Ben Bullman: Client Development Executive

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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Benjamin Buhlmann with us. He currently works in Iron Mountain's data management division as a client development executive. In addition to working full-time, Mr. Buhlmann also attends La Salle University, where he is pursuing an MBA degree in business systems and analytics. Despite the heavy workflow and demanding schedule, there are many other interests that whet his appetite, including bicycling, golfing, fitness, music, snowboarding, reading, God, family, and being a world-class brother, son, husband, and uncle. So welcome to the show, man.

Thank you, Tyler Wagner Wagner. Appreciate you having me today, sir.

Happy Friday. Thank you, man. You too. So, we'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Ben, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

So, I think the best story for me actually comes back to my beginning stages of college where I attended James Madison University. I was one of those kind of kids that didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I joined a fraternity, had tons of friends, switched majors about 10 to 11 times and, you know, a couple years in I just kind of decided, hey, you know what, let's start over and find out what my why is, right? What my passions are. So I actually went ahead and transferred to Rider University, studied marketing while doing a majority of cold calling for some contractors in the area locally and really found my passion for the sales and account management realm. Although it's less of a story and more of just a little bit of a timeline, it really was a pinnacle moment for me in that it really taught me to seek out what I wanted to do versus what other people had advised me to do in the past. I really think that I would strongly encourage your users and people that are "lost in life" to kind of really dig within your heart and find out what you really want to do, and I think all the rest kind of fall in place from there.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So for me, you know, and I wrote this actually in the description that you had sent over to me, there's two types of salespeople in my eyes. There's hunters and then there's farmers. I think the statistic is that 5% of people can do both. I actually pride myself in being able to do both. So not only being able to cultivate and sustain long-standing relationships, but also to really drive new revenues and pitch products and services. So really just the ability to be a hybrid kind of rep, if you will, and really kind of COVID the full gamut of sales expertise.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

So overall, overall business advice, especially when it comes to sales and account management, is to really do what's best for the customer. My boss actually has a famous saying where if you do what's right for yourself, what's right for the customer, and what's right for both, you're 9 times out of 10 going to be doing the right thing. So I'd have to say, you know, the underlying message in that is that do what's right for the customer. And again, The cards will fall in place from there.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

My younger self, some advice? Set goals. I think it's one of those things where I think studies have shown that, you know, 85% of people in their youth that set goals achieve those goals and become successful. So if I can, you know, look in the, look in the map, Sleeping Beauty's magic mirror and tell myself one word of advice, it would be to set goals and also execute on them.

And, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

So, the key to happiness is to have a positive attitude no matter what you're doing, especially again, I kind of speak more from the sales side of the house because I've been in sales for almost 6 years now. But, it's to, you know, take the good with the bad, meaning that, you know, if you have to take those ugly calls, kind of make them. Praise yourself for your achievements, but at the same time, stay humble and always hungry for more and never kind of deal with, with being content.

And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?

So actually, this is my favorite question, a very tough question for me, because I do have a lot of books that I do like to read. But I have to defer to my recent reading, which is from the book Awaken the Giant, and it's by Tony Robbins. And the quote that really resonated with me was, "If you want to change your life, you have to raise your standards." And again, going back to what I tell myself in my youth to pave a more successful path in my career is to really kind of, you know, Evaluate where you are and then kind of, you know, take it 2 notches up and set goals and objectives to achieve that.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

So my favorite quote, again, I don't mean to harp on Tony Robbins, but he's just kind of one of those, one of those guys who really made a distinct impact in my life. And it's that whole idea of raising your standards, not only in sales, but I think in any career, if you kind of If you're striving to be an associate, and that's, again, kind of where the first level out of college, that's kind of where you land. But, my thing is when I first came to Iron Mountain, my mentor asked me what I wanted to be, and I told him I wanted to be the CEO. And honestly, I might not be the CEO. I'll try every day to be that. But, even if I were to land at, say, a director or VP role, I mean, that's 10 times higher than I'd ever think I'd achieve. So, again, just raising your standards, and planning and scheduling a roadmap to get there.

I love it, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?

So the best place to, to find me online, I'm a big LinkedIn guy, so that's actually the other link that I provided you with, is LinkedIn, uh, for more from a, from a business perspective. Any questions, I'm always happy to answer questions or you know, reflect more on my life experiences. And then for more of a, more of a fun side, you can always check out my Facebook page as well. Perfect, man.

Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.

Tyler, I appreciate it, sir. You have a nice weekend. All right.