[00:00:00] Stephanie Middaugh: People are tired and they’re exhausted and they’re burnt out, but that passion is still burning. We want to help. We want to do all the things. So like, we’re still going to be there. Like enablement as a profession is still going to get these initiatives and trainings and like everything through. We’re still going to be bought into helping our reps succeed and seeing the business, you know, move forward and pushing those kinds of things.
[00:00:22] Even though it kind of goes through these ups and downs and ebbs and flows. Enablement’s going to be here for a while, and it’s the companies that know how to properly leverage it that are going to see the results at the end of the day.
[00:00:35] Steve Watt: Welcome to the Enablement Edge, the go to resource for enablement and go to market pros.
[00:00:43] We’re bringing you the secrets, strategies, and tactics that drive meaningful impact. You’ll get valuable insights and expertise from enablement leaders, so you can become an effective change agent, turn strategy into reality, and transform your organization for the better.
[00:01:05] Welcome to today’s episode, and welcome to my co host, my friend and colleague, Amber Mellano. Amber, I’m really excited for today’s episode. We’re talking with Stephanie Middaugh , and she’s a really interesting enablement professional. She runs her own consulting firm, Phoenix GTM Consulting, that works with a lot of different companies, really sorting out the enablement space.
[00:01:30] Uh, she’s a author. She’s written a book called Elevate and Optimize that’s available on Amazon and really digs into enablement. Maturity, she’s presently working with a firm called Luster that’s doing some really interesting things in this space. She’s got a lot going on. It was a real pleasure to have her on the show, wasn’t it?
[00:01:52] What did you like best about our conversation with Stephanie?
[00:01:56] Amber Mellano: Yeah, I love talking to Stephanie. I liked, I really liked her perspective on how to approach a huge situation with a lot of variables and a lot of unknowns. And it actually made me super curious to go ahead and download that book and see how she talks about like, how do we tackle this huge problem?
[00:02:13] And you know, spoiler alert, one step at a time, that’s how you climb Mount Everest, you know? And so That really resonated with me and I’m excited to kind of look at her take on what, what does a mature enablement program look like and how they got there and how they can approach it. I think that’s going to be a really, I’m excited to, to dig into that read and y’all are going to enjoy the conversation we had with her about it.
[00:02:35] How about you? Yeah, well,
[00:02:36] Steve Watt: I don’t, I mean, first off, I like the way, She comes at it with a lot of empathy. I mean, the, the very first thing she talked about was it’s hard out there. Like we’re all feeling it and we, we all know it. And there’s a lot of reasons for it and it’s okay. It’s okay to acknowledge that.
[00:02:53] And, and we really need to, uh, you know, live in that a little bit. And, and then we need to move on from that and, you know, onward and upward. And I, I think that that empathy is important, uh, and it’s a little, it’s a little bit of self care there. There’s a little bit of, uh, love for your, your colleagues and, and your peers and other firms.
[00:03:17] And as a community, you know, I think that’s a, a great, uh, mindset that she acknowledges the challenges. She digs into why those challenges exist. And then, you know, she really starts to turn the page about, okay. What are we going to do about that? And, and I think that we, although we start in a difficult place of the challenges, we end up in a, in a, in a great place.
[00:03:40] And I just thought that was a really interesting and valuable, unnecessary conversation with Stephanie. I hope y’all enjoy it as much as Amber and I did. Let’s jump in. Stephanie. So glad you joined us on the enablement edge. I’ve been really looking forward to this conversation as we’ve been getting to know you a little bit in recent weeks.
[00:04:06] I’ve really liked your approach to, you know, your understanding of the space and your approach to elevating the enablement profession. So I, this one, I’m really looking forward to. Glad you joined us. Uh, Amber, let’s get this thing started. Let’s do this.
[00:04:25] Amber Mellano: All right. So, Stephanie, uh, as you well know, companies all define enablement in slightly different ways, you know, based on their industry or their size, et cetera, um, but we always like to kind of level set with our guests and really get your take on what does enablement mean to you and in your experience?
[00:04:42] How would you define it?
[00:04:43] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah. Um, it’s, it’s one of the slightly annoying things is that everybody has a little bit different of a definition for enablement. So, I will give you mine. For me, enablement overall is just kind of, it’s allowing our, our sellers, our internal customers, sales, BDRs, customer success, solutions engineers, whoever that scope of like internal customers is.
[00:05:03] Literally, to maximize every customer interaction that they have, that’s going to be through training and education, information transfer, resource creation, and just kind of like serving up to them, removing roadblocks internally, like anything and everything, basically, that can help our internal customers maximize those customer interactions.
[00:05:24] To me, that falls under the umbrella of enablement. A lot of times we’re pinned down as just like just the training function, and if you’re using enablement or if you’re thinking of enablement in that way, you are missing out on so much of the goodness, um, of what enablement can bring to an organization and, and should bring to an organization.
[00:05:41] So like BRSS TACS, that’s what it, it should be. It’s like maximizing or allowing our customer, our internal customers to maximize every customer interaction in whatever way, shape, or form that kind of presents itself in.
[00:05:53] Steve Watt: Yeah. Love that. It’s a big space. It’s a complicated space and, and, uh, that makes it a challenging space.
[00:05:59] And I, I think maybe never more challenging than in the new year. Uh, here we are, you know, early in, in the, in the new year. And a lot of firms, they’ve got, they’ve got SKOs going on. They’ve got leadership changes. They got people coming and going. They’ve got. All kinds of big, they’ve got annual plans and quarterly plans and flux.
[00:06:21] Everybody gets a plan. When we spoke last week, you said you thought it was extra hard this year for a lot of enablers. And I mean, you talked to a lot of your peers and you said that you thought it was extra hard this go round. Tell us what you’re thinking there.
[00:06:38] Stephanie Middaugh: Yeah, I, it’s, it’s been kind of interesting.
[00:06:40] I’ve chatted with a lot of enablement professionals, uh, folks that are, are new to me and, and folks that I’ve been, you know, working with and, and just collaborating with throughout the years, and there’s just this really sad kind of common thread of just like, you see it on their face, you see it in their body language, like they’re just, I’m exhausted.
[00:06:58] And it’s really interesting. And I think there’s, and it’s not just enablement, right? Like I see it just across the board of, of everybody. And I would say, especially like corporate America, but just in general is just like kind of exhausted. You think by it’s 2025, the pandemic in 2020, which does not seem like five years ago, like it.
[00:07:15] It. All of that since then, the ups and the downs and the, oh my gosh, and like all of the things, and I think just life in general is chaotic and a little bit crazy right now. Market shifts and people are being laid off and, and who knows what’s going to happen in the recession, but not a recession and like all of the things.
[00:07:33] I think everybody is just exhausted from that. And then we see this. Translating kind of into the business world of everybody’s just, you know, from the top all the way down and enablement, unfortunately, is kind of at the bottom of, of that kind of pile and we just inevitably kind of collect all of the things that like our role, all of the rocks and the boulders and like all of the, the shit rolling downhill.
[00:07:57] We’re enablement, just like overall, we are. We’re tired. We’re tired of fighting these battles. We’re tired of trying to prove ROI. And even when we do, we still get cut and like all of the things. And we see, we see our friends and colleagues going through the exact same thing. So I think everything is just kind of catching up to us and everybody’s just kind of collectively taking like a, you know, like a deep breath.
[00:08:24] Wow, I am really run down and, and burnt out right now. Um, it’s, it’s sad. Uh, it’s definitely sad to see, but I think there, and we’re going to talk about it a little bit more a little bit later, but just like, what can we do to kind of like, move past this, right? And, and, and, you know, Look on, on the brighter side of everything, but I, I think it’s an important thing to, to recognize and validate.
[00:08:47] If you’re feeling tired, if you are exhausted, if you are banging your head against a wall in enablement, you are not alone. There are plenty of us that are also feeling that exact same way or have in the past. And we’re like here to support you. And that’s my favorite thing about enablement overall is like the community of like people that are willing to be like, yes, everything that you feel is valid and we are here to support you and help you get through it.
[00:09:11] Steve Watt: Amber, you’ve been in enablement for a long time. Are you seeing and hearing and feeling the same sorts of things as Stephanie?
[00:09:18] Amber Mellano: I would, I would echo that. I think like you were saying, it’s been piling up and piling up and it, it, there’s been no sense of a relief to that burnout and, and the frustrations that led to it.
[00:09:28] And I think also. As enablers, we’re very susceptible to that because we want to help everybody and we want to fix every problem. And we also have typically a seat at the table that allows us to see all of the problems. That makes it harder to be like, okay, I can afford one here, not here. Um, what would you say, do you think is, is causing all of this and it’s causing that, you know, pile and, and landing with us at the bottom of the stack?
