Benjamin Bigalke, Ed.D.

Experience

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  Michigan State University

  Jan 2005 - Jul 2008

  • Met with potential students and their parents and answered questions• Gave walking tours of campus and addressed concerns about college life• Traveled to nearby cities for recruiting events and gave tours over summer• Assisted freshmen with moving into their dorms and welcome week events

  • University Relations Video Editor

    Sept 2007 - Jul 2008

  • Inside MSU Tour Guide and Green Team

    Jan 2005 - Jan 2008
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  Eastern Michigan University

  May 2011 - Apr 2014

  Helped to create the GPS (Goals Plan Success) program that allows students to earn a required credit towards graduation by participating in structured meetings and workshops, and exploring campus resourcesCreated and conducted workshops on the transition into college in one of the residence halls and held success coach meetings in an office on one of the floorsPut on career exploration workshops with the Eastern Michigan University Advising and Career Development CenterMet with students on a regular basis in order to track their academic progressIdentified resources that would help them overcome barriers to success Show less

  • Success Coach Graduate Assistant

    Nov 2011 - Apr 2014

  • Basic Employment Skills Training (BEST) Program

    Sept 2011 - Apr 2013

  • HIV Test Counselor

    Jan 2012 - Apr 2012

  • Student Organizations Graduate Assistant

    May 2011 - Nov 2011
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  Eastern Michigan University Advising and Career Development Center

  Mar 2012 - Aug 2012

  Fast Track Academic Advisor

  • Advised students on general education requirements and helped them register for classes• Informed students of the value of career counseling and personal exploration in college• Identified resources that could facilitate an effective college experience

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  Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office

  Sept 2012 - Oct 2013

  911 Call Taker

  • I mastered the ability to work independently and as part of a team as I rapidly switched from individually answering and addressing emergency calls to working with my team to provide needed support• I displayed superior attention to detail and ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances by quickly answering and assessing emergency calls for incident type, prioritizing them based on level of intensity, and collaborating with coworkers to provide appropriate help• I fostered strong relationships with coworkers that allowed us to seamlessly work together to provide effective crisis support under extreme time constraints• I became adept at managing several technology resources simultaneously under high pressure situations Show less

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  Eastern Michigan University Clinical Suite

  May 2013 - Aug 2013

  Counselor In Training

  -Completed direct contact hours with adults, college students, and high school students from Washtenaw County dealing with a diverse range of concerns.- Recorded clinical case notes by hand using the Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (SOAP) format. - Co-facilitated a motivational group with Upward Bound (a program focusing on preparing high school students from poorly performing high schools for college)

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  Michigan State University

  Aug 2013 - Apr 2014

  Counseling Intern

  Carried out individual counseling sessions with students Completed intake assessments with walk-in clientsInterpreted scores from the PHQ-9, Lucas Functional Assessment, Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS), and Audit-CUtilized Titanium program to manage schedule and enter session notesCo-facilitated a therapy group focusing on grief, using expressive techniquesEngaged in weekly multicultural seminar with coworkers Observed BASICS sessions with clients mandated to come to counseling by the UniversityWorked with a diverse client baseParticipated in continuing education on a regular basis Show less

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  Savannah College of Art and Design

  Jul 2014 - Dec 2020

  Provided leadership and oversight for the university-wide student conduct system. This included creating a developmental experience for students in hearings, collaborating with other departments to provide prompt and appropriate responses to misconduct, consistently building relationships with new staff and faculty, creating and conducting training for hearing officers and resident assistants, supervising hearing officers, and providing ongoing professional development. I also served as consultant across all four campuses, advised on complex issues, looked for trends and created policies, provided strategic direction, and participated in outreach/awareness efforts. Finally, I spoke at orientation sessions. During the 2018-19 school year, I collaborated with residence directors to address rising drug numbers resulting in 30% and 44% fewer responsible drug charges in winter and spring respectively compared to the previous year During the summer of 2019, adapted to the fact that we had eight new residence directors all at the same time by changing how I do training as to ensure all of them were ready to provide developmental hearings to students at the start of fall 2019 Served on the leadership committee and assisted in recruiting efforts for student leadership positionsCreated worksheets, rubrics, training and methods that not only make it easier for hearing officers and other campuses to fulfill conduct needs, but have made conduct hearings more effective. As a result, the recidivism rate for students having violations dropped by 50% in the 2018-2019 school year compared to the year beforeWorked with my colleagues in assessment to get feedback from students on the effectiveness of our sanctions and used their feedback to guide the creation of a new in-person decision making class, as well as three new online educational sanctions at no cost to SCAD that ended up eliminating a yearly payment to a vendor Show less Provided career guidance, sourced candidates for job postings, carried out one-on-one advising sessions, created and put on workshops, posted and managed jobs, coordinated employer and alumni visits, carried out mock interviews, built and maintained relationships with faculty, and networked with employers. Fostered strong relationships with, and hosted visits from, employers such as Google, Pixar, Laika, Nickelodeon, and Raycom Media. Used social media and email, as well as coaching sessions, collaboration with faculty, and classroom visits, to source top candidates for on-campus interviews. Offered individualized coaching to the selected candidates and gave constructive feedback to those not chosen for next stepsCreated a Facebook group where I engaged students by highlighting relevant companies and events, sharing industry news and advice, and posting original, career-related content Organized and carried out three large speed-interviewing events where I managed over fifty faculty and staff volunteers. Part of this involved creating original creative content with my team members that educated students on how best to pitch themselves Collaborated with teammates to create the large-scale Career Fair Bootcamp event that helped prepare over one hundred students for meeting with employers. Topics included how to prepare career materials, elevator pitches, how to work the event, proper dress, and how to follow up with employers. I also helped organize career-fair relevant role plays so that students could witness how best to conduct themselvesHelped run the annual career fair by networking with, and managing the needs of, my assigned employersFostered strong relationships with alumni by continually checking in and providing on-going coaching/support in their after-college job searchSupported the Savannah Film Festival, major-specific events, and university events such as commencement by sourcing top alumni candidates Show less

  • Director of Student Conduct

    Jan 2016 - Dec 2020

  • Career Adviser

    Jul 2014 - Dec 2015
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  Pathrise

  Jan 2021 - Mar 2022

  Used discovery to identify client goals and then collaborated with program managers, the product team, and the engineering team to create tailored career services solutions that fit the needs of their students. Each solution was a combination of software and services, and was designed to assist their students from career discovery to landing a jobGuided clients through onboarding and implementation on our software and their tailored solution, and escalated issues to product and engineering as needed to ensure they were set up well for successUsed data, reports, and dashboards to show regular progress toward each client's goals using the tailored solution we provided them. I presented this data in regular meetings and during QBRs Oversaw a staff of six and regularly created content and resources for them that they could utilize in running sessions with our clients’ students so that they stayed on track toward achieving their individual goals using our software and servicesPartnered with my team to create and implement a go-to-market plan to bring in new clients Show less Spearheaded a new position including the creation of a 30/60/90, processes and procedures, outbound messaging, learning and utilizing new technology, and creating a proposal for the future of the position. After one week, this new initiative resulted in 15 job interviews for fellows and within 6 weeks it led to multiple final-round interviews, 1 job offer, and 4 additional long-term employer partnershipsScaled my new program to over 40 employees through creating training materials, and then training other staff on my methods. Successfully creating this program allowed the company to add a new pricing tier that was twice the average price they had been charging, as well as led to additional similar offeringsCreated a success plan for each customer and partner participating in my program to ensure they experienced successResearched and outreached potential new partners on a weekly basis and then handled discovery calls and onboardingAssisted HR by conducting screening and on-site interviews for candidates, assessing candidate fit, and updating Lever Show less Coached students and professionals in the fields of data, product, marketing, and sales. Clients received offers from Amazon, Walmart Labs, Lionsgate, Gap, Zillow, Expedia, Motorola, TikTok, SwagUp, Poll Everywhere, and many othersOnboarded 5 to 10 new clients every two weeks including sending an onboarding email, having a kickoff call, setting them up for success on our platform, walking them through and teaching them how to use our platform and available resources, and working with them to come up with a success planContinually perfected my sales pitch and coaching style, engaged in process improvement, and created new resources. Used the reporting functions of Salesforce, Airtable, and Metabase to track my metrics and identify areas for improvementAssisted clients in getting an average of 10% or more on top of their initial job offer by teaching negotiation techniquesOversaw the creation of educational workshops that were presented live to hundreds of clients on topics such as self-care, managing stress and anxiety, handling rejection, and building confidence in interviews Show less

  • Customer Success Manager/Partner Success Manager

    Nov 2021 - Mar 2022

  • Partnerships Development Manager

    Jul 2021 - Nov 2021

  • Career Mentor w/ Onboarding Responsibilities

    Jan 2021 - Nov 2021
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  UConnect

  Mar 2022 - May 2023

  Collaborated with the product, marketing, engineering, and customer success teams on a new product release. We defined product strategy and vision, set pricing, identified the functionality, facilitated feedback/focus group sessions, created marketing materials and a marketing plan, and created education for the customer success and sales teamsSecured nearly 40 new partners in a matter of months. This new product created an entirely new revenue stream for the company and provided a new solution for the company to use to support clients and their studentsActed as a project manager on the above-mentioned product release including creating emails for a drip campaign, finding contacts and scraping email addresses, outreaching potential partners, holding discovery calls, managing contracts, creating mockups for advertisements, working with the product and marketing teams on creating a marketing plan, communicating updates to each partner, setting and enforcing timelines and due dates, and working with each partner to bring over their agreed upon contentMaintained and managed relationships with over twenty existing partners, ensuring success for both us and them, and exploring ways to expand. The existing partnerships were responsible for nearly $600,000.00 in ARR and it was my job to maintain those relationships to ensure we grew that number over timeHandled contract negotiation, management, and renewal for partners, and used data to analyze trends and predict future revenue Show less Managed a book of business of over fifty clients across two products collectively worth over $650,000.00 in ARRAchieved 100% retention by using discovery to fully understand client goals, then helping them experience success. I then showed the value of our services and each client’s progress toward their goals in regular meetings and quarterly business reviews (QBRs)Assisted in securing over $30,000 in account expansion for a subset of my assigned clients (one product doesn’t have upsell opportunities) within the first two quarters in my role by using discovery, and then identifying, properly demonstrating, and following through on account expansion opportunities Created one to many approaches for supporting more clients at scaleUsed Google Analytics to gather key insights on product utilization for each client so I could identify and follow up on opportunities for growth and better outcomesDesigned and created training videos on our new product that became available to our roughly 400 clients. These videos addressed the needs of both our clients and their students to show the value of our product Created my own systems to track elements such as customer health, personality type, meeting frequency, support ticket trends, and progress toward identified goals to ensure all clients stayed on trackCommunicated client feature requests to the product and development teams and stepped in for the client experience team as needed to respond to support tickets in Intercom Show less

  • Partnerships Manager

    Sept 2022 - May 2023

  • Customer Success Manager

    Mar 2022 - Sept 2022
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  Tropic

  May 2023 - Feb 2024

  Customer Success Manager

  Managed a book of business of twenty-seven small business and mid-market clients collectively worth over $1,200,000 in annual recurring revenue. Clients ranged in size from $10,000 ARR to $130,000 ARR Achieved 100% retention by using discovery to align on client goals, creating tailored success plans, building systems to track and maintain client health, and utilizing software like Salesforce, Catalyst, and Asana to track meetings and goalsGuided a client to experience a 3X return on investment in just six months resulting in widespread adoption of the Tropic platform across their company including from two of their three cofoundersAfter just two quarters, had three clients write positive G2 reviews, two agree to serve as references for potential clients, and one do a case study that is featured on Tropic’s website: https://www.tropicapp.io/customer-stories/scentbird Collaborated with other CSMs on the creation of playbooks for various churn risks that also served to support gathering data on needed one to many initiatives Turned around negative client experiences by using creative strategies such as annualizing month-to-month contracts, adding them to product betas, connecting them with our product and solutions consultants teams, multithreading, and working with account managers to rescope their contracts Was one of only a few CSMs that received a bonus for successfully selling clients on a new value proposition and way to utilize the Tropic platform to manage their procurement needs Tech Stack: Salesforce, Catalyst, Gong, Asana, Lattice, JustWorks, Zoom, Scratchpad, Slack Show less

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  Laid Off/Unemployed

  Mar 2024 - Mar 2024

  Impacted by a Layoff

  I was impacted by layoffs at Tropic at the end of February 2024

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  Ncontracts

  Apr 2024 - now

  Mid-Market Customer Success Manager

  Managing a book of business of over 110 mid-market and enterprise clients, collectively worth over $8 million in ARR, that have an average of 10 to 15 of our over 30 products across our four different product linesIn my first six months, I met with 85% of my clients, saved $600,000 in at risk ARR, and surfaced multiple upsells using the consultative sales approach which led to closing just over $100,000 in additional ARRIn my first year, I saved $800,000 in at risk ARR, and created about $500,000 in pipeline for our Sales team. This has already led to $180,000 in closed won ARR surpassing my new sales quota of $150,000Saved a client worth $90,000 in ARR by getting the right stakeholders on a call and taking the time to understand their needs, then working with our solution advisory and product teams to implement the steps to help them experience successRegularly meeting with the account executives assigned to my accounts so we can collaborate on lead generation, closing sales, and resolving client complaintsUsed capacity planning to optimize my calendar, establish a client engagement plan, create repeatable systems, and prioritize tasks so that I am able to support all of my over 110 clients across multiple tiersTech Stack: Salesforce, Gong, ChurnZero, Hook, Microsoft 365, Lattice Show less