Happy Sunday everyone!
And the flights and travel continue!
As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I visited Seattle and Portland over Memorial Day weekend with my family.
2 days later I flew with a colleague to Atlanta to visit the Southern Region Team and meet reps who I hadn’t met in person yet.
2 days later I then flew with a colleague BACK to Atlanta for a training session in North Carolina.
My flight was originally supposed to leave around 10:30 am Sunday morning, June 5th. The airline canceled it and rebooked me but the layover via Minnesota would have put me into Atlanta late.
So I took the 5:30 AM flight direct to Atlanta, grabbed my luggage and rental car and grabbed a hotel for a few hours, napped, and picked up my colleague coming from Michigan and we drove 140 miles north to our destination.
Nisah Tahara, my head of Training, Learning, and Development, and I did a training session with a client over 2 days. I had never met her before but we had spoken countless times via phone and Zoom, and wonderful to meet her.
We drove back to the airport, dropped off the rental car, and parted ways. I enjoyed my time with her as well as the client doing live training. First time since the pandemic. Other sessions had been strictly remote.
3 trips down 1 more to go. I head to Indianapolis, IN tomorrow morning!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
(Pictured is Nisah and I at breakfast!)
Greetings from Oklahoma!
/in General, The Connect 5000 Team /by Ray RueckerHowdy from the Sooner State!
Ron Jaramillo and I left Sunday morning and drove to Chickasha, OK from Kansas City—a 5 or so-hour drive.
We had dinner with the OK team Sunday evening at Saltgrass Steakhouse in Norman and had a wonderful time rubbing elbows for the first time over dinner and drinks.
I had yet to meet Debbie, Morgan, Jordyn, Amy, and Krissa in person.
Monday morning we had a quick huddle up and gathered for some business development training.
Ron and I left mid-morning and returned to KC that evening.
Pictured above is a team training photo taken by me.
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
Happy June and Summer!
/in General, The Connect 5000 Team /by Ray RueckerHey everyone!
I just returned from a family vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
My wife and I celebrated our 18-year anniversary with our 13 and 10 year old.
Nice to get away and wonderful to return.
This past Friday, my remote and distributed team from across the country gathered over lunch to catch up, banter, and get to know each other better.
The 3 questions were:
Sufficient to say, many Connect 5000 staff members have road rage! Enough said!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000! Cheers!
BDR Spotlight in March
/in General /by Ray RueckerHappy Sunday everyone!
Last Sunday I flew to Atlanta for a baby shower and saw a few of my reps while down there.
Introducing Rachel Woodyard and Ashton Jarrell!
They started around the same time last year, do excellent work for our clients, and are great additions to the team.
Rachel resides in Georgia and Ashton lives in Florida.
After our event, the 3 of us grabbed dinner and caught up!
Cheers Rachel and Ashton!
Marketing Partner Spotlight
/in General, Sales /by Ray RueckerHappy Wednesday everyone!
Last week, I visited with the wonderful Contact Science team in St. Louis.
I live in Kansas City, one of them lives in St. Louis and the other resides in Tennessee.
I’m glad we all drove since the FAA grounded all planes that Wednesday morning.
So we met in the middle and strategized about our 2 companies working together and grabbed dinner and drinks afterward.
They provide a wonderful platform and we provide quality BDR’s.
Contact Science (https://www.contactscience.com/) has a premier sales engagement platform that provides a complete CRM, dialer, reporting, and accountability for tech firms and MSPs. Please check them out.
As I’ve said many times in the past, Zoom is great but meeting in person and spending quality time together is priceless.
Included in the pic is Bob Howard, the CEO of Contact Science, Mel McCaleb, the VP of Operations, and myself.
Happy January!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. Cheers!
Happy December: Part II
/in General /by Ray RueckerHappy Holidays everyone!
Here’s a follow-up video that Addie Kate, my marketing and social media manager, put together of our time training.
Cheers and Blessings!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
Happy December!
/in General /by Ray Ruecker“The days are long but the years are short.” – Unknown
How true! 11 months down, 1 remaining in 2022.
Yikes!
I was in the Atlanta metro this past June visiting team members.
I hadn’t met some of the newer members plus I needed to do some in-person training, so I flew out Thursday and returned Friday.
The team and I shared a few meals, huddled in a hotel conference room, and did professional training to grow their team.
There’s no substitute for face-to-face in-person time and Zoom meetings can get old quickly and attention spans wither.
Pictured here from left to right: Frankie Teel, Shamar Slappy, Addie Kate Pruett, Casey Cantrell, and Rachel Woodyard.
I’m excited and proud of the Southeast Team!
PS: Happy birthday Frankie!
Friday Lunch and Yak Session
/in General /by Ray RueckerHappy Saturday everyone!
Every now and then, Connect 5000 gathers together via Zoom over lunch and gets to know each other better without talking about work stuff. Because everyone is remote and isolation can occur, it’s beneficial to huddle up and get to know colleagues better, so we did Friday afternoon. It helps build relationships and a stronger culture.
For other remote firms out there, I encourage you to do the same! #team #culture
Thank you Casey Cantrell for facilitating Friday’s session.
I”m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
The Traveling Roadtrip Continues
/in General /by Ray RueckerHappy Sunday everyone!
And the flights and travel continue!
As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I visited Seattle and Portland over Memorial Day weekend with my family.
2 days later I flew with a colleague to Atlanta to visit the Southern Region Team and meet reps who I hadn’t met in person yet.
2 days later I then flew with a colleague BACK to Atlanta for a training session in North Carolina.
My flight was originally supposed to leave around 10:30 am Sunday morning, June 5th. The airline canceled it and rebooked me but the layover via Minnesota would have put me into Atlanta late.
So I took the 5:30 AM flight direct to Atlanta, grabbed my luggage and rental car and grabbed a hotel for a few hours, napped, and picked up my colleague coming from Michigan and we drove 140 miles north to our destination.
Nisah Tahara, my head of Training, Learning, and Development, and I did a training session with a client over 2 days. I had never met her before but we had spoken countless times via phone and Zoom, and wonderful to meet her.
We drove back to the airport, dropped off the rental car, and parted ways. I enjoyed my time with her as well as the client doing live training. First time since the pandemic. Other sessions had been strictly remote.
3 trips down 1 more to go. I head to Indianapolis, IN tomorrow morning!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
(Pictured is Nisah and I at breakfast!)
The Southern Region Team of Connect 5000
/in General /by Ray RueckerHappy Saturday everyone!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently did a family vacation to Seattle and Portland and flew back.
2 days later, Tiffany Miller, my Director of Operations, and I flew to Atlanta to see some Southern Region team members we’d never met in person.
We had planned to back in February but with sickness and Coronavirus Omicron variant raging, we decided to postpone it until June.
So we flew in Thursday night, had a lovely dinner with the team at a great Italian restaurant called Venucci, and then went out for drinks later that evening with our team’s spouses and significant others.
The next day we had a quick manager’s meeting and another pleasant lunch with the team at Taste of Lemon.
Thank you Casey for your excellent, southern hospitality and shuttling us around those 2 days.
Pictured are several members of the Southern Region team who live in the great state of Georgia.
Happy Summer Everyone!
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000.
Pictured here from left to right: Ray, Rachael, Jessica, Frankie, Casey and Tiffany.
Post Election Results
/in General /by Ray RueckerSo to get straight to the point: I lost the election handily. I lost approximately 70% to 30%.
It was a fair race and as far as I know, my opponent kept it clean and professional and he ran a good race.
In fact, my neighbor brought me 3 pieces of direct mail she received from him in the last month of the campaign.
I’m glad I ran, it was a good experience, and I met some wonderful people.
With that being said, I’m retiring from politics with a perfect record of 0-1.
I knocked on about 30-40 doors while campaigning and realized while doing it, I didn’t like it and wasn’t energized or passionate about it. Ironically, I’m a high extrovert who really enjoys meeting new folks. Not in politics.
So I lost the sales contest but kept my values and character intact.
You can’t complain but sit on the sidelines. Politics is not for the faint of heart.
I’m Ray Ruecker with Connect 5000. Happy Thanksgiving!
PS: Photo by Depositphotos (<a href=”https://depositphotos.com/category/holidays-events.html”>Neon Concept of winner and loser Vector Illustration. Glowing neon sign – depositphotos.com</a>)