I’m Oliver, and I work in sales at Notion. Spend the day with me!

What does an account executive do all day? At the highest level, my job is to listen to current and prospective customers. I ask them to explain the most painful problems they face around getting work done at their companies. Then I show them how to use Notion to build exactly what they need to solve those issues.

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I wake up and start my morning in my favorite way: by walking my two French Bulldogs in Fort Greene Park. I feel energized, but the boys were ready for a nap immediately after (what a life!).

Hop on the train to head to the office. As I walk in, I introduce myself to the new Notinos (what we lovingly call our employees—it comes from a misspelling of Notion) who are getting an office tour. Notion has a very welcoming culture, and the New York office is a tight-knit community.

I settle into my desk and catch up on emails (I’m an inbox-zero person—there’s no other way!), build a to-do list for the day, and prep for meetings.

My team keeps each other up-to-date on deals that are in motion and how we can support one another to close them. Feedback is a gift, and it’s best served from my peers: for one prospective customer, my teammate recommended that I suggest a company-roadmap calendar with advanced functionality—email automations triggered by status updates, in this case—because they were having trouble keeping executives across the organization looped in when projects were completed.

Account-executive performance here is about a lot more than hitting targets: we’re here to be partners who help design tailored solutions, not just sellers pushing a product.

I pop into a phone booth (a tiny soundproof room) for a call with a customer. Katherine—my iconic Business Development Representative, who helps me foster leads—set this one up with the SVP of Product and Tech Operations at a large company in my region.

They’re feeling frustrated by how much time it takes to find internal information at their company, so I show them a demo of how easy it is search for things in Notion. They’re delighted! (I am, too. Asking Notion AI for information instead of pinging—and waiting for—my coworkers is a game-changer.)

I attend a session with my therapist who I’ve been seeing for over two years.

Notion’s benefits package is best-in-class. We have everything from comprehensive health coverage to wellness stipends, and the company cares deeply about prioritizing care of our physical and mental wellbeing. I feel very lucky!

I grab lunch with a medley of folks across teams (it gives me so much more energy than eating at my desk!). Lunch today—generously supplied by Notion—was a chicken plate with mac and cheese and roasted broccoli.

Run into Tess, our US Workplace Lead and one of my favorite humans. She is the reason the office feels like a warm hug. Tess gives me a sneak peek into upcoming events like a Black History Month kickoff celebration and a happy hour to ring in the close of the fiscal year—she takes the best care of us.

Jump on another call with a Chief Product Officer at a growing fintech company who is looking to consolidate their scattered documentation and improve team collaboration. “You’ve come to the right place!” I say.

My sales professor and director at my university, Dr. Steiger, says that “every job is a sales job.” In this case, the CPO needs to sell his ideas for documentation and collaboration internally, and I’m looking forward to helping him do just that.

I meet with Alexis, who is new to the team, to share feedback on a call recording. She’s eager to learn, and I’m happy to help! I’ve found that coaching others not only helps them grow, but it also sharpens my own fundamentals.

Our Head of Sales, Kim, posts a Slack thread with a preview into the agenda of Notion’s very first global sales kickoff. My team and I get excited about the sessions!

I also love a good theme and offered to create an outfit mood board for each day with Katherine.

Free time on my calendar is blocked out for prospecting—or identifying potential customers—to set my future self up for success. I spend some time re-engaging opportunities via LinkedIn where timing or budget didn’t align previously. Fun fact: my largest win at Notion came from a warm introduction by our co-founder, Akshay. Every job is a sales job!

To stay on top of Notion’s rapid evolution (more than ninety product launches last year!), I spend some time attending internal product sessions and testing out new features. (We try all of our features internally and share feedback before shipping them to our users.)

I also chat with my product and engineering peers about upcoming releases and customer use cases. The benefits of working in person are real!

A customer I was meeting for dinner to discuss their upcoming expansion plans reschedules because of a family emergency. Life happens!

Instead, I join some friends at a startup networking event in Tribeca. The venue is packed. I chat with entrepreneurs and tech professionals about their perspectives on AI and productivity tools—the space is moving quickly!—and I add a few folks on LinkedIn to stay connected.

After a quick subway ride, I’m home and ready to unwind back in Fort Greene.

I stretch out on the couch with the pups feeling grateful. The pace of Notion keeps me on my toes, and my job is so rewarding. People spend the majority of their lives working—it feels good to help make that work a little easier, so they can focus on what matters. 🖤