User Spotlight: Top 5 Anthems October

We just overhauled Ambition TV. To celebrate, we're selecting our 5 favorite Ambition Anthems from October.

Before we dive in, you may be wondering: what's an Ambition Anthem? It's a 10-second YouTube clip our users can choose (and change anytime) to play over Ambition TV.

Once a user has chosen a clip, it will automatically play on Ambition TV the moment he or she close a huge deal, completes a performance benchmark or hits any data trigger their manager has set.

Ambition Customer Highlight: Wayfair from Ambition on Vimeo.

Pretty cool, right? Or at the very least, a much better version of the Amish approach to recognition my old recruiting firm used to take. 

Close a huge deal? Congrats! Now sheepishly walking over to that bell and ring it for a couple seconds. Our office literally sounded like a Arby's during a lunchtime rush. If your sales force is using a similar godforsaken tradition, you already know why Ambition TV, Anthems and Triggers exist.

And our newest update now allows Ambition TV to play both the audio and video from each user's hand-picked YouTube clip. At the start time of their choosing.Get it? Good. Onto last month's top 5 Ambition Anthems.

Top 5 Ambition Anthems of October

As with last month's post, we received an incredibly diverse set of submissions. Some users nominated a peer's Ambition Anthem, while others nominated their own. (As Derek from Stepbrothers would say, "NICE BRAVADO BUDDY!")

Congrats to this month's winners - ladies and gentlemen, here are our Top 5 Ambition Anthems of October 2015. 

1. Alex Seidler. Peek. "Careless Whisper" by George Michael.

The business team at Peek has been killing it on Ambition for almost a year now - and there's no let up in sight. Gabriel DeRita's write-in offered this brilliantly succinct rationale: "Better than a RickRoll - that sax rip gets in your head all day."

Bold RickRoll claim aside, Gabriel is largely on point here. Our pitiful human brains are no match for the seductive opening notes of "Careless Whisper."

The next 4 hours after this submission, it felt like I'd surrendered all control over my memory functions. The sax solo and chorus just kept playing and playing, on an endless loop. All of which is going to say that Alex Seidler's peers at Peek know damn well when he's killing it.

Other Ambition Anthems go away in the time span it takes to read this post. "Careless Whisper" haunts you the rest of your workday. Savage choice, Alex.  

2. Aric Stowers. Apex Logistics. "Tricks" by Andre Williams.  

80s classics, current smash hits ("Hotline Bling" just missed the cut, sorry guys) and well-timed song snippets (shouts out to users who became converitible owners this summer) are always solid choices for Ambition Anthems.

And yet, as much as we respect busting out a popular favorite to celebrate success, there's a special place in our hearts for those uncompromising users who use their Anthem as an opportunity to say: 

"No one else in the office knows this song -- but they're damn sure about to."

Apex Logistics Customer Success Rep Aric Stowers is one of those people. His nomination email was the anti-sell. Just a song title and artist name. ("And an attitude that said, 'who cares, it's only my Ambition Anthem.")

Our curiosity piqued, we queued up YouTube and had our minds blown. "Tricks" is funky, infectious, soulful, gritty and performed by sixty-something blues lifer Andre Williams. Best of all, no chance in hell we'd ever have heard it were it not for Aric.

Take note, Ambition users. Mr. Stowers scored major points by a) nominating his own Anthem, b) bringing "Tricks" to our attention and c) injecting some independent flair into this list. 

3. Josh Orwig. Peek. "Get Pitted! A Surfer's Remix" by Melodysheep / The Internet.

Peek Partnership Director Gerard Pinto submitted the most unique nomination we received this month. His message: "Josh on my team showed everyone this song ... please share it with the world."  

With pleasure, Gerard.

Is anyone else getting a distinct "Malibu on American Gladiators" vibe from this? And more importantly, between this jam and "Careless Whisper," I'm assuming the other Peek Anthems are some combination of Chillwave, Yacht Rock and Jimmy Buffett. 

Last of all, Josh's Anthem serves as an important best practice other Ambition clients can use -- don't stifle the creativity of your sales team.

Example: You're a Georgia Tech fan who also happens to be an Ambition user. This YouTube video is 100 percent qualified to be your Ambition Anthem.

There are obvious exceptions, of course. But in general, we support artistic freedom here at Ambition. Glad to see Josh and the crew at Peek embracing the demented brilliance of a guy who calls him/herself Melodysheep. 

4. Daniel Redman. Solar City. "You Can Do It! War Cry" by Rob Schneider / The Internet.

Daniel Redman, a.k.a. our new favorite Field Energy Consultant over at Solar City, deserves credit for this innovative Anthem choice and for the infinite swag in his nomination email.

"I believe my anthem is unbeatable. Please advise others of my great taste and motivational acumen."

Advisory issued.

Look, we've all had our dark times at the office. Moments where we wondered to ourselves, "Can I actually do this?"

Because of Daniel's great taste and motivational acumen, a downtrodden peer of his in the above scenario can now hear Rob Schneider screaming his immortal words of encouragement before the day has passed.

Crisis averted. Day saved. Raise deserved. 

5a. Kaitlyn Eudaily. Apex Logistics. "(You Shook Me) All Night Long" by AC/DC.  

Credit to Kaitlyn for bringing some normalcy to this month's rather absurdist list. I'm pretty sure every song in the AC/DC catalog qualifies as a solid Ambition Anthem choice.

Stellar work Kaitlyn and Aric for setting a new milestone in the transportation industry. You've transformed Apex Logistics into a place where gritty underground funk and classic rock staples can finally live together in harmony.

5b. Chris Bradley. Carbonite. "Whoomp! There it Is!" by Tag Team.

This month's obligatory Jock Jam comes courtesy of Chris Bradley, Inside Sales Manager at Carbonite. "It can't stop playing."

As it turns out, "Whoomp! There it Is!" was the premiere Ambition Anthem on the Ambition Demo site, as well. It's the quintessential pump up/feel good anthem.

Chris and the team at Carbonite: Now that Ambition TV shows the YouTube video clip too, let us recommend using the audio/video of this song from last year's Android commercial. 

Watch how many members of your sales team almost-unconsciously go into A Night at the Roxbury mode. And if at all possible, please film it so we can share it with the world and make you go viral. 

Ambition Anthems: These Sales Gongs Go To 11

Congrats once again to all those who made this month's Top 5 Ambition Anthems list. Your selections have disturbed, enlightened and inspired us -- often all at the same time.

We'll be back soon with the November edition of our Top 5 Anthems list. For more information on Ambition Anthems and other product features, check out our Academy page and our interactive product demo. 

And as always, thanks to all of our committed Ambition users. We're privileged to work with you guys -- and already eager to start receiving next month's nominations.  Our final message goes out to those who may be struggling with a song choice: Soul Decision.

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