From news anchor to actor to demand gen with Rocio Garza | People are People | ep.03

uh Rosio Garza are the uh director of demand genen at LOM. Thank you so much for joining us on the People are People podcast. >> I mean I just love that title. I mean that's very dep mode but still >> I'm excited to to be here and I follow Davis so I mean like those are hard shoes to fill but I'm in good company I think if I follow Davis. >> I think so too. Uh I hope you like his episode. He's always so fun to talk to and you know Davis is interesting because it's a small world we're in this you know revenue uh marketing tech world and the work you do. So >> um yeah it's cool. Well let's let's start things off. Tell me tell us a little bit about Flossom and and then we'll get into the the person behind you working at Flo. Yes, we help organizations um in Salesforce DevOps and backup and archive and governance and compliance all you know 100% Salesforce native so it's very niche so

to start you have to have Salesforce um as an organization um and what I do really is um I sell this um platform right um my mandate really is to create that curiosity um through by way education and building that trust. Um and then the most obvious answer is obviously our northstar is revenue and pipeline but really uh building that framework for um those ABM frameworks um and motions within the organization. Um it's a fascinating story. I mean it started our CEO is our founder um which is unique in itself. um and he actually worked at Salesforce and he uh found a problem and an opportunity and so here we are right so um we strictly you know we work with DevOps so it's very technical and what I love about it is

that it's they keep you honest right you cannot provide fluff uh or more noise because they would probably call you out on it so I like that. >> Yeah. And I there's a few companies that use Salesforce, so you're probably, you know, have a a large list of accounts to go after. >> Yes. Yes. Um we do. >> Um but now we're just trying to be more strategic, more intentional um as we try to move through these um quarters. you know, everybody has their dream account, but re we have to also consider um who's in our CRM, which is uh who's really actually ready to buy versus who we want. And because those require separate motions, separate resources, right? Separate strategies. Um so that's kind of um what I do in in in short. I mean, there's so much more in between, right? But >> yeah. Yeah, totally. Well, but I know I

know a little bit about you because uh you and I had met uh at an event in Austin uh late last year and before you were running demand genen for uh companies like Blossom, you were a an onair news anchor. >> I was um yes I I did that for 10 years. Um it the way I started is very unique. I think I think it's ABM anyway. I think I had ABM in in in somewhere. Um, but I wrote a a a letter to the news director when I lived in Corpus Christi and I said that I speak both languages fluently and um I'd love to audition for you even if you don't even if you don't hire me. I would just love to audition for you. And um I would bring him coffee donuts until I think I sort of wore him out. I I don't think you can do that today, but I what he did was he gave me

a newspaper. Um a lot of people may not know what that is today. >> Yeah. >> But he he basically asked me to translate it, type it out and and read it in the prompter. And >> um and then the next day he called me and he hired me. Um so if that is not ABM I don't know what is but um but I started in the courtbeat and I just came in at the time where uh around the Selena trial in Corpus Christi so I had the courtbeat and very cause and effect right you have to familiarize yourself with the docket with the language um and then try to simplify that uh to your viewers right because it can be very complex and you just have to make it sound very simple Um and again it translates I think to all the work that I've done um that has led me to this point is um I think at the heart of it is um great storytelling and and being a great writer and and um knowing your

sources. So I still carry that very much with me today. >> Yeah, I could now I now I see that translating well and I was gonna share. So, I' I've always been in comms and public relations, and way back in the day, uh, print newspapers always had more value because they' say they'd get more impressions because someone would read it and then they'd like leave it on the train and then someone else could read it. So, it had like a wider uh, and you're like, >> "Okay, maybe." But that seems it seems like a grasp. But that's so interesting because most people ask that question about your career like, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" And if you were deep in the, you know, news business, I mean, you made a big switch. >> Well, I knew what I wanted to do, uh, very early on. I think I did home videos early on, so I knew I was going to work in television. Um, I was infatuated with Mary Shelley. Um, and Frankenstein was one of my favorite books, not not just as a female, as a feminist, but as a

strong writer. She her her writing is so articulate and prolific. Um, and I wanted to go into mortterary science and I didn't do very well in anatomy. So I said, "Okay, well then I'm I'm going to go into, you know, communications." But my career was very different in the sense that I started television very early on. So, while my uh friends um were in college, I was working in broadcasting and I had uh at the time somebody would pick me up and and take me to the station. Um I had a little bit of clothing allowance and obviously they didn't they were students. So, and then I decided to, you know, finish what I started with my education and I did undergrad and grad school consecutively. So I I finished in a very short time. I was able to graduate top of my class in both. >> Um but by then I had this worldly experience um covering hurricanes,

covering trials and just the daytoday stories with uh just people and and there is a the heroes um live amongst us, right? So I really enjoyed that part of the storytelling and being authentic, you know. Um, I when I went back to my hometown to work in television, I tried to pretend um because I switched to weather and I was admiring somebody else and I tried to mimic her and when I went on there I went blank for like five seconds which is like >> oh my god. It was the worst five seconds of my life. But it was the most valuable lesson for me because it taught me my general manager said, you know, I didn't hire you to be somebody else. I hired you to be yourself. >> And um and let's just focus on that. And when I when I did when I we had that conversation, something sort of switched and I just said, "Well, I'm just going

to lead with with my heart and with with a as long as my heart has a, you know, I check my heart and make sure that um that I'm aligned with with God's source and that I'm being authentic um and that it's not performative." That is when it seems to where you connect and it's very much with marketing, right? is that humanto human connection. So I came into film sort of by accident. All of these things happen by accident, but I don't think they are. Um really between the OJ Simpson uh Bronco chase and Anna Nicole Smith, I was like, well, this is this is not what I thought journalism was going to be like. And um I moved to Austin and I auditioned for a student film and I got the role and which is very strange, but she did tell me the my director was female and she said, "You really need to

work on your craft. You really need to get a you need to you need to work on um you need to have more tools in your toolkit." um and you need to get an agent is your um and I just thought okay those are two things I can do um and so that is what I did and I had an agent for you know six months into moving uh to Austin and so um yeah and I think it's very fun funny because I never booked roles as a reporter but I booked other roles but I did study Meisner with the Laurel Vuv here in Austin and she's she studied with Sandy Meisner so I studied for three years. Um, but I was working in tech. You know, all of this was going on while I was working full-time in tech, working going to grad school. Um, but I I enjoyed that time in my life. I really did. >> If if I went to IMDb and and put in Roio Garza, would I find something?

>> Yes, you would. you you would because I I hired um I had a writer um put my story together and then you know those IMDb uh credits they get added on by by the team on whatever project you're working on. But um how that connects to to the work that I do now is I felt like it was a na natural transition. I had was very lucky to work uh for a startup for seven years um that IPOed during co And then my first role outside of that was um at BMC software on the ABM side of the house and uh the people at a BNC software um really my boss was became my mentor. She's still my mentor today um and I had done an internship at Bizar voice and he's still my mentor today. So I value a lot of those relationships and there is something that I've learned from each and every one of them that has

brought me to this point. So it's it's very unique but um I think for me um uh the research is is really an intricate part of of the of the work that we do and and um telling the right story, right? Um >> yeah. Yeah. Talk more. I'm interested. I mean, I could talk to you about a bunch of things. The IPO is interesting because I was also at a company that um during COVID also IPOed, so we could we could chat there. But I'm more um interested in this idea of a mentor because >> obviously it's a great idea, but like how does someone go about getting a mentor, right? And what does that relationship look like for you? Is it a weekly call? Is it once a year? or like how often um how often you >> for me um I just give them like you know we sometimes it's just providing updates and um my one of my my former one of my

former bosses is one of my best friends and still a mentor. She's on the sales side of the house. So it's a very unique conversation for me to have because she works on the other side and I'm I'm in marketing. she's in sales and it's um and it makes for a very rich dynamic and then we have a history with an organization and then we find we have a lot of things in common. So for me with her I mean it's a it's a check-in two or three times a week. Um but it's it's really like how are you like how are you navigating your life today? Like if we were let's not always talk about work and we don't always talk about work, right? because we're I'm no longer in that organization. Um but for me, it's really about being a good listener and not it's not it's really practicing the law of reciprocity, right? It's not just about me. I I want to be able to also uh be a resource, be a listener, uh and just be

here, be fully present. Um >> Right. Right. It's so I think listening is is a skill that a lot of people can work on especially you know even for myself interested your thoughts on it. It's like sometimes you go to a mentor or for me I actually go to my wife a lot and she's like a genius and you and you and you almost want them to validate what you're feeling and then when they don't and you're like >> well I just wanted you to make me feel better not tell me the the right thing you know it's like you're listening. >> Yeah. I don't always want anybody to tell me like what I want to hear. I I I think the ones relationships I value are the ones that that keep me honest and and there's a level of trust to be able to have those conversations um openly, right? Um in a way that is uh compassionate, empathetic um and not is not trying to trigger anything, right? So for me, those are are the ones that I I valued. I think you know Bizarre Voice is where I started my career my career.

I was an um I was an intern, right? There was 15 of us and I was one of many. So >> um and it was that transition of television to to tech. That was really my first job and I'm like wow I'm not this is very different. Right. So >> Right. Right. But I would imagine you you got so many skills and uh so much experience from that whether it's just meeting different people and uh seeing how certain people you know communicate and talk to you and just you know creating that EQ muscle right that you know then translates into a corporate world where you're trying to navigate projects and teams and people together. So um you know did that happen? Was that a big thing for you? Yeah, I mean I think it was a it was a natural transition, but you when you have um a seat at the table, you have to make sure that you use it wisely and strategically and you know always be prepared and overprepared um with what you want to

articulate. Um I always always go back to the business the business value. So for me just having two or three points even when I to today if I go into meetings uh whether it's pod review you know um big bad accounts or whatever I always come prepared over prepared with two or three suggestions >> um and I think that comes from being in a newsroom for 10 years and um you have to come up with ideas. You cannot come up to the desk to to the to the team desk where we would meet. you have to come up with two or three ideas every single day. So I think I still carry that um with me and I think it's important because you know time is a currency currency and it's valuable and that's one thing you cannot buy back. So I just want to make sure that I really maximize my time with whoever um I'm meeting with. So >> yeah, that's cool. Now, you you've already talked about some people in your life um and certain jobs, but I always

like to ask like a is there a moment, a person or a piece of advice that you've gotten that really shaped who you are today? >> Um I think for me, you know, my grandmother and my godmother both had their restaurants in Masatlancina Aloa. So, they were in the 80s. They were, you know, women business owners. >> Yeah. >> And my grandmother was a businesswoman through and through, but she also u focus on the relationships. Um, and she was very intentional. Um, and I think she was she played an intricate role in in my life, how I governed myself. She was always very well-dressed. uh very, you know, her white hair, the red lipstick, very Marilyn Monroe. Um but she um was very much a people person and and sometimes she would entertain

diplomats or but I think she was very charming, very charismatic. She always knew everybody's name. So I um try to emulate that and um but she was a hard worker. And so, um, when I was, um, younger, you know, when I was 10 years old, uh, my mother and I went to go live with my aunt and my cousins, um, and I had to sell breakfast tacos doortodoor at 10 years old. So, what we would do is we would take the we would go knocking Saturday, take their order like, "Do you want potato and egg, bacon and egg, or um, okay?" And then the next is Sunday, we would go to this restaurant and we would upsell them and then I would deliver them on Sunday. And that's what I would do. And really, we were we were like the original Uber Eats, I think. >> Wow. >> So, I have a very I think a strong work ethic that comes from just generations before, but um and so to to to this day,

I still work. Um I I have a strong work ethic. >> I love it. And it it seems like I mean a thread that I'm seeing is you're always talking to people. I mean at 10 years old to knock on a a stranger's door. I mean it's probably your neighborhood, but I'm sure in some instances you're >> you don't know the people who are going to open up and u you know a 10-year-old is young. You know I have a nineyear-old and I'm like >> that's young you know to knock on a door and say hey what can I get you for breakfast? What taco do you want? So there's the >> Yeah. And just I mean my mom and my aunt were be behind me. They were there but they would let me knock. I had a legal pad and then they would say, "Well, we really would like coffee. Can you can you also include coffee?" I'm like, "Well, let me ask, you know, mom, can we include coffee?" They're like, "Sure, we can include coffee." So, like I was just getting all of this research, all of this um before AI, I suppose. Um in my neighborhood of what what everybody liked and really what I was selling is convenience really, right? is um you

don't have to leave and I'll bring this to you. Um and I would we would sell uh barbakcoa by the pound or the breakfast tacos, but people seem to like more by the pound because you can do more um with less, right? So, um so it was just fascinating and I think I knew everybody um by then, right? Because I would knock door to door. So, but at the end of it is is that that human interaction. My mother doesn't speak English. So, I've always said that I was the voice for for for her, right? Because she doesn't speak English. She never wanted to learn English, but somehow she's gotten by. >> So, >> and she's Yeah. And I think one time um she had um there was these Jehovah Witness selling these velvet Elvis paintings and they were in the living room and she was getting ready to write a check and I'm like, "Mom, we don't need this." I mean, but um so

>> that's so good. That's so good. So you jumped in and said, "Well, thank you. We're okay with that." >> Thank you. We're okay. I think we're spending $50 on this. >> Yeah. I love it. This is I just love that story so much. I think we should we should stop there because you shared such great stuff. Um Ro, thank you so much for for joining and uh congrats on the role at Flossom and I'm sure we'll follow along. So, but appreciate you joining. >> Oh, thank you. Have a good uh good rest of the day.