by Gordon Nary
Gordon: When did you your wife, Shannon, join St. Martha Catholic Church?
Wes: December, 2004
Gordon: How has St. Martha's strengthened your faith?
Wes: It opened our eyes to a healthy, vibrant community of large Catholic families with 6 and more kids. Since moving here we have had two more children, for a total of seven, as well as three miscarriages, so there are at least 10 Schaeffer sibling souls made in God’s image.
Gordon: You and Shannon have served as Pre-Cana marriage counselors at St. Martha's since 1996. How has marriage counseling strengthened your own marriage?
Wes: It’s almost like renewing our own marriage vows several times a year. The teacher always learns more than the student, so it has been a great way for us to grow in our own faith and marriage.
Gordon: You and Shannon have also facilitated Phil Lenahan's "7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free" program through his Veritas Financial Ministries to help couples struggling with debt take control of their financial future. For our readers who may not be familiar with the program, please provide an overview of these steps.
Wes: Phil’s course can be found here: 7steps In a nutshell, Phil reminds us that we are to be stewards of the earth, and that includes our finances. He takes a Catholic-centered approach to helping families get their finances under control.
Gordon: Do you ever offer this program at other parishes
Wes: We just volunteered a couple of times when he was launching it and have not been a part of it for many years now, though we are still friends with the Lenahans and see them often in the community.
Gordon: When you and Shannon have an opportunity to go out for dinner in Murrieta, what is your favorite restaurant?
Wes: We love a little family-owned Italian restaurant called Vince’s.. My father-in-law knows the founder of the original store in Ontario, CA and now we know the son, Johnny, and his wife, Christine.
Gordon: How did you celebrate Shannon’s recent birthday?
Wes: Shannon is pretty low key on holidays and birthdays. The kids baked her a cake and we went to Vince’s.
Gordon: Some of our readers may be aware of your book "The Definitive Guide To Infusionsoft: How Mere Mortals Increase Traffic, Leads, Prospects, Sales, Testimonials, Online Orders & Referrals With the World’s Most Powerful Small Business Sales & Marketing Automation Software" and "It Takes More Than a Big Smile, a Good Idea & a Twitter Account To Build a Business That Lasts".
You are a nationally recognized Inbound Sales and Marketing Automation Expert, and many know you as an Infusionsoft and HubSpot advocate. For our readers who may not be in sales, please provide an overview of the inbound sales and marketing technology you sell.
Wes: Sales and marketing are the lifeblood of any business, small or large. Nothing happens until a sale is made, and sales can be made predictably if you have systems and processes in place to make them happen in much the same way a manufacturing company has conveyor belts and assembly lines to make cars or iPhones. Platforms like HubSpot and Infusionsoft help small to medium-sized businesses create, implement, test, measure, adjust, and improve their marketing and sales to the point they can literally run in your sleep. I help companies do all of the above.
Gordon: How does HubSpot and Infusionsoft compare with Salesforce?
Wes: Salesforce is the leader in the CRM—Contact Relationship Management—space. They were made for large businesses to track the progress of large teams, including sales, marketing, and operations. However, they have no automation built in, which is why they acquired ExactTarget in June 2013 for $2.5 billion, and ExactTarget had already acquired Pardot. This gave Salesforce the email marketing and workflow automation capabilities they so desperately needed.
HubSpot and Infusionsoft have been focused on sales and marketing automation from Day One and they were built with the small to mid-size business owner in mind.
Gordon: You are a popular motivational speaker and often provide keynote addresses at marketing events where you are known as The Sales Whisperer®. What do you enjoy most about your speaking gigs?
Wes: Spreading my message of how it is not only possible but now preferred to be an empathetic, honest person with a focus on serving to grow in the profession of sales and to see the light of hope get turned back on in the eyes of many of my attendees who had all but given up hope that they could make it in sales.
Gordon: You also founded Catholic Networkers which is an exceptional resource for business professionals. Please provide an overview of the advantages of joining Catholic Networkers
Wes: Catholic Networkers is a private community of 6,569 members on LinkedIn comprised of orthodox Catholics in business who are looking to network with other Catholics around the world and grow in their faith while growing their businesses.
Gordon: I recommend Catholic Networkers to all of our readers, and you Shannon are role models for all of us. especially to many of our younger members who are just planning their career and marriage.