Make It Happen Mondays - B2B Sales Talk with John Barrows Microsoft VP Exposes the Truth About Scaling Teams with Jason Wild
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Apr 6, 2026 Jason Wild, former Microsoft and Salesforce exec and co-author of Genius at Scale, shares his rise from child actor to innovation strategist. He outlines the ABC roles—Architect, Bridger, Catalyst—and explains why innovation stalls. He contrasts IBM and Salesforce cultures, reveals practical tactics for building creative teams, and reframes AI as infrastructure for solving real problems.
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Child Actor Rejections Shaped Leadership Skills
- Jason Wild began as a child actor and faced over 300 professional rejections by age 15 which taught him resilience and storytelling skills.
- Those early lessons shaped his approach to communication and empathy in leadership, helping him read audiences and craft narratives at IBM and Salesforce.
IBM Trained A Consultative Innovation Mindset
- IBM taught Jason deep consultative selling and customer-centricity that prioritized solving complex client problems over pushing products.
- That culture instilled long-term relationship design and rigorous client immersion which later influenced his innovation mindset.
From 10 To 250 Igniting Salesforce Innovation
- Jason joined Salesforce's Ignite when it was ~10 people and scaled it to ~250, bringing an IBM playbook into a cloud-native, growth-focused culture.
- Ignite focused on CXO-level conversations blending consultative practice with product-led urgency to win enterprise deals.
