In this seven‑minute, six‑question interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Jeff Rogers, a veteran software‑industry sales leader with over 25 years of experience. Rogers shares a concise personal intro, highlights the rewarding aspect of his work—collaborating with talented teams to solve customer challenges and drive revenue— and discusses his fluid view of work‑life balance, emphasizing outcome‑focused flexibility rather than a fixed split. He suggests future podcast guests Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to explore how extreme leaders manage personal versus professional priorities. Rogers offers three core pieces of advice for business leaders: actively seek contrarian viewpoints, regularly question “sacred cows” within organizations, and cultivate networks by providing value before asking for favors. He reflects on the realities of LinkedIn networking, noting low response rates and the importance of genuine engagement. The conversation concludes with a brief recount of his first jobs—bagging groceries at 16 and a post‑college financial analyst role—illustrating his career pivot to sales, and provides his contact information (LinkedIn and a uniquely spelled email address). The episode serves as a rapid, practical snapshot of leadership mindset, networking tactics, and career evolution in the software sales arena.
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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, tell me who you are and what you do.
Great. Good morning, Pete. My name is Jeff Rogers. So I'm a sales leader for— in the software industry. Been in the industry for well over 25 years. Also and equally a husband to my wife Marcy for 27 years. Raised 3 kids, one of them off the payroll, 2 getting close. And I'm probably a mediocre golfer. I'd say that would round things out.
Jeff, great to have you on the show, and I'm jealous that you've got one kid off payroll. I'm waiting for that first one to do the same. Question number 2. What's the best thing about working in your industry?
So as I mentioned, I'm in the software industry, and I think the best thing about it is I have really good people that I work with on my team that work with really good people in our customer base to solve really tough challenges that drive their business forward. So there's nothing like coming into, um, to a company, seeing an opportunity for improvement and being able to implement that and get to a point of increased revenue, better efficiency, et cetera. It's a real pleaser for me.
Excellent. Question number 3, I hear from other business leaders that staying in a good work-life balance for them and their team members is a challenge. What are your thoughts?
Great question. We spent a few minutes talking about this prior to this recording. But it's something that personally I struggle with a lot. And one of the things that I've realized over time is that it's not a static equation. It's not a 50/50. It's all the time. And it can vary based on things going on in your life and your own personal motivations. So the best advice I have, or the best thing I look for, is what are the end results that I'm trying to achieve or get my team to try to achieve and get those done. And how it gets done, I'm not as concerned about. And whatever is going on in my own equation at the, at the present time, I just have to make peace with it and move on.
And that's really sage advice, being able to just make peace with it. I love that. Question number 4: What other successful business leaders like yourself should be on my podcast?
So I'd ask you to aim high. 2 people I would love to see answer this set of questions are Jeff Bezos from Amazon and Elon Musk from Tesla. I would love to hear their answers around work-life balance, about how they view themselves, how they view their, their professions, and, and what their goals are in life.
Oh, excellent suggestions. In fact, yeah, with Elon especially, you know, there was an article about him, what, 6 months ago about that big question. So it would be interesting to see if I could get him live. So I will reach out. I'm not afraid to do it.
Yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting because those folks seem like 24/7 guys that they live, breathe, and eat what they do. Yeah, that's nearly impossible for most people. And I have to think that they still have lives somehow. So I'd really like to understand how they rationalize and prioritize their personal lives versus their professional lives.
I too. Question number 5: What insight or advice would you give to other business leaders?
So I think there's 3 things. Number 1 is seek contrarian views. And this is something I do all the time because you never have all the answers and there are great solutions out there that you haven't thought of. So when I work with my team, with my management, I'm always pushing to seek contrarian views to what what others might be thinking. Related to that is I think it's a healthy practice to slaughter sacred cows. In fact, somebody made an expression, sacred cows make the best hamburgers. And absolutely true, because what may have applied or been gospel at one point in time may not be that way anymore. And I think we always need to reexamine those, uh, those elements that, uh, people consider sacred in the workforce because there might be a better way. And then finally, I truly believe in the power of networking. And I was actually watching a podcast just the other day about it, and it talked about actively engaging with your network. And what that means is don't only reach out to people when you have a requirement from them or you're looking for something from them. Have relationships and cultivate and maintain those relationships even when you're not needing something or want something from them. First of all, it's just the right thing to do because generally the people that are in your network are people that you are friends with and want to hang out with. And then, and then second, it's somewhat disingenuous to only work your network when you need something. So I guess those are the 3 things I think about, Pete.
I think you're, you're right on the mark there, Jeff, especially, you know, I think about people who reach out to you and immediately sell to you without even having any rapport built. It's just, they just don't get it. They're just trying to do as many cold calls as possible. And they, you know, and if you cultivate, as you say, and you don't ask them for something, but you provide value to them, and at a later point, I would assume that they'd be more open to working with you when the time calls for it, right?
Sure, sure. You know, on the issue of something like LinkedIn, that's a platform I use quite a bit, but it's amazing the invitations that I might get to connect people I don't even know who say things like, I'm looking to connect with somebody in my same industry or like-minded professionals or whatnot. And if I generally don't know those people, Pete Alexander, I'll say, hey, thanks for your invitation. How can I help you?
Mm-hmm.
70% of the time I don't get a response from them on that.
Yeah.
Yeah. It just goes dead and I, you know, I ignore their invitation. You know, 30% of the time I get a valid response. Sometimes it's a, I want to sell you something, in which case, you know, I'll figure out if it's something that we're looking for. Or two, you know, they're just looking to broaden their network. They think that maybe we can work together. They're looking for advice, whatnot. You know, those are all valid reasons.
Agreed, agreed. And question number 6, tell me about your first job.
So I'm going to tell you about 2 of my first jobs, one in a kind of high school environment and then the second in more of a professional environment. So the first one, I was 16, just inherited a lemon of a car and needed to support it, so I needed a job. And I took a job as a bagger, which I think they're now known as courtesy clerks, at a local grocery store. Now, this grocery store was not in the best part of town, and the carts were always missing. People were always taking the carts home. So there was always a perennial shortage of carts. So this must have been the hottest summer on record in Fremont, California, and I was just running from ponchos to Pilot, trying to pick up these carts, and it just was not for me. I mean, I'd show back up in the grocery store ready to pack bags and look like I had just spent 3 hours playing basketball. And people were like, "I don't think I want him touching my groceries." So, not the right thing for me, so I moved on from that. We went to college together, and I was a finance major, thinking I was gonna change the world of finance. My first post-college job was actually as a financial analyst for a corporation. And after about a year and a half of that, I called my dad one day and said, "Hey, Dad, is it normal to get up in the morning and just really not like going to work?" And he said, "You know, Jeff, probably for somebody my age, that's okay. But for your age, you probably got to go find something better." to do. So I migrated more into a sales role over time, and, you know, I've never been more happy. As we were talking about before, before the interview started, you know, selling software and working with teams to help them sell software has really made my heart sing, and that, that's really where I belong.
So I love it.
Some good learnings in both cases, I think.
Yep, absolutely. Thanks for that. And Jeff, thank you for being on the show. How can people find you?
As I mentioned, I'm very active on LinkedIn. There's a little bit of double jeopardy in my name. My name is not spelled with a J, it's with a G. So Jeffrey underscore Rogers at, and that's Rogers with a D by the way, at yahoo.com. Or you can find me on LinkedIn.
Wonderful. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, or Facebook and search for Winning at Business and Life Podcast. Thanks for listening.
