In this concise interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Christina Brady, President of Sales Assembly, for a rapid‑fire “6 questions in 7 minutes” session. Christina explains her role—building programs and delivering value to Sales Assembly members—while highlighting the benefit of working across revenue functions, which keeps her current on trends and tools. She identifies the most critical business chapter as “how to connect with people,” emphasizing communication that is heard, understood, and trusted, and how that foundation enables teams to navigate both smooth and turbulent periods. When asked for advice beyond generic platitudes, Christina stresses reflective resilience: you cannot rewrite the past, but you can change the ending by staying present, learning from hardship, and using those lessons to help others. She recommends fellow leader Stephanie Jenkins for her empathetic, problem‑solving style and shares a formative early job as a teenage front‑desk secretary at an art studio, where taking ownership of customer interactions sparked an entrepreneurial mindset that has guided her career. The episode closes with Christina’s contact details (email and LinkedIn) for listeners who want to connect.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, Please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi everyone, my name is Christina Brady. I am the president of Sales Assembly. And outside of that being super self-explanatory, the majority of what I am doing is working on building out additional programs and making sure that what we are offering to our members is, of course, valuable. So I wear a lot of hats, but ultimately I make sure that we are doing right by the people who are part of our network.
Well, Christina, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
I have the pleasure of being able to work with all different roles within a revenue org, and I would say the best thing selfishly for me is by continuing to work with professionals in so many different roles, it keeps me sharp and up to date on what are the newest trends, what are the newest tools, what things are working, so that I can best advise our members and build processes and events and trainings that are really, really meaningful to them. So for me, it's just, it's the wonderful amount of people that I get to meet who continue to uplevel me as a professional.
Mm, that's really well said. I appreciate that. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
How to connect with people. And I say that because I would imagine that most leaders would give you a really, really tactical answer. But the ability to move forward in anything in life comes from our fundamental ability to connect and communicate with each other. And one thing that I focus on very aggressively as a leader myself is how do we make sure that we communicate to hear, to understand, and be understood? How do we give tough, critical feedback? How do we properly give praise? By doing these things, you build trust, you build buy-in. And ultimately, if you're building a business, you have to be able to be agile and you have to be able to absorb a punch. And you can do that if you have people who understand that you respect them, if you know them, and if they'll have buy-in to whatever you say, you can easily turn the ship. So the first thing that you have to do when building any business is what people do I bring on? How do I connect to those people and make sure that I have the buy-in and respect that I would need to be able to manage this business through easy and tough times.
Mm-hmm. And so well said, because how I hear that is, you know, especially how you talked about taking a punch and being able to respond. So often, if that communication isn't there and that trust isn't there, taking that punch, that could be completely devastating to someone who they they just might not be able to respond because they don't have that level of trust. So am I understanding you correctly?
Yeah, absolutely. It's exactly what I mean. Yeah.
So question number 4: other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I always tell people In the hardest of times, remember that you can't go back in time and rewrite the past, but you can start right now and change the ending. And so no matter how hard things get and no matter how dire the situation, you are writing your own story right now. And when you look back on it, how do you want to show up? And is there anything that you wish you would have done? Is there an opportunity that you're missing because you're so focused on solving the problem that you haven't realized that you have a new opportunity? And so for me, it's always be reflecting, even when times are really tough, and say, is there something that I can learn from this? Am I having a hard time because I need to pivot or I need to change? And maybe the answer is no. But if the answer is yes, then as you're moving on in your professional story, you're improving and getting better and you can teach somebody else. And always think, no matter what I'm going through right now, it's a part of my story. And one day I'll be able to help other people by going through what I'm going through right now. So how do I want to show up in my own story? Mm-hmm.
That's so— I really like that, especially being present, because the, the learnings that you have, if you're not present, at least in my experience, you don't learn from those, those, those lessons, both positive and negative ones. Am I right?
Right. I mean, and being present also means that sometimes you have to take a breath and not try to solve a problem right away. Sometimes we get so stuck in problem solver mode that we miss what's happening. We miss a critical piece of the journey that actually may change how we solve the problem. And so sometimes when things are tough, take a break, sit back, and put on a different hat and say, am I thinking through this the right way? Am I taking time to appreciate what I'm going through? Am I doing right by my people and myself and my family? And just taking a moment to breathe, especially right now. Is so important and critically think about where you need to change or shift.
Very insightful. Thank you so much. Our fifth question: What other executive or business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Um, one person who has been a critical part of just my professional journey, her name is Stephanie Jenkins. She was the VP of Sales with me when I was at Glassdoor, and What I think is amazing about her is she has an ability to handle large workloads but compartmentalize them properly, and at the same time an incredibly human and empathetic and humble leader. I was always admired by her ability to not only problem solve, like we know generically we all have to do, but really own when something wasn't working, take it on her shoulders and say, look, maybe I didn't create this problem, or maybe I did, but I'm going to own fixing it and let's move forward. So she always had this incredible problem-solving mentality of just moving forward. We're going to move forward. It doesn't matter. And working with her for a little bit over half a decade, a lot of that stuck with me. And so she's a really incredible person to talk to.
Wonderful. I'll reach out to her. Thank you so much for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
So my first— I think I would call this my first real job. I was the secretary for an art studio. So when I was younger, I took art classes. And when I turned 14, she was like, you know, I'm looking for somebody to sit at the desk and, you know, you can make a little bit of extra money and just answer phones and talk to people. And I was like, well, shoot, that sounds easy. And so I worked at the front desk for, I think I worked like 10 or 15 hours a week when I was in high school over the summer. But what was amazing about that was it went from feeling like this kind of casual, like, oh, I'll sit up front and I'll answer the phones, to really taking ownership of this art business. And by answering the phones, I was asking questions and having to answer questions that I didn't know the answer to. So then I had to learn how to go and seek out those because I needed to be the authority because I'm answering the phone. And so it went from feeling like this really laid back, like, oh yeah, I'll just sit at the front desk, to like, all of a sudden I was like, I am a full-blown secretary and I care about this and we're going to move this business forward. And as a 14-year-old, I felt like this, this front desk entrepreneur of the art studio that I took classes at. And so I think that stayed with me throughout my professional journey.
I love that story. It's so great, especially only as 14 and taking real, real ownership of that role. So it's great. I really appreciate that. And Christina, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
You can email me christina@salesassembly.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Christina Brady. And so either one of those two ways are an easy way to get a hold of me if you want to. To talk further or just exchange information. I love making new connections.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
