and Hollywood, was previously a founder and CEO himself, and has helped clients secure millions in additional compensation. His approach focuses on collaboration over confrontation, understanding motivations, and treating job searches like enterprise sales processes. We discuss: 1. Why product leaders and research scientists have overtaken sales and engineering as the highest paid people in tech 2. How AI collapsed deal timelines from four months to four days 3. Why you can't slow a deal down when the person signing it is Sam Altman 4. Why performance-based compensation signals confidence and expands the pie for everyone 5. How to prepare for a negotiation by thinking like a consultant, not a candidate 6. Why executives should be thinking three years out, not 90 days 7. Why building an audience and IP can become more valuable than the day job Brought to you by Tick Talent, go-to-market recruitment for early-stage tech startups: https://www.tick-talent.com/ Where to find Jacob Warwick: Substack: https://www.execsandthecity.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@predetermined-media Website: https://www.thinkwarwick.com Where to find Rich and Tolu: Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/ Tolu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toluadebekun/ Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Wednesday, Best Bits every Sunday.

    E.141 - The AI Talent War: Why Some People Are Suddenly Worth Millions

  5. Jul 8

    Investor Ready or Just Fundable? What Investors Really See Beneath the Pitch | Making Revenue Tick

    A great product isn't enough anymore. Investors are backing businesses that look scalable, organised, and operationally mature. In this Making Revenue Tick panel, Rich Washington is joined by three of Canada's sharpest operators to unpack what investors are really evaluating beneath the pitch. Dean Leesui brings the technology and digital maturity lens, Deanne Kelleher brings operations and workflow, and Neil Gray brings sales and marketing. Together they cover why operational maturity is now a genuine differentiator when raising funding, and what founders get wrong on the road to investment. The conversation covers why investors assess execution risk and operational maturity, not just product and vision, why scaling too early turns founder-led chaos into company-wide chaos, why AI amplifies whatever already exists (automate a broken process and you just break things faster), why operational maturity can add 12 to 15% to the value of a business, and why the best talent now evaluates your processes before they join. 🎙️ Guests:Dean Leesui — Fractional CIO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanleesui/Deanne Kelleher — Operations & Workflow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannekelleher/Neil Gray — Sales & Marketing: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilsgray/🎙️ Host: Richard Washington — Founder, Tick Talent🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/🌐 Tick Talent: https://www.tick-talent.com/👉 Subscribe so you never miss an episode — Making Revenue Tick drops regularly on the  @WhatMakesYouTick  channel.#investorready #fundable #operationalmaturity #raisinginvestment #startupfunding #scalingup #digitalmaturity #AIinbusiness #founders #executionrisk #duediligence #seriesA #seedfunding #businesssystems #exitstrategy #makingreveneutick #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #scaleup

    Investor Ready or Just Fundable? What Investors Really See Beneath the Pitch | Making Revenue Tick

  6. Jul 5

    WMYT Edition | Stop Banning AI in Hiring, and Start Planning for 2027 Now | Field Notes

    This is a WMYT takeover of Field Notes where Rich Washington and James Bissell cover two topics that every revenue leader should be thinking about right now.Topic one: AI in hiring. Most businesses are banning candidates from using AI in their application process — but Rich argues this is exactly the wrong response. If these people will have access to AI in the role, why ban it in the process? The better approach is to let candidates use it and ask them to show their workings. What prompt did they build? What was their thought process? How did they sense-check the output? That tells you far more about their resourcefulness, creativity, and problem-solving than any old-school role play. Anthropic already does this — they encourage candidates to use Claude and just ask them to show how they used it.Topic two: 2027 planning. It is June. Most revenue leaders won't start thinking about next year's headcount until December, when the new targets land and the panic begins. James breaks down why the planning conversation needs to start now — and how to work backwards from a February ramp target to show why recruiting needs to begin in August.🎙️ Hosts: Rich Washington & James Bissell🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/🔗 Connect with James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bissell1/🌐 Tick Talent: https://www.tick-talent.com/👉 Subscribe so you never miss an episode.#AIhiring #recruitment #salesleadership #CRO #VPsales #2027planning #headcountplanning #GTM #B2Bsales #revenueleadership #promptengineering #AIskills #workforceplanning #salesrecruitment #alwaysonrecruitment #fieldnotes #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #jamesbissell

    WMYT Edition | Stop Banning AI in Hiring, and Start Planning for 2027 Now | Field Notes

  7. Jul 1

    E.139 - Are We Asking the Wrong Question About AI? w/ Jenny Hamrick

    Jenny Hamrick has been working in AI since long before most people knew what to call it. In this episode, she joins Rich and Tolu to explore the questions most people aren't willing to ask about where artificial intelligence is actually taking us.The conversation covers why fear is the primary reason people avoid the AI discussion, what it means that LLMs are already operating at 67 to 78% of human capability on the benchmarks the labs use to measure them, and why the question "what value do I have as a human?" may already be the wrong question to be asking.Jenny explains why AGI is defined as the moment machine intelligence can perform 100% of the tasks humans can, what it means that the human brain is still 100 million times more energy efficient than any artificial intelligence that exists today, and why she believes AI could become the great equaliser.The episode also covers the state of humanoid robotics, why chip supply and energy are the two constraints currently limiting the pace of development, what the convergence of digital intelligence and physical form actually means, and why consciousness, not capability, may be the most important question humanity has never properly answered.🎙️ Guest: Jenny Hamrick🔗 Connect with Jenny: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-hamrick/🎙️ Hosts: Richard Washington & Tolu Adebekun🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/🔗 Connect with Tolu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toluadebekun/🌐 Tick Talent: https://www.tick-talent.com/👉 Subscribe so you never miss an episode — new episodes every Wednesday, Best Bits every Sunday.#AI #AGI #artificialintelligence #artificialGeneralIntelligence #futureofwork #humanoidrobots #robotics #consciousness #LLM #singularity humanvsAI #AIpodcast #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #toluadebekun #jennyhamrick #anthropic #openai #elonmusk #chipshortage #energysupply #AIandjobs #wealthdistribution #quantumphysics #futureofhumanity

    E.139 - Are We Asking the Wrong Question About AI? w/ Jenny Hamrick

  8. Jun 28

    Best Bits: The Executive Communication Skill Most Leaders Miss (Being Right Isn't Enough)

    In this Best Bits episode of Making Revenue Tick, Richard Washington sits down with Dustin Clinard, CEO of Ignis AI, former CRO of Gatekeeper, and a revenue leader who has spent more than 20 years helping companies scale across North America and Europe.The topic? Executive communication. More specifically, why being right isn't enough.Drawing on experience as a CEO, CRO, board member, and growth-stage operator, Dustin shares the communication principles that help leaders create alignment, build trust, and gain buy-in from teams, boards, and customers.In this episode:✅ Why the best leaders don't just provide answers — they create belief✅ The communication mistake that causes great ideas to fail✅ How to build alignment with boards and executive teams✅ Why showing your work creates stronger buy-in✅ The difference between solving a problem and getting people behind the solution✅ How AI can accelerate decision-making but cannot replace leadership✅ Why recruiting and selling are the same processAbout Dustin Clinard:Dustin is the CEO of Ignis AI, an AI-driven platform focused on developing critical human power skills including communication, leadership, collaboration, creativity, and AI fluency. Previously, Dustin served as CRO at Gatekeeper, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Betterworks, CRO and Managing Director at Risk Ident, Head of Revenue Americas at Universum, and held leadership roles at Mind Gym, Corporate Executive Board, and BASF.Across his career he has led commercial teams, advised boards, scaled international revenue organisations, and helped businesses navigate the challenges of growth from startup through enterprise scale.👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/OtNXcpYZTeA?si=krdkWH7FVn70EEia🎙️ Guest: Dustin Clinard — CEO, Ignis AI🔗 Connect with Dustin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinclinard/🎙️ Host: Richard Washington — Founder, Tick Talent🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richwash/🌐 Tick Talent: https://www.tick-talent.com/Subscribe for more conversations with founders, CROs, GTM leaders, and operators sharing the lessons that make revenue tick.#executivecommunication #leadership #revenueleadership #salesleadership #CRO #startupLeadership #scaleup #B2BSaaS #AI #makingreveneutick #whatmakesyoutick #ticktalent #richwashington #dustinclinard #ignisai #boardcommunication #alignment #buyIn #challengersale #GTM

    Best Bits: The Executive Communication Skill Most Leaders Miss (Being Right Isn't Enough)
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Conversations with high-performing tech leaders, breaking down the decisions, failures, and strategies behind exceptional careers. It all starts by asking "what makes you tick?" Designed for founders and operators who want practical lessons from people who’ve built, scaled, and led in the real world. No theory. No hype. Just insights you can use.

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