Day in the Work Life: Making ‘rain’
TESS VIGELAND: This is Marketplace Money from American Public Media. I’m Tess Vigeland. Now, here’s an interesting job title, rainmaker. Sounds kind of supernatural. Hardly, because the kind of rainmakers we’re talking about don’t call forth storms to nourish crops. They call forth new business to nourish their company’s bank account. On this week’s A Day in the Work Life, we get our feet wet with a rainmaker during a high-speed networking meeting.
ANDREA MADHO: I’m Andrea Madho. So, I’m number three.
JULIUS:
Number three.
MADHO: Yeah. And you are Julius.
JULIUS: Julius. Number, what am I, 630?
MADHO: Excellent. OK. You’re the person I did want to meet with. I absolutely did, because I do website development. My name is Andrea Madho. I am 35. And I’m chief rainmaker at Gigapixel Creative. So, that’s my field. You tell me about you and then we can get a little bit deeper into it.
JULIUS:
OK.
MADHO:
I bring in new business, and that means looking for new clients, or looking for other ways that our business can expand, whether it’s in a completely different area, new business models, product lines, so to speak. And that’s what I do all day long, is I look for ways to make connections with other businesses. Every single day is so fully packed with meetings and just work. It’s, it’s fantastic, but terrifying, because I’m working all the time. That’s what most people would be surprised with. They keep asking, so, what are your hours? And I look at them like they’ve got three heads. Like, what do you mean, hours? I work all the time.
That means I go to networking meetings, sometimes starting at 7:00 a.m. and they end when my brain stops working. Sometimes, that’s 2:00 a.m. in the morning. It is intense, and I’m not getting nearly enough sleep. And when someone tells me they’re tired, I look at them and I think, okay. Right now, there is, I am experiencing a lot of stress. Some of that’s because I have a monthly goal that I’m supposed to bring in. I have to bring in a certain amount of business. And so, making sure that you meet your quota can be a stressful thing. My company puts that on me, and some of it’s just my own ego. I don’t wanna fail. And so, I have a lot of pressure to make sure that I succeed.
Well, part of the reason that I’m working as hard as I am is I really do see myself retiring by next year. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s my goal. We do Web design development, and I hear every single day about all these companies that sell out for $100 million, or they go public. We’re not, I’m not really in that space. But those kind of goals are, are definitely something that I have in mind for myself and for our company. And my salary is just under $30,000. But the majority of my income, really, comes from commissions, with the possibility of becoming a partner.
So, hopefully, when that’s all said and done, because I don’t know yet, it’ll be well over six figures. I’ve only been there six weeks. So, that might end up being $1 million, it might end up being $100,000, it might only end up being $70,000, when all is said and done. But I can tell you that I turned down four jobs that pay over six figures a year to do this. If you don’t love this, you can’t keep up. You’d quit after a day. If your goal isn’t to hit $200 million, then you would never work as hard as I do. I like to work for myself. So, if and when I cash out with my $200 million, I’ll just probably end up starting another company. It was a pleasure meeting you, Julius.
JULIUS:
Thanks, Andrea.
MADHO:
Thank you.
JULIUS:
Thank you.
TESS VIGELAND:
A Day in the Work Life was reported by Sally Herships.
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