“How I Work”: Gary Palgon, VP Sales & Marketing at Liaison Technologies

“How I Work” is one of my favorite recurring features in Inc Magazine as well as via Lifehacker’s This Is How I Work Series, and recently several sales experts (including  Anthony Iannarino, Dave Brock and Trish Bertuzzi) participated as well.

Periodically moving forward we will feature a new B2B sales, marketing or business leader here answering what have become the standard “How I Work” questions.  You can catch up on everyone we’ve featured thus far in the “How I Work” series here.

This week I’m excited to feature Gary Palgon, VP Sales & Marketing at Liaison Technologies.  Gary is in charge of strategy for the Liaison with a special interest in healthcare, security and cloud computing. He is very respected as a leader and a talented and engaging communicator, both in writing and in speaking.  Gary has a passion for family tree research and gives back with his time at Camp Sunshine to help children with cancer.  Read his LinkedIn recommendations and among many things, you’ll notice he’s admired for his extreme efficiency, resourcefulness, and his mastery of productivity.  Here in his own words is how he gets things done:

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Current computers: HP Windows 7 at work and Dell Windows 8 at home; Ctrl-Alt-Delete in both places!

Current mobile devices: Android phone; iPad and Fitbit

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without? I love using Google Search with voice commands on my phone. I save notes, search for things, ask it to dial people for me and start there for navigation. I use Waze for real-time navigation as it works much better than anything out there, BUT you must be careful that you don’t look at it while you’re driving.  And I’m a fan of Facebook, but I’m sure I could live without it if I had to.

What’s your workspace like? A nice-sized, window office with a large whiteboard and two guest chairs. There are a few pictures on the walls including my family, a “family tree” of Atlanta technology companies and one of Camp Sunshine, a camp where I volunteer every summer for kids with cancer. My desk is usually well organized with papers neatly categorized in folders and stacks. The door is usually open and it’s been trashed, I mean decorated, on my birthday multiple times.

What’s your best time-saving shortcut or lifehack? Lookeen for searching through years of Outlook emails for contacts, information and documents – just enter a name or a word and “poof”, there’s a list of contacts, emails, attachments, etc. to choose from which can be further filtered.  It’s great to see the face of someone watching how fast I can pull up what they are looking for.  Also, LinkPoint360 for email integration with SalesForce – with a single click from an email, it automatically creates accounts, contacts or records emails and documents within SalesForce, saving lots of time and setting an example for my sales teams of what they should be doing.

What’s your favorite to-do list manager? I have both electronic and old-fashioned to-do list. I’m driven by my email Inboxes at home and work along with email or document printouts of actions to be taken, usually accompanied by a folder with supporting information about what needs to get done. When I think of something that needs to get done and I’m not at my desk, I usually make a note in email using Google Search voice commands as noted above so I don’t forget. And a Post-it Note here and there solves the rest of my to-dos. Some people call me a “tree killer” for printing out lots of stuff, but it’s highly efficient when I go to a folder and everything I need is right in front of me, usually highlighted from some prior research and/or notes.

What are you currently reading? I do a ton of reading, though most of it is non-fiction and either related to business or genealogy, a long-time hobby of mine.  I’m currently reading Big Data: Demystified, not because I don’t understand Big Data, but rather because it’s required reading for our 2015 Sales Kickoff and I have to come up with the quiz questions. I’m also in the middle of an oldie, but goodie, The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt, which is in it’s fourth edition since first being issued in 1984!

What’s your sleep routine like? I rarely ever sleep late, whether it’s during the week or on the weekend, no matter what time I go to bed. Then again, I’m not afraid to power nap so I can stay up late working on projects – and every once in a while I come across an article that lists the benefits of power naps and I just believe I was ahead of the trend.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? When my kids were young, a guy at my old gym told me, “You only have 18 years to raise your kids, exposing them to your values and beliefs, so make them count. When they become teenagers, you’ll never know what kind of mood they will be in and/or when they will feel like having a conversation with you – so the best thing you can do is to be available to them, whether it’s in the morning before they go to school or when they come home and are just hanging out – make yourself available to them so you can engage when they are ready to talk.”  One of my kids is in college and the other in high school and I make myself available to talk, text, Snapchat or whatever, whenever.

Fill in the Blank: I’d love to see Elon Musk answer these questions.