Sales Was Just the Start: Meet Your Hosts, Alex & Lauren

In this first episode, co-hosts Alex Kremer and Lauren Goodell trace their friendship back to a Microsoft training program over a decade ago. They reframe sales as a trailhead for self-discovery rather than a scoreboard. And they lay out why this show trades the highlight reel for the whole game. Episode Navigation: 00:00 — Cold open: recording day one and why they're doing this podcast 00:26 — How they met: the Microsoft Academy of Collegiate Hires and the “MARK” program 04:17 — Redefining sales as humanity, not persuasion 05:44 — Introducing Alluviance and Sell with Goodell 09:32 — The breakdown that became a breakthrough 12:28 — Setting the show's vision: vulnerability over the highlight reel 15:37 — What's ahead: guests behind the mask, starting with Scott 19:30 — Reframing failure: “fail fast, learn faster” 21:07 — The Gap and the Gain: measuring progress instead of distance 24:15 — Community and mentorship as the foundation of growth About Your Hosts: Alex Kremer is the founder of Alluviance, a community built for sales leaders and founders doing the inner work alongside the outer grind, through retreats, coaching, and a mastermind community. Before leaving corporate life, he spent 15+ years in tech sales and leadership at companies including Microsoft, DocuSign, and Outreach. He lives with his wife, Alexia, who has also become a leader within Alluviance's community and retreats. Lauren Goodell is the co-founder and CRO of Clustr, which helps organizations build real AI fluency and adoption starting with their people, and speaks and consults on human-first sales and AI through Sell with Goodell. She previously spent nearly a decade in enterprise sales at Microsoft and Salesforce before founding the sales tool Zinnia, which has since wound down. She's based in Charlotte. Connect: Sales Was Just the Start: https://saleswasjustthestart.com/ Alluviance (Alex Kremer): https://www.alluviance.co/ Sell with Goodell (Lauren Goodell): https://sellwithgoodell.com/ Clustr (Lauren Goodell): https://getclustr.ai/ Resources: How to crush your quota without crushing your soul - https://ruvbi.share.hsforms.com/2rGW9... The 4 masks of sales - https://ruvbi.share.hsforms.com/2NM3d... The 5 day inner game reset challenge - https://ruvbi.share.hsforms.com/2W1Ko...