ABOUT THIS EPISODE
"Most sales teams don't have a tactics problem. They have a trust problem. For decades, we have taught our buyers to not trust us." - Leslie Venetz, Founder of Sales-Led GTM and USA Today Bestselling Author
Leslie was on track to become a CRO by 40.
The offer was on the table: $460,000.
She turned it down the same day, walked away from the goal she'd spent her entire career building toward, and paid herself $50,000 in year one of her own business.
The philosophy behind her agency came from a mistake she made early.
Six months into her first corporate job, her manager got fired and she inherited a team ten years her senior.
She assumed the title came with trust. It didn't.
From that experience she built what she now calls the earn the right framework: before you do anything, ask yourself whether you've actually earned the right to ask for this person's attention.
Most teams skip that question entirely, which is why their pipeline looks like a tactics problem but is really a trust problem.
On curiosity, she doesn't accept "I'm just not naturally curious" as an answer.
If someone told you that you needed a 50% free throw percentage, you'd know immediately the path there was practice.
Curiosity works the same way.
"Grit isn't doing one hard thing for two weeks. It's showing up for months and years toward a bigger purpose, even when it doesn't feel like it's working."
