From powerlifting to content marketing, Lyndsay Canada is always aiming for gold.
“I like to set goals and have something to strive for – personally and professionally,” she said.
Here’s a look inside the goal-driven world of Brafton’s Director of Account Management:
A sales and marketing champion
Lyndsay’s background is heavily rooted in sales and marketing, starting with her degree in marketing and communication that she began at the University of Kansas and finished at Columbia College Chicago.
During school, Lyndsay worked in various sales and marketing roles, beginning with making the calls we all receive from our alma maters.
“I worked as a fundraiser, which was basically the smile-and-dial thing,” she joked.
In all seriousness, however, Lyndsay spoke highly of the telemarketing experience as a strong foundation for her career in sales and marketing. Listen up, aspiring professionals! There is, in fact, value in mastering the universally dreaded experience of cold calling.
Lyndsay tried her hand in marketing during her last year of college as an intern in the mobile device division at Motorola. After graduation, she worked as a marketing executive for Blue Star Mobile.
A couple of years later, Lyndsay jumped back into sales at the Interstate Chemical Company.
“As you can imagine, there I was a 20-something sales rep selling chemicals by the railcars in a male-dominated industry,” Lyndsay laughed. “It definitely got me in the door a little more, and taught me strong negotiation skills.”
After the chemicals, Lyndsay moved on to a Marketing Manager role at Stereo Optical/Essilor Instruments. There, she developed marketing strategies, worked on project management and moved the needle on existing and new business development.
“Here’s a fun fact. Do you know when you go to the DMV and take the vision test? Stereo Optical manufactured those devices,” Lyndsay said.
Lucky for us, Lyndsay’s next stop was Brafton.
Earning her Brafton stripes
Lyndsay joined the Brafton team as a Content Marketing Strategist about 4.5 years ago, working her way up to the Director of Account Management role she holds today.
Her first word to describe Brafton? “Fun.” (I swear we didn’t make her say that.)
“The approach of getting sh*t done remains the same, but every day has its new challenges and every client is different,” Lyndsay said. “There’s really never a dull day at Brafton.”
There’s really never a dull day at Brafton.
While Brafton is now a relatively large company, Lyndsay appreciates the start-up vibes that still exist despite the company’s impressive evolution. She attributes this in part to Tom, Brafton’s fearless CEO, who is always on board for updates that align with the current state of the digital marketing industry.
“Tom is always asking for employee opinions – which is pretty rare,” she said. “His openness to change to suit client needs is awesome.”
Lyndsay’s average day at Brafton involves attending a mix of internal and client-facing calls, working on proposals, trying to close deals, ensuring next steps are in place for outstanding opportunities and serving as a resource for her team of strategists.
“I also spend a lot of time in Salesforce looking at what opportunities are out there and what we need to be chasing,” she said.
On any given day, Lyndsay is ready to put out a fire.
“There are always things that come up that need attention,” Lyndsay said. “Being able to constantly re-prioritize is really important.”
Making deals in the remote era
With Brafton’s rapid growth came three offices spread throughout the country – Boston, Chicago and San Francisco to be exact. Added to that, we have plenty of full-time remote employees on the roster.
“In any job that requires working with teams out of the office, communication is key,” Lyndsay advised. “That goes for both internal employee and client-facing communication.”
Whether the conversation is over the phone, online chat, email or another medium, Lyndsay tells all her strategists the same thing: “You have to practice the skill of listening to understand what clients are telling you.”
From Lyndsay’s perspective, active listening leads to more personal responses, which are key to building better relationships with current and potential clients.
You have to practice the skill of listening to understand what clients are telling you.
And while all the various modes of communication make it possible to work with remote teams, Lyndsay has a clear favorite – and her smile-and-dial days may have had a lot to do with it.
“You can usually get a lot more accomplished with a phone call versus sending multiple emails back and forth,” she said.
Setting goals in and out of work
Lyndsay is driven by success in more areas than meeting sales quotas, which is apparent in her usual fitness routine: competing in powerlifting.
“Powerlifting is about hitting your max weight, so setting goals is very important to me. I’m pretty self-motivated,” she explained.
And when she loves something, Lyndsay won’t settle for anything close to average. Case in point: She’s traveled the world to see her favorite band, Pearl Jam, in places like Poland, London and Miami. Next up: The California show later this year.
Whether it’s hitting the quarterly quota or max weight, Lyndsay’s always a winner in our eyes.
