From Zoology Major to Tech Sales Executive with Rodney Detrick | Ep064

Manuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads Where each episode I basically hit the refresh button bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences To help you uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career So for today’s episode I have with me Rodney Dietrich him and I connected over LinkedIn and We got talking about technology and Dale Carnegie and Toast masters, which we’ll get into in the conversation but again there was just a lot of Great conversation that came out of that a lot of tie-ins into just dealing with your careers So I thought he would be a great person to come in. So with that, I’ll go ahead and introduce Rodney

Rodney Detrick: Thanks, Manuel. Appreciate you having me today looking forward to it

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, it’s gonna be a great conversation Especially just based on the ones that you and I have had in the past

Manuel Martinez: Yes, they seem to come very naturally. We had lots to talk about right out of the gate. I love that.

Manuel Martinez: Exactly. So if you can just, so that people get a sense of who you are If you can tell us a little bit about what your current role is and some of the responsibilities In that role.

Rodney Detrick: Sure my current role is Executive Vice President for Growth With a company called ConnectOn we’re cybersecurity company long practice with ransomware remediation, but we also have practices around data governance and compliance Pretty old company been around for about 40 years and based out of Tampa, Florida But I’m here Local in Nevada recent transplant from Southern California

Manuel Martinez: And you know I remember that was kind of one of the things that we kind of bonded over is just meeting people in the local community Which was fantastic.

Rodney Detrick: Yeah, absolutely and and this is you know, 30 years plus of being in the tech world and And all of that my entire Life has been in Southern California I’ve never lived anywhere but San Diego and Orange County and finally I Lifted the anchor and my wife and I decided to make a move and and moved to Nevada so been here since last April and Been and found the the area very welcoming and and folks like you or like, yeah, let’s get together Let’s have coffee and get to know each other. So it’s a great new place to be and to reestablish fresh network here.

Manuel Martinez: So now if you can tell us a little bit more about you know, you already mentioned you’re from Southern California But just a little bit about like where you grew up and then eventually, you know kind of what? Maybe what you thought you were gonna do as a child and then you know, eventually what got your career started.

Rodney Detrick: That’s a loaded question Yeah, as you can imagine so and some of this I don’t know that I’ve even ever shared with you before but I grew up in San Diego born in Orange County, but grew up for the most part in San Diego and Between those two areas You know grow up all the way through high school that ended up in Orange County and then started my college career also in the in the local area and So and then you know after that got married Had all the kids all three kids or all, you know adults now also in that same area But growing up and going into college and my initial Start was I was a zoology major Yeah, I had every intention of You know being a veterinarian or you know being the first Steve Irwin or something something like that working with animals. I pictured myself doing something like that. My dad was a Biology teacher and professor for many years early in his career. And so, you know growing up we had a lot of vacations that were very very outdoorsy and You know focused on wildlife and biology and so I just grew up loving those types of things Yeah, so it was between zoologists and I was thinking about maybe Really focusing in on herpetology,

Manuel Martinez: which is what?

Rodney Detrick: the study of reptiles and amphibians always been a big reptile person So yeah, so that was the initial thought so I did about my first year of college was as a zoology major and then that shifted to speech communication and that’s because I got involved in forensics program Forensics in the college world is competitive speech. So it’s debate other more kind of artsy or Almost like artistic type Like prose and persuasive speaking and other types of competitive speaking events. So my next couple of years in college I spent on a forensics team and traveling all over the country and competing in in speaking events Not debate. I wasn’t much of a debate person But I did a lot of the other events and that really really had a big impact on me and where I thought I might end up career wise I just not only was it a lot of fun and it was like being on a sports team except without all that sweating and working out and And it was a great, you know social place and if I look back on my college years I think I’m probably learned the most About who I was and where I wanted to go during those years competing on that speech team In the end though. My degree was in business both my undergraduate and my graduate degree

Manuel Martinez: So what is it that or I guess how did you find out about forensics and you know and that it was it just like a Hey, somebody in college told you about it. You see a flyer like that’s something that There’s a number of ways that you could have gotten involved So I’m just curious like what is it that got your attention and actually made you want to say? Hey, let me go and try and and give this a try and see what this is all about

Rodney Detrick: yeah, I would have never known anything about it except for my best friend from college who ended up being my best best man at my wedding and He and I and The person who eventually became my wife all worked at the same restaurant together We all had part-time jobs at a restaurant and he had gotten involved on this forensics team And I can certainly remember when he first mentioned it to me. He said I’m on that and I’m getting on the forensics team I’m like forensics. You mean your dissecting bodies? What’s then you’re interested in that and And then I said, yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, you know, maybe I’ll check it out, too I think he was kind of protective of it like well, this is kind of my thing And it ended up it was really more. Well, it was his thing too. He did really well also, but I really got into it and yeah, that’s how it how it came about just through that friend mentioning it and checking out the team and then quickly falling in love with it.

Manuel Martinez: And then you mentioned that you were You ended up getting a degree in business. So I’m curious, you know the initial thought of kind of zoology veterinarian and you know really having an affinity for animals But then you also kind of discovering this this passion for Speaking and then what how did those eventually end up leading to business?

Rodney Detrick: The… the speaking part to me makes more sense Especially being in a you know as a sales leader in a sales professional. I’m talking all the time, you know this you do this all the time too So, you know that that the communication part of it and all the core skills that I built up over time That’s a no-brainer for me made a ton of sense to get into what we do now the zoology part may be a bit of a stretch, but I still have a tremendous passion for Animals and biology and genetics and I spend a lot of times like just a side passion Up to the point where a number of years ago my one of my daughters and I went to Africa and worked at a Rhinoceros sanctuary in South Africa, you know just an amazing Adventure a lot of hard work not exactly a luxury vacation but what a learning experience and for me as a part of my career and something that my dad passed down to all of us was being lifelong learners and and having a variety of passions and interests and And I think as sales professionals That is so critical to be interested in Genuinely interested in what other people are doing and what’s going on out in the world I think it just makes us so much more effective as sales professionals and Yeah, so the zoology part I just carry it with me is something I mean, I learned a lot of important lessons, especially working at the rhino sanctuary that I feel like I Take into not necessarily the selling part of my career, but certainly the leadership part of it The passion that I saw that these people had that worked at this sanctuary full-time For conservation and for taking care of these amazing animals I mean you you really haven’t lived until you’ve bottle fed a baby rhino You know that is that’s its mother’s been poached and it’s you know Hanging on a string to survive and to see this animal get nurse back to health and eventually Taken back out into the wild to live its life is There’s so many parallels to the way we lead and the way we nurture our teams And just caring and having passion about things that I learned from the staff there and interacting with the animals and the other volunteers So it’s just an amazing experience. So I’m always looking for opportunities to you know do things that are Outside the comfort zone and outside my you know core Responsibilities working at a tech company.

Manuel Martinez: I’m sure I’m going to see the parallels a little bit later but just in prior conversations like now some of that leadership just your understanding of Passion for animals the things that you get out of that again, there’s parallels. It’s not one for one It’s not like you’re taking. Oh, well, this is a rhino this Directly results into sales and leadership, but there are parallels. At some point I know I’m gonna kind of dig into and say ah, is this why you know you know, is this kind of where this came about or just Understanding also a little bit more about kind of your background now So I think there’s gonna be a lot of good insights that I’m gonna be able to draw So you went into business getting out of college What did you well, like what was the first role that you got and what did you? Like how did you think coming out of college? Was it the typical college experience for those that maybe didn’t do an internship like myself? They’re like I have a degree now Everybody’s gonna want me or you know, was it? Oh, I I have this business degree I don’t know what to do with it. Let me just start applying and I’ll figure it out as I go?

Rodney Detrick: Wow that takes me back to Recalling that I at that point in time, I think I can honestly say I had no idea Where I was headed with it Which I think is true for a lot of folks that becomes sales professionals think a lot of us sort of fall into this role and I’ll elaborate on that a little bit more and kind of in terms of what I think about that but Yeah during those, you know kind of the late part of college and I actually during my graduate degree worked at the university that I was studying at and So that helped pay for some tuition and I was helping to run The administration office and so that gave me some early Management Experience and some and had great mentor there that that worked with me and and while I didn’t see that as you know A career I did it wasn’t going to see myself in in the academic world permanently It was a great experience and there was a sales element to it also Which I really didn’t think about Consciously when I was doing it, but I was you know selling people on coming to the university and Investing you know their their hard-earned cash into into degrees. So So that they gave me a taste of what selling was all about and then after I finished my Graduate degree I went on and started working at an advertising agency a marketing agency in San Diego Which at the time was quite large and had some pretty prominent clients including people like Tony Robbins and you know had some pretty interesting clients at the time and This was a lot of years ago, but that was also a tremendous amount of experience in sales So I was I was selling for the agency As opposed to doing the creative and that sort of thing, but you know still involved in that process But for the most part my my focus was on business development so again sort of getting a taste of that and then After I’d been there. I don’t probably about two or three years I had my first opportunity to think about getting into the tech world and That came about again just sort of stumbled into it frankly my wife’s parents Lived next door to a guy that they were real close with another couple they used to vacation with together and You know older than than than I am obviously and was in the software space already and got to talking with him I don’t know over a card game and you know some family gathering and he said hey, you know I’m working at this software company and You gotta you know apply you want to look into this and he was part of the sales leadership team there so Wife and I talked about I’m like yeah, I’d definitely be interested in that. I’ve always had a an interest in tech and and and part of my Graduate degree was focused on IT But at the time I wasn’t really necessarily thinking that that’s the direction I was gonna go But it certainly came in handy because I wasn’t I wasn’t unfamiliar With the space and so I ended up interviewing with that company now at this time We lived in the northern part of San Diego and this company was up in Orange County. So it was a good Hmm, you know without traffic. It was an hour plus drive but got the job and Really got from that job my first Tech mentor the gentleman that I that I rolled up to there and You know it just such became such an important part of my career moving forward Identifying mentors and in my down the latter part of my career becoming a mentor for other people because I know how valuable That was and if really hadn’t been for this individual Not only giving me a chance, you know to come in unproven no experience in this space And to just in those days, obviously, it’s it’s a lot of banging the phones and we’d go through You know CIO magazine and info week and I try to find a name and a title Oh, and there’s a quote I can use and I’ll cold call that person And so it was just you know old school. We didn’t have CRM. We didn’t have You know any any sort of you know Lead platforms or contact platforms anything was all just you know old school banging the phones and firing off emails. So Which was a great way to really learn the ropes and start to work on the craft of selling and then again back to the mentorship with gentleman named Jim Smith you know still in the business and Was just so good to me. And so nurturing in in my ability to learn Selling he also was very committed to Investing in the sales team So we had a lot of you know early sales training like with Sandler and these types of folks who came in And trained us so he was good about that. It wasn’t all about him teaching us He would bring in third parties to help us grow and develop and again back to this, you know, this theme of lifelong learning investing in our ability to sell as professionals Isn’t always gonna just come from books, books is a great way to do it but to also have that other layer of having someone come in and coach us and help us build and develop and get past the challenges that we might have.

Manuel Martinez: When you were kind of encouraged to go and apply now You already had this other marketing job, but this is a sales role. It’s within tech I’m just curious about the interview process at that point Do you feel that… Your time in forensics and again, you’re giving speeches. You’re learning how to talk and communicate Starting new and you know Weren’t new in your career, right? Like you had the marketing you were kind of had a little bit of experience of you know Kind of working, you know even being within the food industry, right working at a restaurant That is you have to learn how to interact with people But interviewing for the very first time You were able to get the role. Do Do you think that a lot of that was it storytelling? was it you know, how did you get the role that early on and the reason I asked this is because You know, I have a wide range of you know listeners of the audience There’s some that are early in career sure, you know, just trying to understand. Okay at that point in time and I understand You know like me it was it wasn’t a year or two ago But I mean, I don’t know if you can remember at that point and even just interviews moving forward What are some of the skills or some of the things that you think work really well? in that kind of format.

Rodney Detrick: So going back to the interview the actual interview and I can still remember it vividly certainly, I You know, I probably had a bit of an advantage in the sense that I knew this other gentleman who worked there Who referenced me in that’s a good thing. I think that’s that’s that’s good advice and something I Speak to other folks that are you know working their way up in their careers to make sure you have a strong network that network contact for me a family friend Definitely opened the door for me. So it was definitely grateful for that and then it was my job to parlay that so in the actual interview… You know I’ve spent a lot of time in school as we already talked about so doing my homework and being prepared Is just part of the way I function And and also the way I’ve mentored others, you know, you can’t just I mean So certainly there’s gonna be times when we we jump into things and we are prepared We have to be ready to be a bit impromptu But in that case, I had plenty of time to prepare so I knew about the company I I did my homework to understand what they sold didn’t completely understand at all I mean they were selling Development tools object-oriented development tools. I mean I had no idea what that was at the time I got in there It was a UK based company So it was a little challenging to find information about them But through this person who referenced me in I interviewed him Understand more about not only what they were doing as a company But what were they looking for in in somebody in this role, you know an inside sales rep And and the person who was going to be hiring me. What’s he like? What’s he all about? And that actually gave me a lot of insight It was connecting with him I think made the biggest difference during that interview process because he’s extremely high-energy consummate sales professional and Very competitive so I knew if I went into that interview and you know lacked any of those components in my approach I probably wasn’t going to be particularly attractive to him and You know all the skills coming from the the forensics worth competitive speaking, you know being articulate being curious He appreciated all of that It was a one interview hire You know, I do remember that part of it too because it was you know, let’s go Let’s do this kind of thing and and off we went, you know and and I actually worked for him and then later on later years with him on on a number of Some consulting projects that we did together, but I think we worked together at maybe four different companies that were Some were acquired and some we both left, you know for different reasons but yeah, just what an honor to work with him and have that mentorship and Kind of pull it full circle with that particular Individual when my son first got into tech This same person hired him for his first tech job So yeah, he’s I still kid with him today that I was like, I’m I’m I’m breeding new sales talent for him

Manuel Martinez: And that’s awesome and I’d like the Kind of the full circle right understanding a lot of that like it’s not just hey, I’m I’m gonna interview well, right? It’s doing the research. I understand, you know at the time and now there’s really no excuse, right? I mean you can find a lot of information about companies Hiring people and and really just again being curious and saying well Who is this person and who do I know that might know somebody or have an experience.

Rodney Detrick: It’s such a competitive job market these days. It was you know, definitely different 30 years ago In the way we would go about doing this, but there’s many parallels many things that are still the same Doing your homework and and leveraging your network Extremely important things before you get into any sort of interview process But I just to kind of put a bow on my relationship with that individual just because I think it’s it’s Sort of relevant to our ongoing relationship and how we were able to be successful together Probably about six months into working at that particular company two things happened The one gentleman that referenced me and left went to another local Company there in Orange County another software company and tried to hire me over there. I Didn’t take the offer. I mean I actually had the offer letter and I declined it respectfully I felt like I had a good thing going with where I was and I you know had seen the first couple of commission checks And I was particularly motivated at that point and then the other thing that happened was As I mentioned earlier where we’re living in North San Diego and I was the commute was horrible I’m not a long distance driver kind of person never have been and So we you know started looking at houses I went to my wife and I said we got to we got to move You gotta move to Orange County. I can’t do this anymore. And so we got a house and you know and and I remember going to My mentor Jim and I said to him Like on a you know at the beginning of a week. I said hey is it okay if on Friday? I take the day off. I know I’ve only been here six months But we we bought a house and and I need to you know finalize the move stuff over the weekend He’s like hey, that’s great. You know so excited for you that you’d be up here close He knew that you know I had that long commute And so he laughed about that and took about that and all that was great And then he left me with this He said Rodney. This is this is so great. I’m so happy for you and your wife, but You know all I can say is you just keep you know buying houses and buying cars and going on vacations And having more kids because as long as you’re in debt you’re gonna be working for me Now at the time we laughed about he was joking. It was so like tongue-in-cheek but but looking back on that realizing what he was saying to me was You know there’s other things that we want to do in life. You know what motivates us in life outside of work And all the things he named are all things I was interested in doing you know I wanted a home and we wanted to grow the family and and Go on expensive vacations and all those things so You know working hard and the software biz and the tech biz made a lot of sense To make those kinds of things happen, so I you know when we talk about interviewing. I think about that It’s those words. You know it makes me smile because it’s you know my sort of my origin story there, but You know when I interview other people and they are they are they motivated that way are they looking to? Drive revenue for this company are they looking to do other things in their life? not necessarily that would be distractions for their career with this company, but That’s part of their motivation. You know why they’re here why they want to do why they want to make more money than what’s in their base You know why do they want to tap into a variable compensation structure that most sales roles carry? I you know I think about that do they have those other things in their life Do they have that competitive element in their lives are there other things that motivate them? To get up every morning and and grind through all this right?

Manuel Martinez: So then you obviously started and you’re doing pretty well like within the inside sales role And there’s a lot of grind a lot of learning there Now we’re not going to jump through all of the roles, but at some point how did you or Either how or what made you decide to kind of move up and move up? You know within that role and or other roles or other organizations is it was it that was it man? I want to do all these other things the only way to do that is Maybe I can stay successful and make a lot of money It’s as an inside sales rep, but at some point you kind of want to move up and you know I don’t know if that early on you thought to yourself like I want to be in a leadership position but at least you’re probably thinking like I want to be a field rep like I want to do something more than just having a cold call and Knowing you the amount of time that I have in the conversation. We’ve had I feel like your And you’re gonna have to be the one that tell me this is I don’t know if your personality Makes you fit more of like that field role because you are a relationship person or if that kind of developed Because being in sales because I’ve seen in both ways like some people the more they’re in this role They just learn to become- at least the ones that I feel are successful and do very well. They learn to be very relationship Oriented, yes Compensation and doing well and get promoted that is a byproduct of it But that’s to me at least in my experience I’ve seen is being the person that wants to build a relationship that wants to see a client doing well those tend to do a little bit better.

Rodney Detrick: could not agree more and Thinking kind of how I evolved into more of a sales leadership role because really I didn’t Do that I’m gonna say traditional Path of you know inside sales or a BDR to inside sales to field sales and then management I really went from inside sales to management It gets back to Jim the mentor I was talking about because he ended up hiring me or bringing me into a company that he was moving over to and Said hey, do you want to come over here and manage the inside sales team? So that was really my first foray into Into a management role. There was There was a lot of comfort in the fact that he was coming with me And I gained another very strong mentor there That worked with me all those years at that company and That was another company that was local to Orange County at the time the struggling software company also in the development space and we- It was you know It’s back in the days when a lot of companies had already gone public long before they probably should have So we you know, everybody had tons of options that were absolutely worthless And the stock price was you know, well under a dollar But it still seemed like for me at that time in my career a great opportunity to hone my skills Not only as a sales professional, but now as a sales leader and to have the opportunity again because Jim gave me that opportunity to To learn from him but go out there and do it he was very much a you go do it you know if you need me, you know, let me know and So he wasn’t you know, micromanaging the the day-to-day So it gave me a lot of opportunity to experiment and try different things and find my place To your question of did I grow into that versus is that just who I am? both Well, definitely, but you know when you start to recognize This makes me happy. This is I’m having fun here. I enjoy all these people I like going to an office and having a group of people that you know, we’re all working together and we’re having a good time and That particular company in that particular instance had an extremely happy ending too in the sense that we We did we did some We did some bold things. We made some bold moves It was my first opportunity to really learn about building out a partner ecosystem It was something that I’ve carried with me and virtually every company I’ve worked for in every role a big big proponent of that and we’d built out this really amazing partner ecosystem and we started kind of pushing the envelope of What we were doing from a development perspective might have might have rubbed a few people the wrong way along the way, but customers were buying it and We were building out these incredible customer relationships to your point I was I was digging on that and I’m actually getting to go out and and see these customers face to face and See my team earning tremendous amount of money and see that stock price go from like I said earlier under a dollar To I think it at one point it was up over 20 bucks and there were people that have been there a lot longer than I had a lot more options than I did Who were suddenly millionaires Overnight well not overnight took took a few years to get there, but it felt like overnight moved very quickly We eventually got bought by Borland software who I’m sure you’re aware of their long gone I think eventually bought by Micro Focus but Yeah, I mean it was such a such a fun ride But at the same time such a great opportunity to again hone those skills so I it’s definitely a bit of Right place at right time took a lot of work a lot of effort and a lot of you know Blood sweat and tears to get there, but in the end I I think I you know from that found my happy place that I do belong more in a sales leadership role No reason to go back and you know backfill and do the field role. I was very comfortable in that I enjoyed managing people and Yeah, and I joined the challenge. So yeah, it was a good fit.

Manuel Martinez: What was the area that really got your attention in a management and a development standpoint right because You mentioned like a sales leadership role. Now… Management is a title right so you’re not you’re in a management role. You’re managing people At what point and maybe it was early on did you start to kind of developed into being more of that leader and Kind of what does that look like right because hey, you know, I went into management, you know, and I’ve done that and there You know, I’ve talked about it before I don’t think I was ready for that type of role when I moved into it At least I didn’t think so because I wanted to still be an individual contributor But I still think I did a lot after that to be a Leader of teams right? I was a team lead. I was leading groups. I was leading projects so, you know, what is it about that because I don’t think I developed that passion or that knowledge until I Started teaching. That’s when I learned man. I love this. and what I loved about it was I Would teach in my mind. I thought I was teaching somebody like oh, you know, I would explain something and I had a wide range of people like people who are in the industry people these were college students who were just starting out And they didn’t understand concepts. So for me, it was like that curiosity that you mentioned to earlier’s Hey explain this to me and I would explain it. I don’t understand what that means or you know, I was teaching VMware What do you mean a virtual network? Like what’s the difference between a virtual network and a physical network? You know trying to find a lot analogies and understanding why I’ve got to do More work so it was exciting to me It’s because like well, I thought I knew this but I have to know it at a deeper level to be able to teach it to somebody else and then Once I could see that they understood it that I was able to then explain it properly and they’re like, oh I get it Yeah, and they could refer back like that was the part that I was like That was the dopamine hit for me It’s like I explained it in a way that they understood it and they’re able to move on them I’m getting goosebumps talking. I’m just talking about it But that’s where I think I really started to develop that passion for leadership in a management- you know Maybe not necessarily a management role. But what was it for you that really said this is what I want to do

Rodney Detrick: The first thing I was thinking about was when I first got to that company The day that I walked in The person that I was replacing and their manager Were being booted Actually passed them in the hall and I knew them they were walking out with their boxes of their possessions It was you know day one Strangely, you know, I’m still really pretty early in my career so it was awkward and strange and I knew these people and you know, it’s first day meeting the team and the team Most of them really liked these previous managers So as one of them Said to me a few days into it. You’ve got some really big shoes to fill You know Challenge accepted. And and for me though that what what shifted it was this challenge this opportunity to get to know this team as People and become friends and most of them I’m still in very close contact with It’s been so great to watch them as they’ve so many of them have have progressed in their careers either as ongoing as sales professionals Or some sales leaders in the group too That that dopamine kick that you were talking about seeing them shift from hey, I know we were doing things this way before And if yet if you get behind this if we work together and we’re gonna have a lot of fun doing it It’s gonna be tough We’re gonna put it in some some long hours and we’re gonna probably have to do things a little differently than we have before But if we can get to here It’s gonna be a lot of fun We’re gonna have a great time and go on that journey with them and experience that with them and to see them grow and develop That way while I’m growing and developing to again Couldn’t have done it without the mentors that I had that made a huge difference because I do think that a lot of us Jump into sales management roles. I’ve seen it in other places. I’ve worked where we have Promoted someone into a sales leadership role, but without the mentorship without the training We just figure oh Manuel’s terrific at selling. He’s killing his number. We ought to make him a sales manager It’s it’s a different beast as you know So it’s like well, how do we help them develop that set of skills so that they can be effective, you know building and growing a team And so that’s where I often see that the the the disconnect. I didn’t plan For that necessarily I was fortunate It turned out that way that I had those mentors that were able to help me get to that point and were willing to invest in me To progress my my skill set as as a sales leader

Manuel Martinez: And I think you make a great point there is Not even just in sales right but in tech Hey you’re a great engineer you’re a great architect and a lot of times within tech that gets promoted up and I don’t know if there’s that investment or that mentorship to help them be successful, right? You just think well you worked your way up to an architect level I’ll put you in management and you can manage you know other architects or other engineers because you speak the same language, but there is a huge investment in making sure that that person is has the skills the development because it’s not like And I’m sure they might have seen it in you is okay you have this relationship. Hey, I’m gonna mentor you like I can’t tell you everything to do that because some of that sounds like they also gave you the flexibility like you’ve got to figure this out But I’m here as a resource or hey if you have questions like here I’m here to ask-

Rodney Detrick: And that was so key that point right there is so key To give me the leash to go out there and go do the things that I needed to do. They trusted me enough And it wasn’t just I mean there’s a place for that, you know for the for for delegation But it was a lot less of that and more about we trust you to go do it You know good go make it happen, but come get me if you need me But I’m not gonna do it for you I’m gonna I’m gonna help you and support you and that that really really made a difference That was an important lesson for me to learn as a leader. I can’t just if someone’s Struggling I can’t just do it for them That doesn’t help them. That’s not growing and developing them But I can create an environment where they can continue to grow and develop themselves and build those skills I can show them and get them to do it if need be But I can’t just always jump in and do it for them Because they’ll never grow they’re not gonna develop that way.

Manuel Martinez: And how do you create that type of environment? like how do you you know because There’s one thing to say it, but you know doing it as another thing to say Hey, I’m here if you need me ask questions and being able to provide feedback like that’s That’s a skill in in of itself is to be able to go through and say hey, you know I’m gonna reference because you’ll get this is within Toastmasters when you’re giving feedback. They talk about the sandwich method, right? Talk about something positive Talk about the negative part and then end with something positive right and is that kind of the approach did you have a methodology because there’s everybody’s different everybody’s gonna take feedback differently and That might have also been part of when I struggled early on is you know as a manager I’m gonna say as a manager like I Struggled in the management part Understanding how to get feedback as a leader and kind of going through and said hey, here’s the direction Here’s what I think we should do getting feedback like you’ve been here longer How do you know how do things run if we do this will this work? Will this not work or you know? Hey, we had a manager to try it in the past it failed Well, why did it fail X Y and Z? Okay. Did they try? Q&F no, well, let’s try those Knowing that it might not work, but let’s try that so from that standpoint, but now giving feedback and Developing people that’s a little bit tougher. So how did you kind of..? How did you go about learning that was that something you asked somebody is it? Are you getting feedback from the people that you’re leading saying like, you know, oh you don’t know anything Yeah, I mean I’ve seen that happen like you don’t know sure

Rodney Detrick: Sure some of that I think I was came a bit natural for me just in terms of my ability to to talk to people and work with people and and I’m not a I’m not a screamer. I’m not a yeller I’m not you know, I don’t get people in a room and you know, you know if I go down you’re all going down with me I work for people like that before and I Think I learned a lot from seeing people do things that I realized I will never do that That will never be me. I don’t care how bad the situation is That’s not going to be me there are ways to do the things that we need to do as leaders in a way that you know is respectful and Allows our staff to grow and develop and and be successful without the yelling and screaming and you know nutty behavior, so Yeah, I think initially I didn’t really necessarily have a process as you’re talking about the Toastmaster tools that they that they extend there but I just learned from others, you know observing others and some of that observation was I Love that but I’m not crazy about that. So I’ll keep doing this but I’m not gonna I’m not gonna follow that lead I’m gonna follow my gut a bit more on that So some of again some of that may became naturally but you mentioned Toastmasters and I haven’t brought it up yet but obviously there’s the the other connection that we’ve talked about and that’s my involvement with Dale Carnegie again, I’ve been a part of the Dale Carnegie organization for almost 20 years now as a trainer and it’s interesting because that was definitely a Sort of a significant moment in my career those 20 years ago when I was Talking with My brother-in-law who At the time was working for Dale Carnegie and we were at you know Family holiday dinner or something and I had said to him I kind of want to do I’m gonna do some teaching or training just I’ve done does a full-time job, but just sort of as a side vocation and He goes hey, you know, I I’m working for Dale Carnegie, you know as a seller But I’m thinking about buying the franchise and this was in Orange County and sure enough He bought the franchise and he’s been running that franchise for the last 20 years. So I became one of his first trainers to come on board And and I always include him as a part of my my mentors as well because we I’ve just learned so much From having been a part of that and I was so glad that I made that investment in time and in training To continue to hone my skills. It’s something I bring to everything I do whether it’s leadership at sales These are all programs that Dale Carnegie offers as a matter of fact, but I want I I found myself in a position where I’m a better Sales professional. I’m a better leader better Communicator when I’m being coached and when I’m involved in coaching other people, so I created this Dynamic for myself some of it planned but some of it just turned into a thing where I just fell in love with Dale Carnegie programs and the underpinnings of that program How to Win Friends and Influence People and That just meant so much to me and resonated so well for me And as I started to take the classes just as a participant and to see the breakthroughs that people were making From these materials because it was it was so different from other Training that I had rather, you know more Traditional sales Sandler’s and others that I’ve taken in the past all great The difference with the Dale Carnegie though is it starts with the Underpinnings being all about human communication and connection with people and that was that really spoke to me and the way I like to interact With people some the pairing of that with what I was doing in my professional life Really made a ton of sense and then you know Do I want to be a trainer also and go out and help other people with their leadership skills? Absolutely with their sales skills. Absolutely. It just made a ton of sense for me So I did that in Orange County for for many many years had some you know breaks in there because of My day jobs Requiring a lot of travel and sometimes that got in the way and then just recently having moved here to Nevada I’ve just joined up with the Dale Carnegie, Nevada team and have been working with them as of late You know since last year so already had the opportunity to work with some local Companies and do training for them and it’s just such a you know for me It just is it’s a way of giving back to other professionals It’s an extension of that this idea of mentoring and helping other professionals and I learned so much from it. So again back to that theme of lifelong learning I go into you know an organization for instance last year. I did a human communications program With Del Carnegie for a company here locally that owns McDonald’s franchises all over the area and What a great group of people and just it was eight weeks of classes and and got to know them very very well intimately But I didn’t know anything about the restaurant franchise business But now I do I know a ton about it and really admire the people that are involved in it and their dedication to it Some of these people most of them had been either working in restaurants and or with this company for upwards of 20 years I think there was one person in the room that been in that business for over 40 years so a tremendous amount of longevity and And it was just so interesting to learn about that business so again back to me being a sales professional sales leader I really push on this with my staff and folks that I interact with that how important it is for us to be curious genuinely curious about What other people are doing and their businesses and how they’re functioning? How else can we serve them as sales professionals as companies delivering tech services? Whatever we do if we don’t understand their business and what they’re trying to accomplish and you boil that down even further and getting to understand What those individuals are trying to accomplish and their roles and responsibilities so Dale Carnegie has given back to me You know a million fold in in that respect and it keeps me it keeps all that material fresh for me I think as sales professionals Some- and as leaders sometimes we get in a bit of a rut where I’ve been doing this for so long You know what else can anybody teach me? I’ve seen it all but that’s not true. There’s so much more to learn again I didn’t know anything about the franchise food business So, you know to learn about that something new in my in my toolkit of things that I can bring up in in sessions It’s so valuable. There’s just it’s just an endless supply of information that we can be learning from but not if we Just shut it down every day close up the laptop And so, you know investing in these other things in our careers that are outside of even things that are necessarily outside of our comfort zone Although I felt comfortable, you know facilitating a Dale Carnegie program. I Certainly at the beginning didn’t feel comfortable facility it facilitating it the way Dale Carnegie says you need to facilitate it so a lot of focus and and work and Mentorship from the the master trainers and and others within their organization to get me to that point Where I could do that effectively but worth worth every every moment of it

Manuel Martinez: I’m glad you brought that up because I was gonna talk about that a little bit because you know I’ve mentioned Toastmasters and I had a lot of Guests that had told me about Toastmasters that had heard about it, but the Dale Carnegie I had not and you know, I started looking into it talked to you asking you questions and you Mentioned that it was a huge part in your career now. I Know for you as a sales leader how it I Don’t know exactly but I have a pretty good understanding of how it would Help enhance the skills that you already had you already seemed to like that with the forensics back in in college But within the tech industry and you and I talked about this a little bit, you know off-camera and in past conversations is For that type of program because in Toastmasters, it’s not just speaking there is the leadership aspect of it But it’s just that it’s it’s that one group. Whereas when we looked at Dale Carnegie, there is there’s focused You know, there’s ones on leadership. There’s Powerful presentations there’s different areas. So as somebody who’s in the tech industry and it could be sales it could be Maybe I’m a developer. Maybe I’m an engineer Cyber- it doesn’t matter What are some of the things that within that realm that you know both from being a participant a Facilitator that you would say here’s why this is important. You’ve already touched a little bit It’s on communication and it being something that where you know It also helps you kind of develop that human connection types of skills but if you don’t mind elaborate a little bit more like that is if I Guess almost sell it to me and say hey, here’s why you know, if I’m tell you like well, I’m just an engineer I’m looking them early in my career. I just want to get into cybersecurity. I want to get in networking Why would I do why would I invest time and money and effort in developing those types of skills?

Rodney Detrick: So… Somebody smarter than me once said “that if you want to learn something new read something that was written over a hundred years ago” and Dale Carnegie’s book How To Win Friends and Influence People is right about into that into that age realm So Dale Carnegie, you know is a he started this work around about the time of the depression or Short time before that and so, you know, a lot of folks were struggling in this country with you know how do I how do I earn a living, you know and by the way, and how do I not only how do I learn or earn a living but when I’m out there interviewing or Working with my co-workers. How do I build the skills up? Public speaking skills or interacting human communication skills? And so with all of his research and his work, that’s how he developed you know, How To Win Friends and Influence People along with lots of other books that he wrote but The the fact that it’s been around that long And if you you know if we had a crowd of people here and we said, you know How many of you have read How To Win Friends Influence People or have seen the book or heard of the book? The vast majority of them are gonna raise their hands even in this day and age I was just at an event last night and we did that and just about everybody in the room raised their hand. So it’s the the longevity is there because those principles the 30 principles that he talks about in the book will hold true forever and Some people will look at those principles and go it’s kind of common sense But is it common practice? Are we doing these things? Every day are we thinking about these things in the way we interact with? Our staff our co-workers our partners our customers So having having that, you know at the front of your brain when you’re, you know interacting with folks I think it’s just just so important and I was kind of referencing this earlier when I was talking about some of the other Training programs while strong in their own right which what really drew me to the Dale Carnegie programs were those underpinnings because whether it’s sales or leadership or High impact presentations, whatever, you know, the case might be whatever the kind of overarching subject matter is Those principles tie it all together and allow it to be that effective and then the coaching and the facilitating Process under Dale Carnegie is different too because it’s extremely interactive If you were to take a program with me leading the the training It’s not going to be three and a half hours of listening to Rodney Detrick Yammer on it’s going to be very little of Rodney Detrick hammering on it’s going to be more about The participants doing things working on things thinking through The various topics that we want to work through and Building those skills practicing those skills getting coached on those skills in the moment That makes it different than so many other training programs or what we you know You and I’ve been you know in plenty of companies where we’ve done training And a lot of that’s just hey, here’s what we’ve got here’s you know, here’s a deck of slides and so on You know go for it Versus what we do in Dale Carnegie, which is very hands-on. It’s very do it. Try it. Give it a go. There’s a whole Cycle of professional development that we talk about in these programs. It gets folks from having the right attitude to Learning about something to building up the skills to actually achieving results and that’s a cyclical thing So it’s always happening. So we get people not only Inspired and excited about learning and developing In whatever capacity that they’re interested in doing that But we give them tools and skills like you were talking about the sandwich method in in Toastmasters so we’ve got a lot of those types of tools that you walk out the door with and then you end up having a Really a lifelong relationship with Dale Carnegy because I know many of the folks that I had in some of my earliest Classes 20 years ago that I facilitated. I’m still in close contact with

Manuel Martinez: And with you still being in contact with them, what would you say? I mean again I don’t know the percentage or I don’t know the amount but after them having gone through it Would you say or I guess what would Be some of the feedback that they would give like oh I went through this, you know Because it’s great in the moment, right? We’ve all been to those, you know Train is that you just kind of sit doing some we’re like, oh, this is great And then it just kind of like dies down But how many of these people that you’ve talked to that you still communicate with? Have gone through and said man, this was great. I was able to apply These things in my you know in my business or you know in my career and you know, just again I’m not I don’t need a percentage But I’m sure that some of those people have given you feedback like man I went back and I moved up to management or man I’m so much better leading a team or now when I give presentations people listen to me.

Rodney Detrick: So many stories From folks that have been through these programs and again one of the big things that attracted me to it And not only wanting to be a participant, but then eventually train people on it Was because I saw people actually having breakthroughs during the program, you know having you know true shifts in their behavior I just Co-facilitated a program Last week with a local company around public speaking and and professional presentations and to watch where people went in just two days From their very first talk getting up in front of a group many of whom did not want to get up in front of the group and talk to their peers But and then to see where they ended up after it toward the end of day two Because we videotape all of those and we coach all of their talks both while they’re giving the talks and post on videotape Just to see them grow and develop in that short period of time and to hear their feedback You know, hey, how do you feel that? You know, what’s the difference you see between? What you did in your very first talk versus the one you did That’s one of the things that we do in that two-day event is we have them look at here’s your first talk Here’s your second talk. What do you see the differences and the breakthroughs people have in just that short period of time I oh my gosh I I look so much more confident I or I stopped pacing the room or I took my hands out of my pockets and you know Sometimes the folks that we coach are they’re already up here. They’re already very practiced and Have a lot of experience Leading or selling or doing professional presentations and what we’re hoping with the training is that we get them to stretch go a little bit further We’re gonna try to stretch you way up here. So somewhere you land in here, but you’re gonna you’re gonna end up with tools and skills that and things to think about that you hadn’t thought about before and I think one of the things that I Hear most often with folks is that once they’ve been through at least one program They hear the Dale Carnegie principles in their head They hear the things that we worked on in practice and a very sort of magical thing happens at that point We start to self coach. I felt it after my first couple of programs where there were things that I was doing When I was presenting as a for instance That now I catch myself doing it. I can self coach and I stopped doing it I had a terrible habit and I still have the habit frankly of When I talk of getting my arms kind of cocked up like this, you know So we sort of build that tension up in her elbows I’m doing the t-rex thing and I didn’t even notice it until I saw it in videotape and someone coached me and said What’s happening there with your hands with your arms? I said I never even noticed it before but now I notice it and I can put my arms back down and relax and not look like I’m so scared or You know that I’m not particularly confident what I’m talking about because that’s the signal it sends to our audience so, you know in my in my current role with With connect on in the cybersecurity world when I’m working with you know clients in that area. There is an expectation that We know what we’re talking about that we’re experts in this area companies business, you know can You know live or die on their cybersecurity posture so, you know if I’m coming in there and appearing like I don’t have the confidence or the the the expertise to Help get them there where they want to be. It’s not a good look So again, it just that the parallels between what we do every day regardless of our role Yes, I’m in a sales role sales leadership role, but I get even in this group that we had last week that we did the program for There was a number of them that said outright. Well, I don’t I don’t do presentations they were on the the event team it’s kind of behind the scenes folks I said, but do you get your team together and Lead them you present to them. Here’s what the plan is for this event. We’re having in two weeks Oh, yeah, we do that and you want to be more effective in your ability to convey what information is going to come across to them Oh, yeah, that would be great because sometimes people, you know, even though we’ve talked them all the way through it They don’t really know what they’re doing or they you know, they’re still have questions or they don’t understand it Well, that’s we can work on that. So the other thing I loved about the Dale Carnegie programs is we Even with a group of folks that are coming from Diverse roles we can tailor it so that we make sure that for what is Manuel trying to work on in his role Whether it’s as a podcast host or you know working for your company, you know What are those things that you’re working on? We can tailor and refine the material and the coaching to those things that are specific to you

Manuel Martinez: and I think that’s the part that I really Enjoy and I think is important not even from just a Dale Carnegie standpoint or toast- but whatever it is But specifically this one is I think a lot of times Had I known this earlier on in my careers how important communication is you mentioned it? They’re like, oh a lot of times we’ve gone through this and they still don’t get it Is that they don’t get it or is it because I didn’t communicate it clearly to them I don’t have those skills and I think that’s something especially within tech Were so good at like learning the technology and explaining this, you know How I can give you all the technical details fantastic, but did I give you direction? do you know what’s going on and I Think you gave an excellent explanation and that’s kind of what I was looking for is, you know tying that into a tech role whether your sales or non sales is Maybe you’re not even given presentations, but you’re talking to your co-workers. You’re talking to teams Maybe you’re in the head of a project, right? You may never give a presentation, but you are presenting information to them Yes, and I think that’s the thing that is extremely valuable. Yes, you can have all the technical knowledge But if you can’t convey that if you can’t express that to somebody else and again, it doesn’t have to be your management That’s another piece is, can I explain to you know, my leader or my manager what I’m doing. Can I communicate down? Can I communicate at the same level? Yes, the people that become really good at being able to articulate Concisely and clearly what it is. They’re looking for what they need or you know, even if I can do you hey Rodney You know, I’m having a problem Okay, you’re probably like alright what’s the problem- this doesn’t work Right. So just understanding that even just from that standpoint, even if I’m an individual contributor I might learn the skills to be able to ask better questions be able to help troubleshoot as much as we think that it’s an Individual, you know, it’s an individual role. You still have to work with other people.

Rodney Detrick: Absolutely and the Dale Carnegie the core program That we facilitate is really all about that. It’s about the human communication principles and human relations and it builds from Just the kind of core. How do I communicate with someone and connect with someone then how do I take that to ultimately gain willing Cooperation from other folks and we all need that right on whether I’m selling ideas Just like you said or you know selling what I just accomplished or what I think we need to do for this client and so it the those principles build from the the communication to the gain willing cooperation and then on to leadership and the leadership skills get into this topic or a lot of the topics that May be more challenging for us as leaders where we have to have difficult conversations difficult coaching sessions with folks and I know you’ve had these I know I’ve got a you know career around these and Yeah, I feel like I’ve got some natural skills there, but boy the Dale Carnegie Skills have allowed me to be so much more effective where more often than not my folks are walking away with strong coaching but strong support from me to move them forward as opposed to Get in here. I’m gonna scream at you for 30 minutes Don’t go back out there and you know and do your job and those principles all build on themselves Because having those kinds of conversations with folks are a lot easier if I’ve already done the pre-work We talked about doing homework and being prepared if I’ve already built a strong relationship with you Manuel and you know, we already get along really well and I know it’s motivates you and I know who you are as a person and Why you’re here and where you want to go and what you want to do I’ve taken the time to invest in all that and get to know you as a person and done that in a sincere genuine way When it comes time to have a maybe a more challenging discussion. It’s gonna be way easier Because there’s a mutual respect and I’m gonna go into that discussion that coaching discussion in a way That’s you know friendly and engaging and supportive and we just we get more from our folks from our teams When we approach things that way versus yelling and screaming.

Manuel Martinez: Right? No. Yeah, I mean I wish That earlier on in my career someone would have One I didn’t have mentors right I had people that helped me in roles things like that But I think if I would have had a mentor that said hey yes, learn these technical skills, but the… three things and I’m gonna say this now as a mentor The three things that you really need to work on is apart from your technical skills or whatever it is that you need to do But maybe it’s not technical. Maybe it’s the sales skills, whatever it might be Apart from what you need to do to do your job I would say is building a network and by that mean build relationships again. It’s not that you’re Going because hey, I need you to you know, I’m gonna go to Rodney because I need a job But it’s just I can build a relationship. I can learn from somebody right I can it can be curious and say okay Maybe you might leave me to another role Maybe you might not but maybe it’s just I made a good friend that I can bounce an idea off of you You never know what that will lead to Be a better communicator whether it’s Ttoastmasters who you talked about. There’s also the having Managing having Difficult Conversations. There’s that other there’s a training program books around that. There’s Dale Carnigie There’s a number of things again pick what is gonna work for you But find something that’s gonna help you build your communication your presentation skills, you know Just again even just a one-on-one, you know if the cameras were turned off you and I being able to have this type of conversation and establish a relationship and then three I would say is writing skills now as much as hey, there’s AI and I can have AI write for me I Still think and I do it to this day. And one of the things that I’ve been working on is Writing like just sitting there grab a piece of paper and write or you know If you want to type it out type it out, but learn how to be a good writer Yes, AI is everywhere, but you can identify I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen it now you can see when people use AI to write stuff Now I try to use it to help me improve the writing that I’m doing But again, I would say that those are the three skills. Is there anything that you would add or is there kind of?

Rodney Detrick: Well, I Probably I could probably have a laundry list of things that I would encourage folks to work on and some of that might be tailored to where they maybe already have Areas of strength versus you know where they maybe are a bit more challenged but to Elaborate a bit further on yours that you had mentioned the mentoring You know coming here today. I was thinking about you know, it was something I really wanted to emphasize you know in this conversation and Thinking about the mentors that I’ve had in my life and continue to have Yeah, this this is this is year 60 for me I know it doesn’t look like it but But uh, but I still have mentors today In fact one of the gentlemen that I work with today at the current company I connect on is a gentleman I’ve known for over 15 years and He has always been a mentor of mine and long before we work together We’re finally working together, but we just became fast friends And we met back when we both lived in Orange County and had a lot in common He was in the tech space. So was I we knew a few of the same people we like to network And we just like to you know, have fun and enjoy ourselves and have a good time And so we just hit it off and you know all these years later of bouncing ideas off of each other and helping each other out Hey, do you know somebody or you know, could you introduce me to so-and-so or I’m struggling with this or do you have a document? That looks like this. I mean we’ve done all that kind of stuff over the years and then finally have this chance To work together and build something special together is just really exciting. So the mentoring doesn’t end I don’t care how far along you are in your your career always be looking for those mentors you mentioned the the communication skills and I Don’t think there’s anything more more important and again that the Dale Carnegie stuff is just emphasizes that to me each and every time I’m involved in it. And again, once you get involved in it, you’ve even taken, you know one program and It will be in your head You’ll be thinking about it all the time and I love hearing people come back and say this is really it stayed with me I always think about it. I hear your voice in my head. Maybe that’s not healthy You know remember some of those things you coached me on and then the last thing that you mentioned the writing that’s an interesting point we hadn’t really talked about that and The Dale Carnegie work And and what we train on that from from a verbal communication Is is very much tied into the writing part and I’ve had folks come through programs who’ve said I don’t really talk to a lot Of people but I do a lot of writing Or you know, I’m inside sales. So they just had me writing a lot of emails What we learn about and how to create powerful Communication that’s impactful and concise And well-written and and you know and drives behavior drives action all those things that we would look to do in a you know verbal face-to-face conversation can be translated to the paper in in many ways, but your but your… You know your thoughts on, you know practicing it doing it really makes a big difference and use the tools You know use AI don’t only use AI Practice your own writing Learn what others have done what’s effective stay up on that It’s such an important skill and some days sometimes it kind of feels like a bit of a lost skill these days because we do have Technology we can turn to or we’ve got you know software programs that deliver all the cadence out to The clients and it’s all sort of pre-written for us, but I don’t know maybe I’m a little bit old-school in that respect I’d much rather pick up the phone or at least do a video call and chat with somebody Versus trying to you know, put it all down on paper, but the written skills such a such an important skill And we can learn a lot though from AI and and you know what it can help us structure and be creative And I do the same thing you do which is sort of like they’ve got a few disparate ideas. How do I? blend all those together and this idea of Preparation and Scripting so I would never train a sales professional to read off a script But do I think it’s important to script what you’re going to say ahead of time? Absolutely, and I actually learned that is an important lesson Through another one of my interests that we haven’t even talked about today, which is my interest in magic So I’ve been involved as a amateur magician had a business when I was young but now it’s strictly something that I bring into my training or I bring into you know social situations and It’s been so many important lessons. I couldn’t even name them all as we’re as we do this talk, but One of the things I learned from a gentleman who’s no longer with us but older older gentleman professional magician of Chicago and he was very very big was a very well-known teacher of magic and Was part of a magic school that’s here in Vegas the magic and mystery school that’s here in Vegas and one of the things that he would talk about is scripting your performances because there’s a lot of Performers magicians out there that just sort of wing it. They don’t have it all written down They don’t know what they’re gonna say and oftentimes it sounds that way and I took that as a really I thought about how Do I translate that I could see how it makes sense, you know to perform a little you know Some magical drama magical theater, but how do I translate that into what I do as a professional? well getting on to calls and working with clients and not being prepared not knowing what I’m going to say and having it Scripted not again to read a script but to have that sort of preparation ahead of it and not always winging it It was such an important lesson for me in how I come across as a subject matter expert and as a professional And as someone who’s you know prepared

Manuel Martinez: I’m glad you brought that up because that’s something that I Know to do but I’d have never really communicated and thought about hmm Yes, you want a scripture call. You want a script like again your presentation But that doesn’t mean that you’re reading from a script and I think there’s that that distinction and I’m gonna take a first attempt at What I think that means or how you might go about doing that and I’m definitely would like your insights on this is I’ve done that I’ve winged it. I was always pretty comfortable on A subject matter like I think about back in college I never wrote a speech, but I took a public speaking course Mm-hmm. Hey, it’s gonna be a speech on something. I kind of randomly think like okay. Well, I’m gonna talk about you know This flower. Okay. What do I know about this far? Alright fine I was confident enough to go up there and just wing and I would wing a lot of those things because I It didn’t bother me or I had the confidence to- it didn’t frighten me to just go and speak. You know even now if someone said hey, could you give a presentation on you know cell phones? Sure, I could figure it out. Like what do I have five minutes and could wing it? But the difference between doing that and having a script and that doesn’t mean I’m gonna say this and I’m gonna say that It’s really okay. What do I want to talk about? How do I how do I structure this and when I think script? I think structure maybe it’s bullet points. Maybe it’s you’re not writing it verbatim So a script is not something that you’re gonna read verbatim, but it’s okay I’m gonna start with talking about the origin of this flower Then maybe I’ll run into this and just key points that I want to make sure that I talk about so when you say scripting do you mean making sure that I have a… Things that I want to talk about or a structure I want to make sure that I’m not talking about this plant died or you know, like there’s a there’s a logical order to it as opposed to I Want to tell you about this flower and this flower is you know, it’s not that right? You’re not reading some verbatim It’s making sure that you have talking points. Is that what you mean?

Rodney Detrick: Yes Depending on what type of talk you’re doing. So if you’re going to be doing a full-blown presentation You’re gonna be up on stage for 10 to 15 minutes You need to have it scripted and now does that mean that you can’t go off? Script a bit here and there. Absolutely. We never want to look like we’re reading a script Whole different level of coaching for that situation if we’re doing a sales presentation There are elements of that that I need to have scripted around what that company does I need to understand what that customer is struggling with Where they’re coming from what their business is what their market is So that’s part of my scripting because I want to build that into the things that I’m saying If we’re just doing a talk and this is gets back to the Dale Carnegie training One of the things that we train on one of the tools that we we gift participants with is a thing called a magic formula Which is made up of three elements. It’s the incident. It’s an action and it’s a benefit so let’s say you’re doing a two-minute talk the Incident is going to be a minute 50 seconds and we’re gonna tell that Incident as if we are there and it’s happening right now It’s all part of this, you know telling a powerful story and strong storytelling skills that we teach in these programs And we’re gonna bring that to life for folks The in the action and the benefit are those really the last two sentences of say a two-minute talk. It’s the last 10 seconds This does a lot of things for us It gives us confidence because we’ve got a structure to speak from anywhere I go you asked me to get up and talk I’ve got a structure. I got an incident action benefit. Boom I could do that on the fly anytime. It’s always great if I can talk about something that’s already I’m knowledgeable about And it’s already, you know something that’s you know that I can speak from speak from the heart from but… Having that structure allows me to tell you that incident to create that story and then at the end Leave you with an action and a benefit what I mean by action and benefit is the action is going to be something like When you move forward with a plan that allows you to better engage with your staff you’ll find that your staff is much more productive and Much more detail oriented moving forward in all their work It was just two sentences, but I you take this action and you’ll get this benefit. So no matter Where am I what my incident when my story was all about those last two things? That’s what I want you to remember at the end of my talk That’s probably all you’re gonna remember about my talk. You might remember It was a funny story and he talked about rhinos or whatever he talked about But then he gave us an action and a benefit at the end and that’s what I walked out the door with And that’s just one of the things that we we train on and Dale Carnegie To help folks kind of build that structure and that’s part of the scripting So to your point it may be just something as simple as having that in your toolbox I’ve got this structure if I need to talk boom I can I can do it on the fly But I still have a structure to it and that helps us again with the confidence. It helps us with Being concise. So if you’re if you’re a rambler like I unfortunately tend to be It keeps me in my you know My guardrails are up so that I go don’t go, you know too far beyond it and I leave them with something powerful at the end to remember.

Manuel Martinez: now, that’s great and I I’m glad that you brought that up because I just want people to understand that a script doesn’t mean I’m reading something all the time, right? It’s just you have a structure to something even I Like that framework even if I’m in a group setting in our meeting, right like understanding that Maybe it’s not scripted But you can write that script before you speak like if I’m in a meeting and if I have that framework situation You know impact or what was it situation?

Rodney Detrick: Incident action benefit

Manuel Martinez: Incident action benefit so that if I’m in a meeting and you know People are asking feedback if I can structure it that way and start to think instead of just well, I don’t know I think we should do right now. I have okay. Hey, here’s the incident. I understand that we had the environment go down last week You know the action might be the next time that this happens Maybe we should have a runbook and by having a runbook That we can check Maybe we can avoid, you know, our systems going down, right even just that I mean, I thought about it on the fly but still like having a structure saying oh Well, this is this is what you mean by script and a script doesn’t mean why I have to write down word for word What I’m gonna say.

Rodney Detrick: there may be occasion to do that and then other occasions where you just as long as I got that structure I’ve got that to lean on and Gives me a place to talk and you made a great point with that incident action benefit The magic formula is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a two-minute talk formal in front of a group it could just be in a meeting and every time I Progressing… What I want to talk about where I want to go with this if I give that action and benefit at the end People are tying that together with so I got to do this and if I do this it’s gonna get me this And and that’s what that that’s where the real power in it is. It’s it’s yes, it’s it’s memorable But it also tells me why you told me that whole story ahead of it and what’s it gonna do for me?

Manuel Martinez: This has been a great conversation I know that we can keep going just like we have you know when we’ve met in person But now I want to give you the opportunity if there’s anything that we’ve kind of glossed over anything I didn’t talk about that you feel like you know Before we kind of wrap this up that you really want to touch on you know something I know you’ve talked about Dale Carnegie and mentorship, but I just want to know if there’s anything else or That we might have missed

Rodney Detrick: We did cover a lot of ground and I’m so glad we did I was really excited to come here and talk with you today one of the other things that We’ve sort of touched on and it’s tied to my… professional growth my personal professional growth having moved to a new area and this opportunity to Grow my network and how important it is to reach out to folks like yourself to become part of professional organizations Go to go to professional organization meetings that maybe have nothing to do with what you do and learn about them And see what’s going on. This is a this area here is obviously very focused on economic growth And continuing to develop This the cities in the county As a whole economically and from a business perspective So there’s a lot to learn here and a lot of amazing people who have made their way to this area that we can engage with not just as as you know people that we potentially do business with but just as mentors and as you know folks that we can You know I love being in a position where I run across something that I’m like hmm. That’s right up Manuel’s alley I’m gonna call him up and you know offer that up to him or make an introduction for him So I you know I think about one of those things that I really stress with folks that are earlier in their careers Or frankly even later in their careers That the the the value in that and it really makes what we do much more fun much more engaging And I know for some people it’s challenging because maybe they are a little bit shy I’m not a- I wouldn’t- I don’t think I was a naturally outgoing kid But you know I found ways to get myself out there and then found that actually that gets me I gets me up in the morning. I enjoy doing that and So I would encourage folks who just you know I just stay home tonight watch television Now maybe pick you know at least one night out of the week to go out and be a part of a professional Organization if it’s tech you know it’s sim. It’s ISSA. It’s AITP whatever but go get involved in something And if you really want to challenge yourself Find a way to Talk to participate Offer up something of value to those folks and see where that takes you It’s not a silver bullet You can’t go into these things expecting that you know someone’s gonna turn around and you know give you a purchase order because you’re so incredibly Eloquent, but if you go into it just because you want to build that network and build that exposure I can’t think of anything more important in your earlier in your career Because I you know I think back on the various companies. I’ve worked for over the years Pretty much all of them There’s maybe one or two exceptions I’ve never actually like gone through a super formal interview process Even even the early part I leveraged people that I knew I I tapped into Even a limited network in my early part of my career And I know with my with my kids. That’s something I always emphasized You know make sure you keep a broad healthy network and and even if it’s just something like hey Let’s just go grab a coffee or hey I was you know I’m just about to get on a plane and that your name just popped into my head And I thought you know shoot you a note Just those simple little things keep those communication lines open and keep each other thinking about each other and again Looking for ways to help other folks one of the things I really really emphasized with folks earlier in their career look for opportunities To you know tap into tools like LinkedIn and your big LinkedIn person so my So like tap into that and just do something simple Maybe once a week go out for some go someone who you’ve interacted with or you’ve worked with in the past Or you work with now and write them a recommendation on LinkedIn

Manuel Martinez: And I like the way that you framed it, and it’s something that I’m I’m actively working to try and kind of build and eventually do like a framework is I like the way that you mentioned is go out to these organizations and provide something of value. I think in my time and again You’ve mentioned I’m active on LinkedIn I only started using LinkedIn and being active within the last it hasn’t even been a full year, right It has not been a year, and I’ve been on LinkedIn for God I know I had the year of when I started, but it’s been like maybe 13 14 years that I’ve been on LinkedIn

Rodney Detrick: It’s almost hard to believe because you’re active and very… engaging there

Manuel Martinez: But I’m not- What I was doing on LinkedIn was just I I thought and I used and approached LinkedIn as a digital resume Hey, I’m gonna new job. Here’s my new skills. I would put it out there and that’s it That’s all I was using it for and it wasn’t until last year That again, I was teaching and you know kind of going through and what really? Shifted for me was I want to provide more value I think I’m at a point in my career where I’m like, oh I’ve done a lot How can I help others right going through mentorship and doing that and I was like well How can I do that and someone was like well on LinkedIn? I was like, I’m active on LinkedIn. I looked at it. I Never posted a piece of content that I had written. I would repost and say hey, this is pretty cool Check this out or hey, I read this this might help because of whatever And it wasn’t until within the last year and like you said, you’re like, I would have never known and I tell people like just get on there and provide value when you’re reaching out and meeting other people It shouldn’t be to oh man, I’m gonna connect with Rodney because I think Rodney can get me a job Maybe not now, but he’ll do it in a year or two. I really started approaching it and I tell people is reach out to these people and provide value. How can I help? What can I do? and The amount of opportunities that may come to you at some point and and maybe it just maybe it doesn’t come natural, right? It’s gonna be something that is Maybe a little bit out of your comfort zone But if you go to one of these groups like said maybe offer up like hey I want to talk and just talk to somebody and learn more about them. So like you said, oh man, I Just thought about this. I was on the plane. I saw something. Hey Rodney. I know this is up your alley. I just saw Whatever like you might want to check this out. Yeah, I get again Maybe it comes to that teaching and I don’t know if it’s just something that you and me get but again Me seeing somebody else thrive and I’ve started to build a network of people that are the same way I get more joy out of seeing you thrive and do better Then if you were to go and give me like hey, Manny Here here’s do this and do this and you know, if you change your LinkedIn, this is gonna help you and you know You’re gonna get more impressions. Yeah, cool. Whatever. I don’t care But if I tell you that and it happens for you like I get more excited like I genuinely get excited

Rodney Detrick: That’s a real dopamine kick right there. to use your earlier words. Absolutely and you this this idea of you know engaging with each other and Building out that network and being involved with others Whether it’s their local or or distant Actually reminds me and I was reminded of it by one of your prior guests on the podcast Bob Leek First time I met him he was introduced through a mutual friend and And I said hey, it’d be great if we if we got together he goes well actually I you know carve out time To get together with people, you know, he’s never talked to me before. You know, he just had this This introduction from another person and he’s like yeah, just drop it on the calendar. We’ll grab Starbucks and talk I thought what a great way for You know someone who’s got a I’m sure You know a very very full schedule But carving out time on a weekly basis to get together with other people other professionals and learn about what they do and what they’re interested in and How they’re engaging others is amazing The fact that he carves out that time. I thought that’s an important lesson right there We should all be doing that and thinking about that on a weekly basis and continuing to nurture a network

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, and it’s something that I didn’t do enough and I’m trying to do something similar It’s just people that I have contact with like yourself like can I meet Everybody that I know Every week? No. But I can probably once a quarter maybe once every few months and say hey Rodney it’s been three months I know we talked and we message Let’s grab lunch let’s coffee and I try to do those in person meet-ups again Just catch up and it gives you a chance to really catch up and say man. It’s been awhile. What’s new? What’s going on, and it is it’s an important way to build a network and I just kind of want to take away that Either that stigma of like building a network and building relationships is because you want something out of it No, it should be to really build a connection and really what can the other person get out of your connection?

Rodney Detrick: Yeah if you’re going into it with the intention of I’m gonna get this person to buy something from me or I’m gonna get them to sign up for something or whatever The wrong thing to do right now. Well, some of those things happen in the future if you do this religiously over time I think they will but you have to go in just because you enjoy Engaging with other people and that that will make all the difference for you.

Manuel Martinez: Well, thank you again for Coming on sharing your experiences has been a great conversation lots of great insights and you know I’m looking forward to continuing our conversations outside of this form.

Rodney Detrick: Absolutely looking forward to it Thanks Manuel appreciate being here.

Manuel Martinez: And for everyone who’s watching and listening and continuing to support again Thank you. And hopefully again, I do my best to try and bring on guests that I feel bring a lot of insights. lot of great information just to share for you and you know things that I wish that I would have known earlier on and You know things that I’m learning as I go so that I can say again I don’t want to be a hoarder of knowledge But definitely if there are things that you’re interested in things that maybe I don’t touch on Let me know so that I can find those people and bring them and have them share those experiences So with that continue to plug in and download the knowledge and until next time. Thank you