How Gong Made Community a Touchpoint in Their Sales Cycle — With Nisha Baxi

We have Gong's Visioneer's community to thank for connecting us — so how could we not have the mastermind behind it on the show? 

As the Head of Community and Digital Customer Success at Gong, Nisha knows how a community impacts business growth. She unpacks exactly how the community impacts every point in the Gong sales cycle, and the simple way her team tracks the ROI of their work. 

As always, we dig into the challenges faced by women leaders and how communities can help them overcome them (Nisha's got some great advice on this, too!)

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nisha Baxi: I would say that as the first step, the most important thing is understand where you are and what you're trying to achieve. And then, based on where you are, then sort of build out your community strategy and where it should sit. But really, it's all about gathering a small group of people that care about the same thing as you.

[00:01:00] Ashley Coghill: Hi, I'm Ashley.

[00:01:02] Katrine Reddin: And I'm Katrine.

[00:01:04] Ashley Coghill: And welcome to another episode of Ashley and Katrine's Infinite Revenue Playlist. Today our guest is Nisha Baxi, Head of Community and Digital Customer Success at Gong. Nisha, thanks for joining us today.

[00:01:17] Katrine Reddin: Hello, hello.

[00:01:17] Nisha Baxi: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:19] Katrine Reddin: So, Nisha, what is your walkup song?

[00:01:22] Nisha Baxi: My intro song is Katy Perry's Roar because I love that song, and she is just, like, has this big, booming voice, and she just means it, and she feels the music, and she just knows who she is and what she's about, and I think that's so awesome. And whether or not you feel that way, put on that song, and you will sure as heck embody it, and I love it

[00:01:45] That's a classic.

[00:01:46] Ashley Coghill: Katy Perry Roar. All right. I'm gonna read your bio really quick, Nisha, I want everyone to know who we're talking to today. So, Nisha is Head of Community and Digital Customer Success at Gong, which is the revenue intelligence solution, as you know.

[00:02:02] In 2009, Nisha thought it would be fun to run SVNewTech, a community for startup founders, and she grew it to over 15K members. 

[00:02:10] Nisha is the former head of marketing and founding team member of Monte Carlo, a data observability company. She spent a decade building her career, working with developers and startups at tech heavyweights like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Facebook. Nisha currently sits on the American Red Cross Silicon Valley board, and confers the annual Nisha Baxi Award for that chapter. Somebody says... 

[00:02:34] Katrine Reddin: First of all, very impressive background. Second, I need to know what is the Nisha Baxi Award for the Red Cross?

[00:02:40] Nisha Baxi: Oh, my gosh. 

[00:02:41] Ashley Coghill: I need to know that, too.

[00:02:42] Nisha Baxi: Uh, that was actually a really random thing that happened. Well, I, I volunteered in high school, like every day, I was like a Red Cross nerd. I volunteered a thousand hours while I was in high school, and then when I graduated from high school and I was in college, I got an email saying that they named an award after me at the chapter that I volunteered, to like, the youth who did, like, the most volunteering and gave back the most that year.

[00:03:08] Katrine Reddin: That's amazing. 

[00:03:09] Nisha Baxi: that was in, yeah, it was really cool. So, that was in 2004 and 2023, so almost 20 years later, like, every year they still give it out. So, I get to go to the chapter and confer the award to a, a young person who gives back to the community. So, I didn't have to, like 

[00:03:26] Katrine Reddin: I mean, what better background for someone that actually ended up in community to be serving their local community and now managing online communities?

[00:03:37] Nisha Baxi: Such a full circle moment, like the way that you said that, I'm like, "Huh, no one's ever really said it that way." But yeah, that's way to make me feel good about myself early this morning, thank you very much, you two.

[00:03:47] Katrine Reddin: Well, you're an incredible person, so every word is deserved.

[00:03:51] Ashley Coghill: Definitely.

[00:03:52] Katrine Reddin: So, let's talk about what you're currently doing at Gong. Your title is Head of Community and Digital Customer Success. What does that mean?

[00:04:01] Nisha Baxi: Yep. Well, community is basically a way to bring people together that connect on a very specific topic that everyone, they, like a shared interest or a hobby. At Gong we've built out a best practice community, so this community specifically focuses customers on connecting with each other on how they use Gong, and also on topics that they care about.

[00:04:27] And that we've have some really great, you know, meetup groups that happen once a month including, and most especially the one that you two have co-created and built and run together. We have a data meetup as well, and a bunch of lively, like, groups and, and, and folks that take part in, in discussions as well.

[00:04:44] I also head up digital customer success. So, that's so, a way that we provide air cover for CSMs through technology and automation to deliver personalized and proactive experiences for our customers along their customer journey. So, what we found is all of these amazing programs that we have in any, you know, B2B customer environment, like, an academy or the community or the help center, they're only as important as people needing it at the right place at the right time in their journey.

[00:05:15] And so, kind of basically building out this, like, proactive, automated digital experience will really kind of help garner more people and get more people involved in the community and the academy and all of these other awesome places where our customers can learn and earn and, and connect.

[00:05:32] Ashley Coghill: That's awesome. You are a woman in leadership, Nisha, and I'd like to hear about how that has been both a driver, also something that is probably an advantage, and maybe also the hardships that come with being a lady?

[00:05:51] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, I think that there's just hardships when you're in a position where you have to make decisions and, and influence. One of the things that I wake up every morning, and I have to tell myself is, "You know, Nisha, it's better to be respected than it is to be liked." And that's something that I've struggled with for a really long time, and I still do,

[00:06:10] I still do this every day because my whole life it's all about community and bringing people together and connecting with people and building a personal relationship and leveraging that personal relationship to get to, like, a mutual shared outcome. And what I realized is sometimes you have to get things done, and not everything is a mutual shared outcome.

[00:06:34] There is a dynamic where, I need to get something done, and this person may or may not care about it, but it has to get done, and I have to find a way to be, utilize other skills by being, you know, persuasive, talking about how this will benefit them business-wise or, you know, you have to exercise a different muscle.

[00:06:53] And it isn't just about charm and disarm, although that can work in a lot of instances, but I have to remember that I have to always, you know, show up as, like, being authentic, and it's better to be respected than to be liked. So, it's an ongoing journey for me, for sure. And I imagine a lot of people struggle with that,

[00:07:10] whether or not, you know, everyone is, has, plays a leadership role in some degree or another in their life, and I think that that's something when you reach a certain point you say, "Okay." And I actually say this when I'm building out this digital customer success function is, "There's a lot of things that are already happening, and I'm not part of it,

[00:07:26] and that's okay, I need to take stock and inventory of what it is, and I need to figure out where to lead, follow, or get out of the way," is what I always say. And so, I think a good leader can say, this, like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, this is great, how can I help? Is the question that you should be asking.

[00:07:44] If there are white space and there's opportunity, then you should take that as a leadership opportunity and say, "Okay, this is where I need to go." And then if something is great, then just let it be and just say, "Hey, let me know, if there's any updates or changes and if there's anything that I can do to, to kind of keep your momentum going." So, that's something I think about a lot. Good question. No one's asked me that question.

[00:08:06] Katrine Reddin: We've talked about having respect or earning respect in the workplace with a lot of different women of different types of roles and types of seniority, and some feedback we've gotten across the board, regardless of their age, their experience level, is that when they do try to go for respect, especially for male counterparts, a lot of time what happens is it's called the 

[00:08:28] bitch phenomenon, which means, like, you said you would rather be respected than liked, and a lot of times when women aim for that, what happens is, you know, a man turns around and goes, "Wow, she's such a bitch." Or even other women, right? They're like, "Wow, she's so intense,

[00:08:43] she's such a bitch." Right? Instead of a man acting in the same exact way, and like, he's confident, he knows what he's doing, he's type A, he's a leader. And I'm curious when you are, you know, going for the respect and not for the like, how do you combat that, if at all?

[00:08:59] Nisha Baxi: I mean, I haven't ever gotten feedback on it when I've sort of been in that mode or that mindset, maybe once, and I just said, "Listen, like, I, I just, I really have to get things done today, I'm in business mode, okay, cool." I mean, people also know, like, my baseline is, like, friendly, outgoing, like chit-chatty,

[00:09:16] and people know that about me. And so, when they see that, like, hey, I'm like, really trying to achieve something, and like, really kind of leading with business first, they respect that, in fact, because I've been sick the past two weeks, whenever I write emails, I'm just so, like, brief and terse and just to the point, because I literally have, like, three hours in the day where I feel okay that I can, like, chug out emails, answer things,

[00:09:40] and the rest of the day is I just can't, can't really handle it. So, and I've actually found that to be really efficient. Who would've known? So, I'm okay with it, if I can get things done in a shorter period of time, and I've established like a baseline level of, you know, my personality is warm,

[00:09:57] I think that that's okay, I think it's a lifelong thing, I, I don't think anyone has really perfected it, and all you can do is just be yourself and hope that people see it, and if they don't, then that's okay because as long as you're authentic to yourself and you get, you know, your message out and people respect you and, and hear you then I think that that's all that matters.

[00:10:19] Ashley Coghill: I think you're a very warm person, you're like a cheerleader, but in the best way, not in any bad ways, and I like cheerleaders, it's not, not a negative thing, but 

[00:10:27] Nisha Baxi: Well, I was the captain of my cheerleading squad in high school.

[00:10:29] Ashley Coghill: That makes sense. 

[00:10:31] Katrine Reddin: That makes a lot of sense.

[00:10:32] Ashley Coghill: So much sense. So, but seriously, it's an awesome trait, but one that isn't off, it doesn't always come, like, people just ignore the, the stereotypical cheerleader is not someone that people are like, oh, she's super smart and someone I should be following, right?

[00:10:47] Besides the other cheerleaders, you know where I'm going with this. How do you, how do you create that baseline of warmth without letting people walk all over you is what I'm really trying to ask?

[00:10:59] Nisha Baxi: My goodness. I don't know, when you figure it out, you let me know 'cause it, it, it just depends, right, on, on the each individual relationship and who they are, and one of the things that I've actually been trying to do is time box my chit-chattiness in meetings and things like that and just say, let me just chat with people for eight minutes, up to eight minutes, five to eight minutes, like three, you know, up to three minutes

[00:11:23] people are rolling in, so at the five-minute mark, you know, if you feel like this is a good time, then you can start the meeting and send out the agenda in advance. And then, if it's, like, you're having a great conversation about, you know, cherry blossoms and Kyoto, then you keep it up until eight and say, "All right, I know we don't, we don't have a lot of time,

[00:11:41] let's get moving." And that way, at least, you can get a little bit of your personality in and that warmth that you really do want to achieve. But then also people feel, like, when they leave a meeting with you, they know that, you've gotten everything that you need, and they've gotten everything that they need from you, too.

[00:11:57] So, I do think that there is a little bit of that, and that's something that I do always have to remind myself on because good gosh, I would love to just go to every single meeting and just sit and chit-chat all day long, and I don't know where I get, I don't know where that comes from, that comes from my dad,

[00:12:11] he's like that, I mean, he's like, pretty much like the mayor of every room that he's in, glad handing people and just chit-chatting everyone. But yeah, you're always kind of trying to figure that out. Have you two found anything? Any cool hacks on that?

[00:12:24] Katrine Reddin: Well, I would say, I think to an extent, being able to chit-chat and be warm is actually a strength, especially in the revenue space, right? When you're building rapport with community members, prospects, customers, the more you can show empathy and compassion and chit-chat about the things that maybe don't necessarily interest you but interest the other person,

[00:12:44] you show that they care, and especially when you're performing discovery on, like, a sales call, I think it can be a strength. It is a double-edged sword, though, because as Ashley said, sometimes when people expect that warmth, they expect that bubbliness from you all the time. They also equate it to, "Oh, they're weak,

[00:13:00] I can walk all over them, or I can take advantage of this, they're just a kind person." So, I wouldn't say I've necessarily found, you know, a method to combat that, but I think it's just something to be aware of, especially as a woman in revenue.

[00:13:13] Ashley Coghill: I think that, I just don't apologize for it anymore. At first, I thought it was what you were supposed to do in sales, you're supposed to talk to people and just chit-chat, and like, make small talk, and that was what you're supposed to do. But I genuinely want to talk to people about those things,

[00:13:27] like, I'm very interested in all of the different things and when I find common ground with someone, I'm, I legitimately want to have that conversation. So, for me, it was not even giving them the space to act like that wasn't a strength. And I think just barreling through without any acknowledgement that that wouldn't be something that would be considered a, a strong, like, that's how I deal with it. I just do me and pretend like it doesn't even, like, I don't even know that there's haters out there, I know 

[00:13:56] Katrine Reddin: Fake it till you make it.

[00:13:57] Ashley Coghill: they're there, but I pretend like they're not there.

[00:13:59] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, that's a good one. Fake it till you make it. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:02] Katrine Reddin: I wanna go back to talking about community, specifically the community you currently run and manage with your amazing team who we know well. So, why a customer-centric community and one where you purposely connect prospects and customers together, why was that the decision for the type of community that Gong wanted to spin up? 

[00:14:21] Nisha Baxi: Yeah. So, when I joined Gong two, actually, wow, today is my two-year anniver, Gongversary.

[00:14:29] Katrine Reddin: Congratulations. 

[00:14:30] Nisha Baxi: okay, yep. When I joined Gong, we had a roughly 500 employees, and we had thousands of customers, an ask from these customers was, "How do I meet other customers that were like me and how are they using Gong?"

[00:14:43] Because Gong is when you're able to really unlock its potential and its power by, like, using every little feature, I mean, it's, it's truly, truly a mind-blowing experience. As a former customer, I can say that and really believe, and which is, which is why I wanted to join Gong, I was like, this, this product is just too cool.

[00:15:04] But for me, you know, we felt like there was an opportunity to also open it up to the public so that if people wanted to learn about what you, the kind of love and what you get when you become a Gong customer, they could see it firsthand in, in an authentic way through the community, right, like, I'm not pushing out, you know, fake news articles or trying to get people to do things for us, like, that they don't wanna do,

[00:15:30] it's really just people that have their own ideas and thoughts and they wanna share it, and, you know, what other place can you nerd out about how to use Gong then in the Gong community? You're not gonna talk about how I use Gong on LinkedIn, "These are the buttons that I press, these are the five things that really help me out." You don't ever do that on LinkedIn. And so, Gong was a really great organic place for that. And what we found was when we opened it up to the public that people would actually go to the community and learn about it before they became a customer and then end up becoming a customer.

[00:16:03] And that's actually been a hugely impactful in a way that we didn't really anticipate, I mean, that we had hoped we, we would see, but we're seeing a lot of that. The other theory that I have is that you should connect people that have common interests and they're gonna talk about Gong anyway, because Gong is what connected them in the first place, right?

[00:16:24] And so, but that's not what binds them, what binds them is their common interest and the things that they care about, I mean, that's how you two met, right? And that's my favorite story in the Visioneer community, in the Gong Visioneer community is that, you know, you two met and through Meetsy and the community and got connected and said like, "Hey, like, we really wanna run this Women in Revenue thing."

[00:16:47] And Gong was like, "Yeah, this is sick, like, we definitely need to do this and we need to support these two awesome ladies who just know what's up." And that's, that's great, that's great for women, that's great for everyone, that's, and that happens to be great for business, that's awesome, what a, like, win-win-win scenario for everyone.

[00:17:06] Katrine Reddin: As you two both know, I could talk about community all day every day, and what people don't realize is that it's really like a secret weapon for any company, it doesn't matter what type of company or type of, you know, ICP you have, you can use your community in authentic way to

[00:17:23] showcase your products, to show your customers and your prospects who you really are outside of the marketing campaigns, outside of the demos and the pitches.

[00:17:32] And as you said, people are gonna talk about your products anyways, whether you own that conversation or not. So, why wouldn't you rather provide the space where you can see conversation happening, understand your customers and what they truly want and what they feel and what they think about your products in a way that lets you build your products with your customers, right,

[00:17:49] in a community-led sense. And I think Gong does a fantastic job of this, and as you mentioned, Ashley and I would never net each other without the Gong community. We realized we were both women in sales, we both had the same problems, the same types of customers we were working with, and we both used Gong and we loved Gong, but so much more came out of it.

[00:18:09] And now we're Gong customers for life, right? Why would I ever buy from another company with a similar product to Gong when I get so much more out of the community than just an amazing product? Community is super, super powerful.

[00:18:23] Ashley Coghill: You were talking about community and it sounded like individual's personal brand, community's kind of, like, your company's personal brand, and I've never thought of it that way, but you were describing it exactly the same way.

[00:18:35] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, no, it is very, very much like that, and we even had a community before I even joined Gong in a sense, right, like, people love the product, people talk about it, people know about the branding, people see it on LinkedIn and on social media, and they read our blogs, and they learn a lot whether or not they're customers,

[00:18:52] and we wanted people to have that same feeling and that connection and that impact when they became customers, and that's why we created this specific space for them, is we wanted that to kind of move into while marketing sort of created this movement, this brand, as you said Ashley, and then when you become a customer we wanted you to have that same experience and to know how to do it.

[00:19:16] So, we've told you in marketing this is what you can do, and this is why you should do it, and then you say, "Okay, cool, I'm signing up, sign me up." Then you become a customer, and then, in the community you learn how, "Cool, you promised me all these things, now what buttons do I press so that I can get that thing that you promised me?"

[00:19:35] And that's what the community does, and that's why I sit in customer success, by the way, is because that's the whole job of customer success, is explaining how.

[00:19:44] Katrine Reddin: What's interesting, though, is while you do sit in customer success, the Gong community very much impacts sales as well, and revenue and growth and pipeline generation. And I'm curious, do you have any current goals that are tied to the sales team, or are all of your goals currently tied to customer success?

[00:20:02] Nisha Baxi: I tie them to everything. So, we have support goals, product goals, we have sales acquisition goals, content goals, engagement within the community, and then success as well. From a sales revenue perspective, we just measure the dollars of influence that we have within the community.

[00:20:18] So, I can simply see people that find the community, join us non-customers, and then become customers, you know, 6, 8, 10 weeks later, and I can just track that ARR and I can say, "Okay, we're a touchpoint in the sales cycle, cool." It's really that simple and, you know, I have some, like, goals around that, but, you know, just seeing it happen organically is awesome and that's why 

[00:20:45] being digital led and digital motion so that we bring people to the community and other places at the right time in their journey become important because then it's not just like, oh, this is a cool place where I can go, it's like, this is my, and I, I was just said on webinar earlier today and they described community as the third place, is like, it's very much like Starbucks,

[00:21:07] it's like you've got your home, you've got your work, and then you've got the Starbucks, which is the third place. And I think it's very, very similar with the community and the way that we have it set up at Gong, and what we hope that it will achieve in the future is really kind of being the third place for the customer, 

[00:21:24] which is, you've got your CSM, you've got your product, and then you've got your community, that's your third place. So, that's what we hope to achieve and there's a lot more we have to do to make that a reality, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. 

[00:21:40] Katrine Reddin: So, I feel like there's a lot of misconceptions of what community really is, what it means, specifically in the, the business world. I think a lot of people look at it as kind of, like, another marketing campaign that they invest in for a little bit, get some leads out of when it's really more of a long-term game and it's its own function, it impacts every part of the business, right?

[00:22:00] It impacts sales, churn rates, it impacts product feedback, brand affinity, you name it, impacts everything. And for those that have not yet invested in community, which by the way, everyone get on that, where should people start, specifically, like, sales and customer success teams that are hoping to get the benefit that community can bring, obviously in an authentic way, what's the most basic thing they can do to get a community off the ground?

[00:22:24] Nisha Baxi: Well, I think first you need to understand where you are in your journey as a company, right? So, how big are you? Where do you start? Is there 15 of you? Are you trying to build a category,\ together and you're just trying to get people really interested in something like, some intersection of ITOps, SecOps and, you know, some really cool, you know, code 

[00:22:44] that you built on your, I don't know, something? Or is this something that already exists, something that's pretty amazing and you've got lots of customers and you really want them to learn from each other? Everyone says that there's multiple different types of communities,

[00:22:58] I really think that there's just two buckets. I think there is a community for pre-sales when you're trying to build creation. So, I think community and content are the two number one biggest things that you can do to get people to understand the value of your business and to help drive sales immensely at the beginning stages of your journey as a company.

[00:23:20] And so, community is really important, in that point in the journey the team should be in marketing, and it should be all about creating demand, demand gen and, and inbound leads and revenue, but in an organic way, getting people to learn about what it is that you're doing,

[00:23:34] connecting people that care about, you know, these ITOps, SepOx, SecOps people, I don't know why I'm even thinking about that, that group, because I have never even, that has never even been my persona in all my, you know, 15, 20 years of working, but once you get them together, then they create a movement and then they start talking about, oh, and this is how our, this company actually helps solve for that.

[00:23:56] And then they end up, you know, sharing, telling people about the community, and then also you have really great content, and then, you know, people start noticing and then they buy more of your product. So, that's one thing, and then the other one is the community that I, that I built at Gong, which was our post-sale community is, we've already achieved product market fit,

[00:24:14] we have, you know, hundreds of thousands of customers, and now those customers wanna learn from each other. So, then we connected them, but then we made it open so that people that were sort of in the beginning part of their journey, they could learn from people that had already achieved it and that were already there.

[00:24:33] So, I would say that as the first step, the most important thing is understand where you are and what you're trying to achieve, and then based on where you are, then sort of build out your community strategy, and where it should sit. But really it's all about gathering a small group of people that care about the same thing as you. Start small, just a, a few people in a room talking about the stuff that they love talking about. That's all that matters. And then, over time, it'll get really big and it'll be like the meetup that I ran, that has 15,000 people in it, over time.

[00:25:07] Katrine Reddin: Crazy. And something else that I'll add as a member in your community, and I'm sure Ashley will attest to this as well, you make Gong seem like so much fun through this community, right? Like, by being a customer, you're in this, like, secret club where, not only do you get to learn more about the product, 

[00:25:25] and chat with other people about how they use it and how you can deploy it better at your company, but it's just fun, and it gives your company this amazing personality and it lets your employees kind of shine as well through their personalities and it's just, it's a lot of fun.

[00:25:40] Nisha Baxi: Oh, my gosh, so fun, so fun, and like, that's the whole point of it, is like, people should be enjoying themselves, learning and growing together and, and having fun and connecting on things they care about.

[00:25:51] Ashley Coghill: Do you think that communities, and this is kind of a trick question, 

[00:25:54] Nisha Baxi: Ooh. 

[00:25:55] Ashley Coghill: but do you think that communities are a way for women to have a stronger presence in sales? Because it really feels like the Women in Revenue community that you have, a sub-community at Gong, is one of the most powerful ones that you have,

[00:26:12] and I'm not just saying that because Katrine and I are involved, but it does seem like there's a lot of engagement there, and I'm, I'm curious if that was an intentional thing because, spoiler, I think community is a way for women to support each other and help push each other forward.

[00:26:27] Nisha Baxi: Is, is that a leading question? Yeah, of course,

[00:26:30] Ashley Coghill: It's a leading question.

[00:26:30] Nisha Baxi: It's a leading question, yeah, of course, I mean, first of all, every community should be built around your customers and what their customers want. And what happened was is I had an idea for community, I asked Katrine what she thought about it and was like, "We wanna do this other thing."

[00:26:48] And I was like, "That sounds amazing." And Katrine's our customer and she wanted to do a Women in Revenue Meetup, and guess what? It's awesome, and it's the best, and we love it, and we support it, and yeah, I mean, and I think community is definitely an amazing avenue, I think there's lots of it, different avenues, but

[00:27:07] I think it's the easiest way to get going and to get started and to feel like you're part of something and to learn from other wonderful people that have been in your shoes or are currently in your shoes, or to see something that you might tackle in the future and know how people overcame it, it's so important. 

[00:27:23] And so, yeah, I think it's just darn good business doing what your customers ask for and what they want and supporting them, but also, yeah, I think there needs to be a space where women can connect with each other and learn from each other, and we have a shared identity, and we have similar struggles, and there is something to be shared by that communal conversation,

[00:27:47] and, and this undertaking is really just ev, everything. I'm just gonna plug the meetup then, uh, everyone should come join, join the Women in Revenue meetup that these two, you know, co-created and run together every month because it's truly special, it really is.

[00:28:02] Ashley Coghill: We appreciate you making this space for it because it is really important to have a place, and there are a lot of communities out there right now, but I think the thoughtfulness that you put in at Gong, it really shows and it's not just slap together in a Slack group, right?

[00:28:20] Nisha Baxi: Well, if I had my other right hand available, then I would make a heart, but I'm holding this mic, so here's half a heart.

[00:28:28] Katrine Reddin: We'll help you out. There we go.

[00:28:30] Ashley Coghill: Here we go. Oh, wait.

[00:28:31] Katrine Reddin: It's a three, it's a three heart, heart, three-sided heart, there we go, love it.

[00:28:36] Nisha Baxi: I just, I wanted to fit in with you both, so I, I pulled my mic for, if anyone is watching this at the end, I pulled my mic out of my closet, and I was like, I wanna be part of this. So, I, that's why we're all holding our mics.

[00:28:49] Katrine Reddin: We're the mic crew.

[00:28:50] Ashley Coghill: It's solidarity. 

[00:28:52] Nisha Baxi: Beatboxing up next.

[00:28:54] Ashley Coghill: Oh, no.

[00:28:55] Katrine Reddin: Yeah, especially...

[00:28:56] Ashley Coghill: Are you good at beatboxing? We haven't talked about any special hobbies, is that your hidden talent?

[00:29:01] Nisha Baxi: Oh, my gosh. I actually have, like, a running list of hobbies that I, like, want to, like, just dominate and take down over the course of my life, but I feel like that would be a whole 'nother episode, but I will say that last night I, I wasn't able to sleep, and so I went on Masterclass, which is, like, probably my favorite app.

[00:29:21] And I just watched, like, an hour of, like, Gordon Ramsey, like, teaching me how to, like, make, like, the perfect poached egg and how to, like, dismantle and cook a chicken properly, and like, how to use knives and how to organize your kitchen, and I'm like, this is so fascinating to me, I never used to care about any of this stuff.

[00:29:43] And actually, I think part of it is because I'm, like, I'm a businesswoman, I don't need to know how to cook and all of that. But then I kind of realized, wow, this is, like, really, like, a great life skill, it's therapeutic, and it's kind of fun, like, I can actually enjoy it, it's, I find it inspiring at this stage in my life anyway, 10 years ago I would've been like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that. But I love it, I, I think it's great, Gordon Ramsey's awesome.

[00:30:05] Katrine Reddin: Next thing we know, instead of just the Red Cross Nisha Baxi Award, there's gonna be some sort of, like, Masterclass Master Chef Nisha Award.

[00:30:14] Nisha Baxi: Oh, my gosh, I don't, I don't, I don't think so, honestly, I think that the, the food that I make is probably just only food that I like.

[00:30:23] Ashley Coghill: That's what you should make, right?

[00:30:25] Nisha Baxi: Yeah. That's so true. 

[00:30:26] Katrine Reddin: I would eat anything you make, I trust you. 

[00:30:28] Ashley Coghill: I wouldn't eat everything you make because I have things that I don't like, but I would eat probably most of it. I don't know if I like what you like. 

[00:30:34] Nisha Baxi: Do you like egg, eggplant Parmesan? I ate, I ate it, I, I made eggplant Parmesan, that was the last thing I made day before yesterday, or on Sunday I made it, and then it's still sitting in the fridge, but yeah,

[00:30:46] Ashley Coghill: I would eat the eggplant Parmesan. 

[00:30:47] Nisha Baxi: Okay. Cool.

[00:30:49] Katrine Reddin: So, we have a few minutes left and we wrap up every episode with a round of revenue would you rather. We're gonna ask you

[00:30:56] Nisha Baxi: Ooh. 

[00:30:56] Katrine Reddin: five would-you-rather questions that are somehow community, revenue themed, they're kind of rapid-fire, so don't, don't feel like you need to think too much about your answers. And then, afterwards, if you could just kind of give us some takeaways of what you want, anyone listening, but specifically women in revenue, if you have

[00:31:15] Nisha Baxi: Yep.

[00:31:15] Katrine Reddin: a few things that you want them to always remember or take with them after listening to your episode.

[00:31:19] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, totally.

[00:31:21] Katrine Reddin: I guess, Ashley, do you want me to do all of the questions or do you wanna do some of them? 

[00:31:24] Ashley Coghill: Uh, if we're doing rapid fire, you would have to just go.

[00:31:27] Katrine Reddin: Okay. Nisha, would you rather have your community goals and metrics tied to customer success or sales?

[00:31:35] Nisha Baxi: Success. I sit in success.

[00:31:37] Katrine Reddin: Would you rather manage a large team of 20 community managers or a smaller team of one to three community managers?

[00:31:43] Nisha Baxi: Oh, smaller, for sure. Can I talk about that for a second? 

[00:31:46] Katrine Reddin: Yeah, go for it. 

[00:31:47] Nisha Baxi: Well, fir, first of all, success also is tied to revenue, so I feel like that's a, the first answer is both, but like I said, in success, I just say that. But the whole point of community is that you can scale as a business. If you have, like, 20 people in your community team, that means that you work at Salesforce,

[00:32:04] otherwise, it really doesn't make sense to have a team that big because it's really, your customers should be learning and connecting from each other, and that's how you should be scaling, so, anyway, just wanted to shout that out.

[00:32:14] Katrine Reddin: No, that's fair.

[00:32:15] Nisha Baxi: Yeah.

[00:32:16] Katrine Reddin: All right. Would you rather have your community team report to, and here's, like, this is coming out of left field, to the content team, or to the engineering team?

[00:32:27] Nisha Baxi: Ooh. Depends on your, your ICP and who your key persona is. So, if it's like, a developer type, I would say, like, definitely you wanna be in, more into, like, the product developer side of the house, it, it, it, honestly, I've seen community report into engineering and product, I've seen it report into sales, I've seen it report into marketing customer success, so it really

[00:32:51] Katrine Reddin: Really touches everything, yeah.

[00:32:53] Nisha Baxi: All, yeah, it really, it really does. I'd like to see it at some point, report into the C, CEO, and actually, at Ironclad, they report into the C, CEO, which is really cool. 

[00:33:02] Katrine Reddin: We'll have to check them out. All right. Would you rather manage a community focused on cooking or a community focused on music? And I feel like I'll know what you'll say after your, uh, your Masterclass.

[00:33:12] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, probably, probably cooking, I think that'd be really fun.

[00:33:17] Katrine Reddin: And last but not least, would you rather have to yell, "I love community," wherever you are, every time someone joins your community, or have to give a 10-minute monologue on what community is every time someone asks you what is community?

[00:33:31] Nisha Baxi: I wanna do both. 

[00:33:33] Ashley Coghill: Yes. 

[00:33:35] Nisha Baxi: Just kidding, I, the first one, come on, who doesn't wanna, like, yell, "I love community" all the time, like, that's amazing.

[00:33:40] Katrine Reddin: Even in Starbucks while you're getting your order, you see someone joins, you're like, "Ah, I love community."

[00:33:44] Nisha Baxi: Yeah, I'd do it 

[00:33:45] Ashley Coghill: I think Nisha would do it. I don't think she would have any

[00:33:48] Katrine Reddin: I think you would do

[00:33:48] Nisha Baxi: I for sure would, yeah, like, every personality test I've ever taken my entire life is like, "You are an extroverted extrovert!" "Extrovert!" "Congratulations, miss extrovert!" And I'm like, okay, I get it.

[00:34:02] Katrine Reddin: Well, that answers it. So, those, that, that wraps it up for the would you rather questions, but we do wanna say thank you so much for joining us, you are an amazing, extraordinary, talented, intelligent woman, and we are so lucky that we get to work with you in the Gong community with the Women in Revenue Meetup. We're so happy that you joined us as a guest for the first season of our podcast, and we really hope to have you back soon.

[00:34:27] Nisha Baxi: Yeah. Thank you. Stay hungry, everyone. Keep in touch. 

[00:34:30] Ashley Coghill: Thanks, Nisha. 

[00:34:31] Nisha Baxi: Bye.