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On today’s show, Gina meets with Bina Shah, Advisor at Outliveme and Former Group Sales Develpoment Director at Oracle.
Find Bina on LinkedIn.
BINA’S TIP: “No matter where you are in your tenure, showing up every day with authenticity and the work ethic to do the best you can, and how do you uplift the organization. In those important boardroom meetings, in those important C-level meetings, internal or external, what brought me credibility is talking with a point of view backed by data and standing up for myself.”
THE PODCAST BEGINS HERE
Gina Stracuzzi: Today we’re talking with Bina Shah. Bina was with Oracle for many years, and like many of us, she found herself on the sad goodbye end of a layoff, but she is not letting that stop her. I wanted to have her on this podcast because I think so many of us get sidelined when things happen. This is really about positivity and intentionality and what you can do when you are handed those lemons that we all get. Welcome, Bina. I can’t wait to talk to you about what you’re doing with your life and how you faced this layoff.
Bina Shah: Thank you, Gina. Appreciate it.
Gina Stracuzzi: Tell us a little bit about your history and your background and how you got to where you were in Oracle, and then we’ll go into what you’re doing now.
Bina Shah: I’m an engineer by training, so computer science degree development. I entered Oracle in 2010, and across two stints with a one-year gap in Splunk, I spent 16 years at Oracle, both in pre-sales engineering, sales leadership, most recently having a very large STR organization, sales development organization, creating lots of friendships, partnerships, and it was a terrific journey at Oracle, and I’m thankful for all the experiences it gave me.
Gina Stracuzzi: It sounds like you really liked it there, and that happens. What I really love about you is that there’s no hard feelings.
Bina Shah: No, I’m very thankful for all the knowledge I gained, all the experiences I gained. I think big thing about Oracle is because it is so large, you can pivot into many different angles and gain those experiences. I had five different roles in my 10 years at Oracle, and it was the law of attraction where the people that were in leadership in different orgs said, “Hey, Bina, do you want to come try to do this?” That’s how I ended up in most of my roles, is in trying new things, and I like a challenge and trying things I haven’t done before. I’m thankful Oracle gave me the opportunity.
Gina Stracuzzi: From what you and I were discussing before, you’ve led 100-plus person SDR organizations at both Oracle and Splunk, and you’re really into how AI is genuinely changing that go-to-market landscape. We’ll get into that in just a moment because even what you’ve learned there and where you’re taking it is going to be of interest to our listeners.
Let’s just talk about how you reframed this career transition. Sometimes things are gifts, even though we might not know it at the moment, because they take us in a new direction and that can be really exciting.
Bina Shah: Gina, I want to be honest with you, when I got that email at 6:00 AM, like many others, the first moment was panic. I am pretty sure my blood pressure, I don’t have blood pressure, but it went up high. I don’t want to make it sound easy, because it’s not. Once the news settled in and the reflection started, which I encourage everybody, reflection is a part of what I do in any activity, I went for a yoga session. I think that helped me clear my mind and it helped me reflect and I took it on as an opportunity, as a sabbatical that many people take that, hey, there’s a 30-day sabbatical, 60-day sabbatical. Mine was an involuntary sabbatical, but it gave me an opportunity to reset, and honestly, just to reframe. One thing to remember, if you’re going through this, this is happening at not just Oracle, in many, many other organizations, is nobody’s coming. The first move does need to be yours. It’s you who has to get started.
Gina Stracuzzi: Let’s talk a little bit about how you got started. Once you cleared your head and you realized no one’s going to be knocking on the door looking for you, what did you do next?
Bina Shah: I am an organized human being. I like to stay busy. I like to stay challenged. From a learning perspective, I divided up my week, my day into learning AI. Just a quick topic on, AI is not going to take our jobs, but not knowing AI certainly will, so upskilling myself, and I’m a lifelong learner. I love learning. Education is something I just constantly do.
One of the things was I had more time to dive into AI and I was already an AI champion when I was at Oracle and I led my team, Oracle women’s team, my peer group certified 350 leaders and individual contributors on the agentic AI talk track. But what I was able to do in the last few months is I’ve learned more than I did probably in the last two years, just because I had the most important thing, and that was time.
The other piece of it, my goal was to make sure I make it the most memorable summer for my kids. I did work on that and we’ve been doing a lot of outdoor activities enjoying the summer. Then slowly and surely your biggest asset when the title goes away, I’m no more senior director of sales, I’m no more at Oracle, what remains are the human connections, the true connections and network that you’ve built, your friends, your family, your peer group. I slowly made a list and a few people at a time started having meaningful discussions, not to go do the same thing I was doing, but just talk through that, hey, here’s what my goal is, and how do I come up with a plan?
What I want everybody to think, as you go through it, the plan that you thought day two of this happening versus I’m in day 90 or day 100 of my plan, it’s shifted and it’s evolved. Be open to that. Reach out to your network, spend time with your family, and make sure you upskill yourself.
Gina Stracuzzi: I actually love everything about that, first and foremost, that you’re actually having a bona fide summer with your kids, because you don’t get those opportunities very often. I love that you’re using it to spend time with them in ways that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. But the upskilling, that’s really something, because you will land on your feet and you will figure out how to make this all work. Continuing to learn in the moment is only going to help things as you progress down your journey.
Let’s talk a little bit about as a woman who’s held a senior sales leadership role, what does it actually take to earn credibility in enterprise sales? You hit on it a little bit because you had those relationships in place where you could reach back out and say, “This is what I’m thinking. What’s your thoughts on this?” which really, I applaud you so much, because not everyone can do that. How are you using that credibility? How did you build it and how did you build great teams with it? Because someone’s listening that might be able to give you a job.
Bina Shah: Number one, I’m thankful for all the leaders that have been directly or indirectly my mentors and provided me the guidance, my mindset. I’m a servant leadership mindset when it comes to leadership. Answering your question, how did I do that, it wasn’t always easy. It wasn’t catered to me on a silver platter. I had to earn my spot. If you’re early career, if you’re mid-career, or if you’re senior career, I think no matter where you are in your tenure, showing up every day with authenticity and the work ethic to do the best you can, and how do you uplift the organization. It was yes, doing your day job is table stakes, but it was, hey, what can I do to help my peer group? What can I do? That was just organically as a servant leadership, I love just doing that.
It came naturally to me and it was showing up every day and then I wasn’t afraid to ask for help. I wasn’t afraid to get help. But in those important boardroom meetings, in those important C-level meetings, internal or external, what brought me credibility is talking with a point of view backed by data and standing up for myself. No one else would do that.
Gina Stracuzzi: Using your voice, it’s imperative, and standing your ground, also critically important. There’s two words you used there, work ethic, that you don’t hear a great deal about anymore. Part of it is sometimes it’s just sorely missing and it’s an old-fashioned language in some respects that people don’t use as often, and I think it’s something that is so vital to doing well and to being a servant leader. You can’t be a servant leader if you don’t have a strong work ethic. I really appreciate you using that vernacular.
Let’s bring it full circle now and talk a little bit about where you’re going and what you’re doing, because it might give other people ideas if they’re in the same boat.
Bina Shah: I think because the world is changing so much, most of us, if you’re restarting, you’re not going to rebuild what you had created or what you left behind. You’re going to be doing something new and it’s going to involve fear. For me, what I’m working on are three things. One is the constant upskilling, which I think even when I go back, I have to carve out time otherwise just to stay relevant. It’s table stakes to upskill.
The second is I am looking for my next full-time role where I can continue to serve, apply, build trust with customers, teams, and wherever that may take me, and an opportunity to just show my level of initiative. But what I’m very also excited about is I am grateful and had an opportunity to be the co-founder of an organization that’s going to bring better health to people. It’s a performance healthcare startup where we’re bringing five clinicians where it’s metabolic health, sleep, nutrition, ET, stress, and anxiety, all of it to our members where you get it, and it’s preventive health, so it’s for people that are feeling good. It’s called Outliveme. I’m excited, we’re looking to launch in the very near future, it’s outliveme.com.
I’m excited because I think it continues to serve the greater purpose of giving back, and I also get to use a lot of the sales, the engineering, developing the platform, working on technology, marketing, sales, operation. I’m actually living and breathing in the startup world. Since I’ve done that, and on my four-month sabbatical, I’ve had a lot of friends reach out to me to help them with their sales. I’m just supporting them in helping them get started with their companies and sales. This sabbatical has been great for me, the journey has been amazing, summer has been beautiful in Boston, but that’s what I’m working on right now.
Gina Stracuzzi: That’s very exciting. As somebody who actually is a functional health coach in my spare time, I really applaud that, because I think as a culture, we tend to look at health care as reactive. Rather than trying to prevent things and the effects of stress, all of that takes such a toll on the body, and certainly, these are stressful times. I can’t wait to check that out. outliveme.com, that’s so interesting. Well, you might find yourself doing a whole bunch of things.
We get caught up in the title and the companies and the bennies and all that kind of stuff, which are important and have tremendous value. If you’re someone who doesn’t necessarily need those benefits, maybe because your spouse or partner has them or whatever, and you can do what you’re doing, which is a whole bunch of really exciting things, I think that’s pretty amazing.
Let’s talk a little bit about what’s one belief about sales leadership that you held early in your career. The reason I’m switching back over to this is a lot of the people that listen to this podcast are card-carrying salespeople, and sales leaders too. We love to hear about different philosophies or beliefs that have guided you throughout your career.
Bina Shah: I started as a sales leader in 2013, in my first stint as a leader. I didn’t always do this, but it was definitely learned through experiences and successes and failures. My philosophy is, yes the numbers will come, and I think as a first-time leader, my goal was numbers, which the numbers are always important, we’re in sales, table stakes. But as I’ve evolved in my leadership journey, it’s leading with empathy, making it where the team is looking forward to working due to respect not fear, and then applying whether it’s the empower coaching model or the grow coaching model is helping them get to their goals and empowering them, and whether they need a player, they need a coach, or they need you to model. As hands on or as hands off as they need, I think meeting them where they need me versus going by my principles and my models, that’s what I would say, but I think at the center of it, my goal is empathy, earning their trust, and joining them where they are in their journey.
Gina Stracuzzi: I think fear is something that has left the building, so to speak, for the most part with really good leaders. We do still see them, and we talked about it in the forum just a couple of weeks ago. One woman had a boss that just yells and screams, and she said, “It’s really hard to stay positive in that environment.” She was sharing some of the things that she does. I think as a leader, if you use those as guiding principles, you’re going to get what you need out of those people, because they feel like they’re part of something rather than just a number.
Let’s just talk about the biggest lesson you’ve learned as you transitioned into this next part of your life. What have you learned about Bina?
Bina Shah: I think the art of the possible. Art of the possible is don’t limit yourself, whether it’s achieving a different health goal, personal goal, professional goal. If I had confined myself that, “Hey, I’m a leader in sales,” I can build apps now with leveraging AI, and I do have a development background, so I’m not using that. I can run marathons that I never used to. I can still do the leadership roles, but I am being head of sales and guiding teams that I didn’t realize I even have the potential. Even today, yesterday I think, I still go through some of that imposter sometimes. I did not know I could do this and this opportunity has really opened up my nervous system to being open to everything that comes my way. I didn’t think I could cofound a health organization. That was not on the agenda by any means.
Gina Stracuzzi: That’s exciting. As somebody whose marathon days are behind her, I love that for you. It is such a sense of accomplishment and it really shows you how strong you are and what you’re capable of. There’s nothing as humbling as running a marathon and finishing it. It is something, for sure.
As we like to do, we like to leave our listeners with one final piece of advice, something they could put into place today to take their careers to the next level, or help their selling out. What do you have for us, Bina?
Bina Shah: I think it goes back to what I was saying, no one’s coming, and so what’s one thing you’ve been holding off on, whether it’s AI, whether it’s reaching out to your network, whether it’s posting on LinkedIn. By the way, I highly encourage folks to post on LinkedIn, make yourself visible, build a brand, but what’s one thing you’ve been waiting for permission? Treat this as permission. Start on it today. For one minute, ten minutes, one hour, make it easy, make it frictionless, but just start today. I think that level of initiative you start, continue on it, because it is about your level of initiative for yourself.
Gina Stracuzzi: That’s not only great advice, but rather profound as well. Bina Shah, I know we haven’t seen the last of you in the lovely PubSec world, or maybe you’ll go out on commercial, but whatever you do, I know you’re going to be tremendously successful. When you get there, come back and see us or come back and talk to us about how the health company is taking off. We really appreciate your time, your honesty, and your vulnerability. Thank you so very much.
Transcribed by Mariana Badillo