Top sales professionals don’t go it alone. They surround themselves with diverse mentors who push their thinking and expand their skills. If you’re trying to grow in your sales career but relying only on what you know today, you’re already behind. In this episode, we’ll explore how treating yourself like a business and building your own board of advisors can change everything. Joining us is Syya Yasotornrat, Founder of Brilliant Beam Media and co-host of Gnaw On This...Business Bytes Podcast.

In this episode, we’ll ask:

* Why do top-performing salespeople rely on a personal board of advisors?

* Who should be on your board, and how do you find the right mentors?

* How can having diverse mentors help you sell anything?

* What are the biggest mistakes salespeople make when seeking guidance?

With a career spanning corporate sales, digital strategy, and content creation, Syya has learned firsthand how a strong network of mentors fuels success. Her approach challenges the lone-wolf mindset, offering a practical strategy for long-term growth and adaptability.

This week's Guest was -

• Syya Yasotornrat, Founder of Brilliant Beam Media and co-host of Gnaw On This...Business Bytes Podcast

This week's Host was -

• Rob Durant, CEO of US Operations at The Institute of Sales Professionals

This week's Panelist was -

• Adam Gray, Co-founder of DLA Ignite

Transcript of SalesTV.live Mid-Day Edition 2025-03-25

Rob Durant [00:00:02]:

Good morning. Good afternoon, and good day wherever you may be joining us from. Welcome to another edition of sales TV live. Today, we're asking who's on your board? We're joined by Sia Yaso Tornrat. How'd I do? Perfect. With a career spanning corporate sales, digital strategy, and content creation, Sia has learned firsthand how a strong network of mentors fuels success. Her approach challenges the lone wolf mindset often found in sales. She offers a practical strategy for long term growth and adaptability.

Rob Durant [00:00:43]:

Sia, welcome.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:00:46]:

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. And Adam here too. This is like you guys have made my Tuesday for sure.

Adam Gray [00:00:53]:

Fantastic. Like, all your birthdays have come at once.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:00:56]:

It is. Happy birthday to me. Okay.

Rob Durant [00:01:00]:

Sia, let's start by having you tell us, just a little bit more about you, your background, and what led you to where you are today.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:01:07]:

You know, it's so funny. Whenever I hear that question, the first thing that comes out of my head is, if you guys are of a certain age, you would know the movie The Jerk. Mhmm. I was born a poor black no. I'm not gonna say that. So I am a first and foremost, I am a child of the world of Disney. So I worked at, for the Disney corporation for almost seven years. It paid my way through college.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:01:29]:

And then I realized though I love the world of Disney, it wasn't necessarily a career I wanted, and so I figured maybe I should graduate at some point. Had a little too much fun, let's just put it that way, and, ended up finishing school in San Francisco, which propelled my career into technology sales and re started as a recruiter and then moved into tech sales. And so did that for twenty five plus odd years, and then in 2017, I just had had it. As sales professionals, I think you need to have passion in what you're doing. You have to believe in what you're doing. And though I believed in the company, I didn't believe in the rigmarole anymore. And so, I took a package. So, we were downsizing in our group.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:02:13]:

I was managing a telco account during the the transition between four and five g, so, you know, nothing was going on at that point. And, oh, yeah. One last thing. When you break out into hives, every time you have a forecast call, that's probably a sign you might need to reevaluate your life. So fast forward, launched my own business, always was a big fan of podcasting in general, and it's evolved. It used to have a business partner, close that business down because I didn't wanna do studios anymore, and that shifted me towards social media and digital content creation, which is where I am today with my company. That's me in a nutshell.

Rob Durant [00:02:52]:

So let's jump right to it. What do you mean when you say treat yourself like a business? Mhmm.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:03:00]:

Think about it. Anytime anything you do, to take care of yourself, your well-being is an investment. Right? Mentally, physically, financially, just like a business. Right? They businesses have to make maintain revenue. They have to market themselves. They have operations to maintain a well oiled machine. You have to have processes in place just like yourself. Right? Wake up in the morning.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:03:23]:

What's your morning routine? Right? There's usually a routine for all of us. We're humans. So when I expand on that, especially from for those that are in their careers, is know who your board members are. Like, create your own board. And that's why I keep asking everybody, and it's one of my best, like, advices I give when I do speaking with, women in leadership, for example, is to to find who are the people who are gonna be your mentors, who are gonna be your coaches, who's gonna be your advocates, and who are the peers that can you can exchange ideas. And by the way, all those different, like, descriptors could be different people, same person, etcetera. So that's what I love to surround, and you should surround yourself with people, that can help you along your your life.

Rob Durant [00:04:11]:

So can you confirm for us what are the board roles you should seek to have filled?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:04:17]:

Well, that's a great great question. It depends. Right? Because it for the use purposes that you need at that point in time, you can have different boards for different aspects. Right? So, yes, there's a board for a company that does the overseeing of it all, and I would I tend to look at those folks as more my long term. These are the folks that typically are experienced in one way, shape, or form somewhere. But then there's also a board of, hey. I need some daily helps. Right? And that is those folks that you could, you know, just help you be more, you know, efficient.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:04:54]:

Or my personal favorite, and I know Janice is in there, thanks Janice, is how to keep yourself in line. Like, I don't know about you guys, but I could squirrel very quickly and start talking about, you know, underwater basket weaving unless you have someone that's gonna help you kinda guide you along and pull you back into place. So there are no titles per se, but I do think everyone has a place for you at certain times for that specific need, and they can serve multiple places. So don't know if that answered that question for you or not, Rob.

Rob Durant [00:05:23]:

Absolutely. You you answered it. That's all we're looking for, your thoughts on it. So building off of that a little bit though, how is building a personal board different from just having a a mentor or even a network?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:05:39]:

So a board is an investment in one another. It's a two way street. Right? So I think there is a misnomer or assumption about mentorship that it tends to be a, I'm the, you know, you're the Padawan. Right? And I'm the Jedi. Right? And and, you know, not everyone's at Yoda. It's a two way street where there is a benefit for both. Right? So it's not just a parasitic relationship of like, okay. I'm gonna coach you the next things in life if you're the mentor, and and so I'm gonna suck the energy out of you from the mentee.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:06:10]:

And so I do encourage folks when you're building your board, these are your go to people that you can rely on and trust on that can help you get yourself out of your own head. And maybe and I've actually just posted on this morning on LinkedIn, which is, the perception, between day and night, for example. I was standing on a balcony at my friend's, condo this weekend, and I I did a panorama view in the morning and I did a panorama view at night. Yes. I did spend the night. We don't talk about that. But anyway, but it was just was lovely to think about how your world changes, how your mind can flip to think about different things when you have someone else standing by your side to help you say, hey. Move your camera frame this way, and then you see the world in a totally different way.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:06:57]:

And it's again, it's a it's a reciprocation. What are you giving back to them? What's your value add that you're providing for them? And, I I think it's I think it's a lovely thing when you can find that that core group of folks that are willing to work with you and you are willing to work with them.

Rob Durant [00:07:13]:

So so how

Adam Gray [00:07:15]:

how do you choose those people? Because, most people are more than happy to hand you advice, but there's no guarantee that that advice is good advice. And, you know, if if if you and I are in business together, we we have the same kind of objectives. So, you know, we're gonna be very mindful of how we get from where we are to where we where we want to be. But when you're when you're talking to people who are outside of your immediate business, they may not have the same priorities that you have. So how do you how do you select you know, you've got 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. You're building a board for your the next phase of your business. Which of the 10,000 people do you pick?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:07:58]:

So it's interesting you should ask that. Sometimes it happens naturally. And I'm I look, peoples I admit it. I get it. I'm an extrovert. Like, I I I have a lot of great people I can lean to because I have no problems asking for that help. But ironically enough, I don't ask for help enough, which is funny. So there are people who naturally have become my mentors who actually I have actually a handful that, like, thrust their way into my life saying, look, dude.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:08:29]:

We see what you're doing. Can I offer you some advice? And and because of that, I've been eternally grateful for it. And then there's others where I just reached out out of the blue saying, you know what? I've been following you on LinkedIn. You seem to have your, you know, what together. Can I bounce a couple of questions off if you're open to it? And then it just kind of develops from there. So I would say sometimes things happen organically, and sometimes you just gotta make it happen. So how do I choose? It's usually, you have to do a lot of self you guys, come on. You have to do some self, like, searching within yourself.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:09:03]:

What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you like? What do you don't like? Right? Those are the basics in life and if you know you've got weaknesses, then how do you fill in that gap? Who do you know in that circle can bolster you and inspire you to be better at that weakness? Right? Not fill in that gap. Sure. That helps at times, but, like I said, like, I gave, like, okay, Raquel. I'll give a shout out to Raquel. I've never met someone that is so truly authentic to who she is. And I'm I'm pretty much you see what you get with me, but she does it with, like, warmth. Whereas I'm like a bull in a china shop kind of vibe, and it's just really interesting to me because she's she's so effective in being able to communicate, you know, what she's looking to grow. She's got almost like 80,000 followers on LinkedIn and she's done it organically.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:09:49]:

You know darn well, guys, there are some folks that will pay to play to get some followers. But when she grew to 80,000 because of just the way she is, like, I got attracted to that. Like, hey, how did you do it? You know, what is it about you? Turns out she's a nice person, so apparently not very nice because I only have 10,000 follow ups. I'm kidding.

Rob Durant [00:10:15]:

We have some great comments and questions in the chat. I wanna highlight a few of them right now. Sure. We have Martina o'Boyle who says treat yourself like a business. Very starts very smart strategy. We seem to be more willing to let ourselves slump, and we hire on sketchy people, great question from Tausi brands. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. It is.

Rob Durant [00:10:47]:

Do board members come and go? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:10:52]:

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I am a big advocate of respecting and understand that relationships have seasons, just like businesses have seasons. There's, you know, pre rev stage. There's your you know, as a startup. Right? There's pre rev where you're still developing the product.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:11:10]:

Then there's gonna be when you actually enter into the market space. Right? You know, the the founder of a company doesn't mean they're gonna be the CEO as it matures. As the company grows from scaling to main maintenance. Right? There's different skill sets that are gonna be critical at those junctures. It doesn't diminish the value of that board member. It just simply means, hey. At this point in time, kinda leaning on you heavier for this, and as time goes on, hey. I love you, respect you.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:11:36]:

Maybe leverage them elsewhere or, you know, as all things, give them a break. Let them move on. Right? So, yeah, absolutely. You should be I don't wanna say have a constant rotation of board members because you do want someone that's known you for the long term, but that's also what you you're talking about different levels of board members, right, for the different needs you have.

Rob Durant [00:11:58]:

We have another question from the audience, and please keep them coming. Raquel Raquel Flores. Have I earned the right to call her Raquel yet? Go for it. We'll connect. We'll we'll Rob,

Syya Yasotornrat [00:12:09]:

you gotta go Rocky. You gotta get Trillium. Rocky. Rocky.

Rob Durant [00:12:12]:

There we go. Roll v r. Got it. She asks, what about alignment? I love that question.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:12:20]:

So you're not would ask me that. Damn it. Of course she'd ask me that one. I'm gonna talk to you later, girl. No. No. It's critical to have and make sure that, you know, when you are working with your board and you're talking to them, right, you have to both be aligned with the goals of what you are looking for and what they're looking for. Right? Because if it's if it's not quite it's almost like, you know, it's communication, you guys.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:12:44]:

So if you're asking about one thing, but they're talking about a different topic and you're like, but I'm talking about, you know I I talk about underwater basket weaving a lot and yet I am sadly, woefully under skilled at it. But, you know, if you're talking about underwater basket weaving, but you're thinking of it in the deep ocean, well, there's a lot of different requirements if you can do underwater basket weaving under the ocean versus in a stream. Right? There's a lot of pressure. You know, there's a lot of animals that can eat you, big scary ones. I mean, all sorts of different factors. So, yeah, you're talking about underwater basket weaving, but are you really? Right? And that's where I think just have to clarify. You have to be clear to the point where it's almost like over communicating at times because to me, I don't think you'd ever over communicate. It might annoy the person when you're like, hey.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:13:31]:

Just wanna clarify one more time. But to me, I'd rather we clarify than honestly, I would say one of my biggest failures in, you know, my life has been I stopped communicating at certain points and the relationship failed because of it. Could I just, for whatever reason, stopped? And and that's not the best route to go on things. So

Rob Durant [00:13:54]:

Yeah. You mentioned that you're an extrovert. Yeah. Those of us We're looking

Adam Gray [00:13:59]:

at spotted. We Yeah. Spotted.

Rob Durant [00:14:02]:

For those of us that may be aligned more with an introverted personality, What's the best way to approach someone and ask them to be on your board? Is it that formal? Does that happen?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:14:16]:

You could be an introvert an introvert and still be just as, like, conversational like me. It's just the way you receive your energy. Right? So, you know, I think sometimes people confuse introversion with shyness. Right? And and I don't think that's necessarily the same thing because I do know a lot of introverts who can freaking talk all day. Benita Lee, if you ever wanna talk to her, oh my god. But but it's how but it's at the end of the day when they go home, are they drained. Right? Because they they had to push out their own internal energy to be able to, you know, communicate with you. So I would I would say even if you're an introvert, you absolutely can build your board because most introverts probably have naturally built their own board that's, you know, like, solid because, you don't always have to be the life of a party, but you can have a handful of friends that you can always, like, trust and work with.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:15:10]:

That I think it's the same concept business wise.

Rob Durant [00:15:14]:

I know this is one we touched upon when you and I met discussing this call. What happens when your network doesn't follow you into your next role or your next industry?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:15:31]:

Okay. When I left my company in tech and started going into this, you know, social media world, digital content creation, a hundred percent of my friends dropped off more or less with the exception of, like, maybe three in my interest like, you know, twenty five years of networking and not one of them would support me. Like, not one of them, like and they meant well. Don't worry. They're still my friends, but will I ever see them like liking or commenting on any of my posts or like supporting any of the various t or, you know, YouTube channel shows and podcasts that, you know, I've I've I've, produced for my clients? Hell no. So what do you do? Just know. Understand that your tribe is your tribe for specific purposes and needs. Okay? You cannot expect, especially family.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:16:16]:

The family is like the worst failure. Hey, mom, dad. Can you just like and subscribe to this YouTube channel? And they're like, what's a YouTube channel? Right? Like like, the world, as much as we'd love it to be, doesn't evolve around you. Right? And you try. But, you know, everyone has priorities. So have a healthy understanding that your network, they will support you and love you in different ways, but may not necessarily directly be what you think you need. So I just just for my personal example, my network of friends have poo pooed, made fun, and they still tease me. They're like, okay, influencer.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:16:52]:

And I'm like, I'm not an influencer. I'm a producer. But either way, they've given me gigs. They've connected me with people that have hired me. So they will help you in different ways, just maybe not the need that you want. Does that make sense? And the ones that don't, boom. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Rob Durant [00:17:13]:

No.

Adam Gray [00:17:13]:

But but but that is that is a really good attitude because, you know, at the end of the day, you you want to build, as as you said, you know, your your tribe and you wanna take it with you and you want those people to be part of your success and and help you in your success. And sometimes, for whatever reason, they're not able to do so. And it's not normally a personal thing.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:17:34]:

But, you

Adam Gray [00:17:34]:

know, ultimately, you have a finite amount of energy in a finite amount of time, and you need to invest that where it's gonna pay you the kind of return you want, whether that's a financial return or a happiness return or a a contentedness or whatever, you know, you need you need to put it where you're actually gonna get something back, don't you?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:17:53]:

Yeah. I mean, look. I I've said this before and I'll say it again. I see all these comments, by the way. Thank you, you guys. Hey, Jason. Hey, Syn. Like, I love you guys.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:18:04]:

You know, when you when you develop a relationship with anyone, there is a give and take, and there's a give that you will give oftentimes. And sometimes, there's times to take and sometimes times to give. And I think when you're building that board, you guys understand, as we talked about, you need to have some value to give back to them as well. It's not just you being an ask-hole. Right? It's not you oh, yeah. I love that word, and I will use it every day.

Adam Gray [00:18:33]:

I do. I do. That that's made it into my vocabulary immediately.

Rob Durant [00:18:38]:

Oh. I saw that that light bulb light off your head.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:18:42]:

Well, you know, there are people out there that will just take from you and do not have one iota of, like like, awareness that they're totally taking from you. Right? So I I think when you're asking again, you're just, like, pulling these, you know, questions back in my brain, which is how do you pick? Sometimes, like I say, it's organic. When you you know you've been giving and they give back to you, and then you have this wonderful exchange, find those friends. Those are the ones that are going to challenge you, And maybe because I'm also I love a good intellectual debate conversation about random topics. Again, underwater basket weaving. Should it be deep floor? Should it be, like, you know, in a stream? Those to me are the fun conversations. But those are the ones that those are the people that will always lift you up. It's not the people that are gonna be gossiping or and don't get me wrong.

Adam Gray [00:19:37]:

We've come up

Syya Yasotornrat [00:19:38]:

gossip, let me just say. But but if you live in positivity and you're looking for the next best thing as far as how to grow yourself personally or your business, you're going to naturally, grow with them because you're constantly putting yourself in that mindset,

Rob Durant [00:19:54]:

of growth. I know another thing we touched on because a lot of the people that tune into sales TV are early in their sales career. How can building a board early help you avoid that disconnect later in life?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:20:11]:

For build your board now. In fact, all of my nieces and nephews are all millennials and gen z's. And, although I just found out my oldest nephew is 35, I think I just had a heart attack just realizing that. But, do it now because your board will always evolve, and your friends that you had in your twenties may not be your friends twenty years from now, or you don't talk to them in your thirties, but suddenly in your forties, they come back into your life, but you've always maintained some type of contact, touch touch base with each other because you never know. And it's shocking to me, and I would like to think it's a testament of, like, at least my judgment of our circle of friends. There's quite a few friends that we have that have made it. Right? And I'm just like, Good on you people. Can you throw some dough my way though? But no.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:21:01]:

Okay. No. But it is when you know that over time and your circle of friend and and and tribe and board grows and evolves, and you're gonna naturally have some, quote, professional successes. And don't get me wrong. You could be a home, stay at home person, male or female, raising family and still be just as successful because of the things and the wisdom and what you've learned. To me, I find that people like that are, operationally efficient people. They have this incredible understanding of time management and patience beyond, you know, what they probably should have. And and that's something that I always admire is, like, make sure, doesn't matter, even if you're starting out your career or you're tenured like us, you know, you could talk to anyone, even some in the beginning of the career, especially now.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:21:54]:

Like, I don't understand like half the, like, buzzwords. I jokingly say TFTI, but apparently that's an old old millennial saying now. I'm not even hip enough for the Gen Zers, like, with brah. Like, I don't know. Like But it but it but it I heard dude is coming back. I'm like, dude never went out. Let me just but yeah. No.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:22:20]:

I mean but it but it is good. You guys build your board always. I think that's maybe my answer to that is always be building your board. Always be circulating and leveraging and and absorbing. Be stay curious with your board too. Don't don't assume just because you had someone on your board for twenty plus years, there's nothing else to ask. Hell, yeah, there

Rob Durant [00:22:39]:

is. So picking up off of what we were just talking about, we probably have time for one more question. How do you use LinkedIn authentically to grow your board without being cringe worthy?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:22:55]:

So it's funny you should mention that. I have a new livestream I just launched, that's biweekly on Saturdays, and it's called LinkedIn Lunatics Strike Back. And what we do, it's a few if you know Reddit, there's a subreddit called LinkedIn Lunatics, and what they do is they highlight these like like, oh my gosh, these like LinkedIn posts that good, bad, ugly, indifferent, they get they make it on there. So, you probably don't want to be making it on the LinkedIn Lunatics Reddit subreddit, but just be yourself. You know, I don't have the biggest of following, but I can assure you my network has sustained my business. Like, I've never had to slide into DMs and be like, you know, your content is good, but your SEO sucks. Like, don't do that. Don't pitch slap.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:23:38]:

Right? Like, don't don't in fact, don't slide in DMs in general unless you know the person and you're just like, don't do them trying to get a hold of you. Right? I mean, I slid in Adam's DM saying, dude, do so and so next, but he understands that's like, I'm not I'm not trying to benefit anything. I actually am because I want you to talk about certain bands, but never mind. But it's just don't be pitching yourself. It's not about you, and I think that's a big thing about LinkedIn. Sure. You are building your personal brand. You're building who you are.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:24:11]:

Share things about yourself, but also remember at the same time, this is the benefit of other people to get to know you, and we get bored of people who, like, brag about themselves or I pump up at the gym. Do you? You know what I mean? There's one guy that posted, I work out in Gucci because you need to represent everywhere you go. And I'm like, that's a good one. Like, hopefully, you start

Rob Durant [00:24:34]:

joking. Yeah. No. It's joking.

Adam Gray [00:24:36]:

But people read that and they know everything they need to know about that individual, don't they?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:24:40]:

I mean

Adam Gray [00:24:41]:

And that's kind of the point about being authentic. You know, you put yourself out there. And and I always think that that the key thing here is that if you are authentic, you will draw some people to you and you will push some people away. That's exactly how it should be. There's a billion people on LinkedIn. You don't wanna have DMs from all of them. What you want is the people that love you. And when you can can use it to identify those people so those people walk towards you, that's where you should be investing your time, isn't it?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:25:08]:

100%. That's why I I strongly recommend everyone with your board as well as your efforts as you search for them either in IRL, you know, in real life and or LinkedIn, you can't be anything but yourself. Right? And I think that's where you get deeper connections when we do know your flaws. Like you said, Adam, we know where you stand. Right? Like, fine. If you're into working out in Prada, go for it. It tells me that, you know, we probably wouldn't be hanging out because I like my Costco yoga clothes. You know what I mean? So, you know, at least you know where you stand, and I think that's how you also can find that tribe.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:25:48]:

Right? Like, the real tribe.

Adam Gray [00:25:50]:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Rob Durant [00:25:52]:

See, I'm sure we could go on for hours, and I would love to. This has been great. How can people learn more about you? Where can they get in touch with you?

Syya Yasotornrat [00:26:03]:

You can always find me on LinkedIn, you guys. I'm like, there there are weeks. I'm literally, like, even as a producer or am I hosting for my clients or my own personal shows, there's a there's every other week or so. I'm on LinkedIn every freaking day, like, for whatever reason. So you can always get, get a connect hold with me there. If you're gonna DM me, just be yourself. Please don't be a creep. Don't be the the shake that, you know, bounces in and out every now and then, and don't ask me for money because I'm not gonna give it to you.

Syya Yasotornrat [00:26:33]:

I don't even give myself money, so you're not gonna get it either. But, yeah, absolutely LinkedIn is probably the best place to go, and, I'm always happy to answer questions as long as you're not an ask-hole about

Rob Durant [00:26:44]:

it. There we go.

Adam Gray [00:26:46]:

Boom boom.

Rob Durant [00:26:48]:

If you liked what you heard today, please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Substack, or YouTube. Let us know what you learned. Let us know what you'd like to learn more about. Your feedback helps us reach more people like you and fulfill our mission of elevating the profession of sales. This has been another edition of sales TV live on behalf of everyone at sales TV to our guest here and to our audience. Thank you for being an active part of today's conversation, and we'll see you next time. Bye.

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