From $15k in Debt to Tech Sales Leader | Tahlija Macdonald

Tahlija Macdonald is Head of Sales Development at HiBob, where she's spent ~4 years building and leading the ANZ BDR/SDR team. After starting out in media sales, a world that nearly pushed her out of the industry for good, she made the jump to tech at ServiceNow and never looked back. Tahlija is passionate about one thing above all: helping people from any background break into tech sales and change their lives doing it.

Chapters: 00:00 Intro & welcome

01:15 Tahlija's origin story: market stalls, retail & studying marketing

04:30 Media sales at oOh! Media — burnout, debt & nearly quitting

08:00 The friend who handed her a tech role

09:30 Marketing vs sales: why listening beats being the loudest in the room

12:00 The moment sales clicked as a career

14:30 KPIs as a tool, not pressure (& the Deloitte lesson)

17:00 Consistency over time — the sports analogy

19:00 Landing ServiceNow: the 3-month talent-pipeline interview

22:00 Big vendor vs scale-up: where should you start?

25:30 What she looks for when hiring (and the AI-polished red flag)

29:00 Cold calling, Orum & coaching with data

32:00 LinkedIn & personal brand at work

34:00 Her leadership style: extreme ownership + radical candor

37:00 Managing expectations: BDR to AE & finding your "why"

40:00 Motherhood & returning to work in tech

43:30 Final advice: there's no one "right" background for tech sales

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