Episode 23: Percy Darkwah – In It to Win It

“If you’re good enough, you’ll win.” And if you’re Percy Darkwah you’re in it to win it.

Since the beginning of his tech sales career, Percy has always taken calculated risks and bet on himself to further his career. That undying will to succeed has led him to move from Virginia to Dallas, Texas, and now to Toronto, Canada. Today, Percy is crushing it as an Enterprise Account Executive at AppDynamics.

On this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers,  Percy walks us through his non-linear sales career, how he was able to close a deal with a burger delivery, and questions to ask potential managers during the interview process.

Full Episode Transcript

Name: Percy Darkwah
Title: Enterprise Account Executive
Company: AppDynamics
Exit Year from memoryBlue: 2014
Months at memoryBlue: 8
Alumni Path: Hired Out

***Introduction***

Percy Darkwah:
If you’re good enough, you’ll win. There’s a lot more things you can say in between there, but if you’re good enough, you win, right? The tunnel is there. And there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s up to you how long or short that tunnel is.

Marc Gonyea:
Hi, I’m Marc Gonyea.

Chris Corcoran:
And I’m Chris Corcoran. And you’re listening to Tech Sales is for Hustlers. Tech Sales is for hustlers is a podcast where we catch up with memoryBlue alums and reminisce about their start in high tech sales with us.

Marc Gonyea:
Let’s go get some Corcoran.

Chris Corcoran:
Gonyea, you know, I’m ready.

***Episode 23: Percy Darkwah***

Marc Gonyea:
Percy Darkwah in the house.

Percy Darkwah:
What’s up guys? How you doing?

Chris Corcoran:
Doing great. Coming at us live and direct from the great white North.

Percy Darkwah:
Yes, sir. Out of Toronto.

Marc Gonyea:
You’re the first, actually second, Canadian. But you’re not officially Canadian, right?

Percy Darkwah:
Not, not yet. Not yet.

Marc Gonyea:
Big things, big things, man. First, the Raptors win the title and Percy commits to Canada. Actually, I know I’ll be more surprised by if the Raptors win the title again, and Percy comes to Canada full time, it’s a franchise signing for the country of Canada, as far as I’m concerned.

Percy Darkwah:
We’ll have to wait and see, you know, first Kawhi and then me. So, you know.

Marc Gonyea:
Thanks for joining us. It’s been a while. I’ve got here you departed May, 2014. So a little over six years ago.

Percy Darkwah:
Yes. A long time. It seems like yesterday.

Marc Gonyea:
A little more than half a decade, doesn’t seemed like it was yesterday to me. But I don’t know. I’m a little older. I’m a lot older than you actually. So tell us about yourself.

Percy Darkwah:
So I was born in West Africa, Ghana and migrated to the States when I was seven years old. My dad, actually take a step back. My dad had a scholarship, an engineering scholarship to go study in Germany. He transferred to the United States. My mom joined him back in ’92 and then me and my siblings joined them in ’96. So that’s how we got here. Move to Washington DC. So I grew up in Northern Virginia went to middle school, high school throughout Northern Virginia, played soccer, Marc. You know that we talked about that a little bit. And then I went to Radford University.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah, let’s back up. What were you like as a kid? So you had some siblings in there. Where were you in the food chain?

Percy Darkwah:
The last. I’m the baby.

Marc Gonyea:
That explains some things. Out of how many though? How many?

Percy Darkwah:
Three.

Marc Gonyea:
And what were you like as a kid personality wise?

Percy Darkwah:
According to the legends, you know, I was a petulant child. Meaning if you did something to me, I wasn’t going to forget. And I was going to get you back, whether it was the next day, six years later or two decades I was going to get ya. So that’s the kind of kid I was, I was very active. Being the youngest, I watched my two older siblings that kind of marriage you know, what they did. So luckily for me, they set a great path for me to kind of learn, from them and become the person I ultimately became.

Chris Corcoran:
Which of your parents had a bigger influence on you and why your mom or your dad?

Percy Darkwah:
That’s easy. My mom. Okay. Because you know, not to get too deep into it, but my parents split when I was a kid, my mom was she was the one that was watching over me and my two siblings throughout our adolescents and then later on in life. So yeah, she raised us. She was the mom and the dad for all of us.

Marc Gonyea:
Sounds like you didn’t forget any grudges sounds like with the siblings or maybe anyone else, which is good, but active playing sports, but soccer, soccer was the chosen sport.

Percy Darkwah:
Soccer was the main thing. Especially in high school. I didn’t really take the academic side too seriously. Until probably my junior year when I knew that I couldn’t go to certain schools because my grades weren’t good enough. So yeah, but the soccer was it, you know, it came naturally to me, but I tried other sports like basketball and football. Right. So it’s my senior year. I had to give up one of the three sports cause football was in the fall and then soccer was in the spring. And I wasn’t that good at basketball. I mean, let’s be honest, right? I mean, I’m 6’1″. Everybody else was like 6’8″ and above in my high school. So I just used the winter to run track, to get myself in shape for soccer. But yeah, I still play today. I still play in a weekend league here now, University of Toronto every Saturday.

Marc Gonyea:
I know, I know that’s the world’s greatest sport. So you moved, you moved to Virginia, grew up there. And what were you like in high school? Did you use always sports job and did sales rear its head at any point kind of along the way? Did something go on with you growing up?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. So, no, I didn’t think about sales until later on in life. But in high school, what was I in high school? I mean, I was a typical jock, but I didn’t go to like the parties afterwards, if that makes sense. Right. So for whatever reason, like I enjoyed everything that came with like playing sports, but my mom being a single mom and she always told us like, you know, kind of be on the straight and narrow. I didn’t do any drugs. I didn’t drink till probably my senior year. I probably tasting my first sip of alcohol, but yeah, I was always a square in that sense.

Marc Gonyea:
Okay. Got it. Okay. And then you end up going to Radford, tell us about that.

Percy Darkwah:
And then everything changed. I got into Radford. I mean, as you guys might know, Radford is a very social school, right. So, and that kind of changed my mindset on life as far as building connections and making sure that the people that you meet in college can set you up for the rest of your life. So I mean, some of the guys that were in my fraternity, I’m still friends with today.

Marc Gonyea:
All right. What’d you major in at Radford?

Percy Darkwah:
I was a business management major with an IT minor. So I always had an interest in technology, but I knew I didn’t want to be a coder or put products together. I just wasn’t good enough. Right. But I just always had a fascination of how does in lines of code become a finished product. Right. So I took the minor and then later on, just parlayed it into a sales career.

Marc Gonyea:
You got out of school; what’d you think you’re going to do? Cause you were doing some things before, there’s a story behind how you came to memoryBlue, right?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. Yeah. So when I graduated in 2010 and as you guys remember, 2010 was kind of in the middle of the market crashing, right. So it was very competitive. And I wanted to find a job that was safe, right. Quote, unquote, safe. So three months after I graduated still no job you know, mom’s kind of like, Hey, what are you going to do? So I just go to job fairs. And you know, I found a guy at Navy Federal credit union, which was in Vienna, Virginia. And he said, Hey man, like, what are you doing here? I kinda told them my story about how hard it was for me to find a job. He goes, listen, if you’re willing to work, I’ll give you an opportunity within the credit union. Right. Closing mortgages. So I took the job excelled at it. And then a couple of years later, I went to the same hiring manager you know, I’d ask them to say Eric, and I’ve been here for a while. I’m doing well. Is there an opportunity for me to get to the next level?

And, he lightly came back to my desk and said, you know, let me show you something. So we were walking around the floor and he’s kind of pointing at people on their desk. And he goes, you see the plaques on their desks? I said, yeah, what’s up. He goes, you see those little round circles on their desks. You know, it has numbers on them. I’m like, yeah, he goes, everybody else has the least five, 10, 15. You don’t even have a five on your plaque. So, you know, like I like you, but it’s going to take a little while for you to get to the next level. Right. And then that’s when my head perked up and said, you know, this might not be the place for me. I had some conversations with my close friends. And that’s when Rob Mattlmeyer kind of got into the picture.

So, Rob and I have been really, really close friends. After we both graduated, he went to Mason, I went to Radford and then we met at Dewey beach. And the friendship kind of blossomed from there, but he said, Hey, listen, man, if you want to get into a different industry with your natural talents, you know, as a talker and you know, somebody that people just like to share things with, I think you’d be good at sales. Right. I have a couple buddies, right. Eddie Maglaya, Mike Daversa, some of those memoryBlue guys came to mind. So he said, Hey, go talk to them. If you like, what they have to say, right. We can set you up with a meeting. I still play fantasy football with them until today. Actually. It’s just kinda funny. Yeah. So, spoke to those two guys you know, I really liked what they had to say.

And they set up a meeting with you guys. So we actually met at a restaurant. I forget what the street. It’s like this little burger shop and the first time you and I talk, I still I wasn’t sold. And then you kept hounding me and kept hounding me. And eventually I took the leap of faith, right. Because I said, either I’m going to be here for 20 years. And not really get where I want to go out to take a chance and bet on myself and you know, and do something new.

Marc Gonyea:
Do you remember why you weren’t sold though? Because now, you know, you’ve traveled Texas. You live in Toronto for this profession that you probably weren’t sold on. And you know, there’s, I was wheeling and dealing, cause I probably figured you were going to be good at it again. Cause Rob Mattlmeyer is in sales, he’s successful. Eddie Maglaya and Daversa are really good. And knowing you now, it made complete sense to me. But what was the hesitation back then? Is that it’s not all that uncommon.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. Great question. So for me it was the unknown, right. And I know I’m not averse to taking risk, right. If it’s calculated. So I just needed some more time to assess the pros versus the cons. And when you and I initially spoke, you said, Hey, listen, we got this opportunity for you. You have to sign. I think you gave me like a timeline that I wasn’t comfortable with. So I said, you know, respectfully, no thanks. And then you kept on me and I think it was about maybe two or three months later, I finally had enough artifacts me to say, okay, let’s do this.

Marc Gonyea:
What do you remember from earlier days at memoryBlue? Because you’re coming from a different profession, completely different industry. And we have people like that who come work for us and you know, you’re getting into a job that’s completely different than what you were doing before. And the culture is different companies different, but also the day to day. So what was that like.

Percy Darkwah:
If you guys remember I was, I was awful. I was God awful. So, you know, my first, I would say my first month there, I came from a company that was very formal. Right. Cause Navy Federal credit union. You’re talking to military folk and family and military. So it’s yes ma’am no ma’am yes sir, no, sir. And in sales it’s very relaxed, right? It’s like, Hey, be yourself. But you know, use the tools that you learn. So for me, I had to switch my mindset from that very formal setting into something that was more my personality outside of those four walls. Does that make sense?

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. Yeah. It makes complete sense. I mean, everyone is bad at the job when they start said you weren’t, there’s nothing different about you. No, one’s good at it. And anybody who says they’re good at it from right away, they’ve never done the job before. So, how did you get, how did you get better? Cause you got converted by your client eventually, so you did a good enough job that they said, Hey, I want to go work. I want him to come work for us, but what did you do?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. The expectations I have for myself with any job is pretty high. So, you know, when I saw my peers were having success, I want to know what they’re doing that I wasn’t doing. I had a guy that him and I got very close. Right. Eventually. Nelson Imade. Right. So Nelson, I went to lunch one day and he goes, listen, man, like I hear you, right? Like you’re not bad, but sometimes you speed up when you should slow down. And sometimes you can use the wrong tactics at the wrong time. Right. And I said, okay. So I listened to a couple of his calls. And then that kind of switched for me. Right. Just slowing down, asking open ended questions and doing things like that. So from there, I kind of want to see how good I can be. Right. So I’ll talk to all the other ballers in the office. And I said, okay, you’re good. What are you doing? And I just kind of take them to lunch. Right. Kind of pepper them up a little bit. And then steal from everybody that was doing really good.

Marc Gonyea:
Who else did anybody else pay it, pay a role in like your development? Was it just mostly you getting better on your own? I’m sure Nelson was kind of helping you.

Percy Darkwah:
No. So I mean, Nelson, obviously to me, he was so let me take a step back. Right. And in my opinion, and I don’t want to offend anybody, but when I got to memoryBlue that, I was a little older. Right. So

Marc Gonyea:
Were you a couple of years older, three or four years older?

Percy Darkwah:
I mean, you have some folks that are coming right out of college, right? I mean, you got recruited from all over Virginia, Maryland, DC, et cetera. So I probably had three years under my belt. So when I got, I think I was 25. Right. And, and my mindset was different. I was like, I’m going in here to use this as a stepping stone, no disrespect and then get to the next level. So when you look around, I think at the time we had like a keg in the office and people were, you know, going there and I’m like, I’m not doing any of that. I’m here to, you know, to get the job done. And, but eventually I loosen up. Right. You know, I’m not as scared, but eventually when I got good enough to say, I can go have a beer at 3:30 on a Friday night on Friday afternoon, I can still get my job done.

But to answer your question, I mean, it’s some folks that I was hanging out with a lot, you know, people like Justin Brown Matt, Bright was one, Christian Mory Clyde Kessler man. I mean that guy, him and I had the same account. I think it was moreover with the account that him and I had together. Right. And we will go to the client sites and Clyde would always give me like tips and tricks. And he took a liking to me and he didn’t do that with a lot of people. So if Clyde likes you, that means you’re doing something. Right. Right. Give me these little tips and tricks here. And, you know, I’m not sure what he’s doing today, but hopefully he listens to this to let them know that he made a big difference at my memoryBlue and in my sales career.

Marc Gonyea:
There’s a lot to be said for that at 25 you’re still like a ridiculously young man, so you weren’t that much, but you’re right. There’s a big difference from somebody who’s two or three years out of college or somebody who starts right out of school for us and for you to take that risk to come in and then the grind through it because the job is psychologically traumatizing, right. It’s not an easy profession, cold calling people.

Percy Darkwah:
I still have some mental scars to the day, by the way.

Marc Gonyea:
So a couple of things that’s not true. So the keg is long gone. So the keg left the office yeah. While ago there’s much respect to folks like you, who had kinda like, you know, what I’m going to come in and kind of restart my reignite my career. So how did things progress from that point or, and, or actually this is a Chris Corcoran golden special I would steal from him is what advice would you give for Percy Darkwah you know, the night before the first day of memoryBlue, knowing what you know now?

Percy Darkwah:
If you’re good enough, you’ll win. There’s a lot more things you can say in between there, but if you’re good enough, you win, right. The tunnel is there, right? And it’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s up to you, how long or short that tunnel is for me coming in and then understanding what the environment was going to be like. It’s very easy to look up at what other people are doing instead of looking inwards. So for me, it was, it was always going to be up to me how long that tunnel was going to be until I got to that light. Cause I could only control what you could control and no matter what clients I got, I try to do the best job I can writing a script, learning the tech and just using the techniques that we learned. When you first start to apply those, you know, to potentially get hired out.

Marc Gonyea:
Got it. Okay. So, you’re with memoryBlue, your junior thing, and we’ll fast forward to this because you got a lot of stuff to talk about you were at MarkLogic.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. So se MarkLogic is obviously was my last client very good client of mine. They really took a liking to me, right. So, it’s a no SQL database. Right. So they compete with companies like Mongo and you know, and other cloud database providers, right. I mean, in today’s market, there’s a ton of them. So I believe I was in the account for about three or four months. And then they approached me and said, Hey, would you want to come work for us? Right. So I had to figure out, well, how do I tell them? I go, Chris, how do I negotiate a good, you know, out package for me and all of that. Eventually, you know, we came to an agreement where everybody was kind of happy with the numbers, right. And then I went to go work for them for about a year. And then they had a round a layoff cause they’re still a private company. So I was one of the I was one of the people on the chopping block when they had those layouts. Right. So you can imagine I’m on this high from getting hired out to then getting laid off a year later after I do that.

Marc Gonyea:
When did you kind of decide as you’re on this journey that I want to stay in sales? Was it from talking to Rob and Eddie because you’re memoryBlue, you’re making these cold calls. You saw the light or at some point you got put on MarkLogic and they obviously were attracted to your skillset and your work ethic and those things, but did you decide at any certain point? Okay. And you know, the switch flick to a quote, your, Canadian hip hop, Toronto Raptors, mogul Drake up there, or are you, you just, did you always knew you wanted to stick to it. Like, did you always want to get enterprise sales cause you do it now? Right?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. So there was a point right shortly after MarkLogic that I had some tough conversations, right? So after MarkLogic happened I went to work for a company called zoom data at Tyson’s corner. Right. So the plan was to get there beyond the inside, be the first inside/BDR, and then get promoted into a quota carrying role. And guess what? That didn’t happen either. I get whacked again. Right? So after the second time that I got let go in two years, I’m having conversations with my brother, with Rob, who, you know, with my inner circle.

And they all asked me the same thing, man, like, Hey, are you made for this? Like, are you good at sales? Like you, like, you’re telling everybody you are right. And sometimes you have to have this singular focus and no matter how many people, even the people that you trust are telling you, Hey man, you might want to make a career change. You have to believe in yourself. That you’re good enough to keep going. And I told them, I looked my brother and I, and I said, I’m good enough to do this. I’m not switching careers. And then I left for Dallas and the rest is history.

Marc Gonyea:
And what, what was it about? Cause we talked about this a little when we were doing some prep, like, and I’ve heard this from other people who’ve got some tenure in their career, don’t expect your career to be linear. That was a quote. Tell me what that means to you and how you relate that to kind of your career.

Percy Darkwah:
Well, to me, sales is like sports. It’s like life it’s never linear. I mean, you show me one person that their life has gone from, you know, step one and step two and everything is just roses. You know, I’ll show you a liar, right. Because it’s just not true. Is this not true? So for me, when I say that sales isn’t linear it means that you’re going to have some bumps in the road, right? It might happen to you. Like it happened to me. You might get laid off because the company just didn’t perform and they have to make a round of, you just have to let people go. It happens. Right. But if you’re doing the right things and you’re being honest with yourself, right?

I mean, that’s the caveat. You have to be honest with yourself. Am I doing the right? Do I have the right habits to excel in this profession? Or am I just kind of BSing myself? I have to think of that. I’m better than I am, et cetera, et cetera. So for me, it’s never going to be linear. I’m still going to take bumps and bruises as I go along, I’m an enterprise sales now and I’m still learning, right? So if something bad happens is how you react to it is going to determine the rest of your sales career.

Marc Gonyea:
So you moved to Dallas, walk us through your career from that point. So, Hey, I’m going to Dallas, I’m going to some, stick it in high tech sales, even with the same company since you’ve been there and you’ve moved internationally and you can tell anyone who looks at your LinkedIn profile, you’ve just kind of slowly was working your way, diligence up the food chain.

Percy Darkwah:
So just to kind of continue on the story I was telling earlier. So I get fired from zoom data and a guy that I was working with. He was enterprise rep I was his BDR out in New York. Another guy that helped me out too, like Clyde I’ll never forget him, Chris Franks. Right? So, so Chris left zoom data maybe two months before I got let go. And Chris calls me up out of the blue. This was probably two days after it happened. He goes, Hey man, how you doing? And I’m like, ah, kind of looking for a job right now. And he starts laughing. Like he burst out laughing and I’m like, I don’t have a job. Like what’s so funny. He goes, this is actually the reason I was calling you.

And it was so serendipitous how we used to work together. And then he’s calling me for job opportunity. He goes, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re looking for a good, cause I got something for you. The only caveat is you’re going to have to move to Dallas. I said, okay, I’m listening. So he got me hooked up with the hiring manager. I go through a couple of rounds of interviews. And then yeah, and I moved to Dallas, right? Once again, betting on yourself. I sold everything I owned in a matter of like two weeks back the pack, one suitcase and got on a one way plane, I’ve got a one way ticket to Dallas.

So I, again, I started as a BDR, so this is my third stint as a BDR. And if you know the industry, right? Some people think once you’re in that role for a while, you kind of get labeled as the inside guy. You’re not good enough. Right. But they don’t understand that context behind why that is or they don’t want to hear it. So I went to Dallas, kept my head down, you know, had the vision of, Hey, listen, I’m going to have to eat s*** for the next, I don’t know, year or 18 months, but that’s okay. And lo and behold, nine months later, I get tapped on the shoulder. It was like, Hey, are you ready to carry a bag? And that’s probably one of the happiest, happiest moments of my life.

Marc Gonyea:
Tell us about that. Why? I think I know why, but I want to hear, because that is a, that is a big f****** deal. It’s a big deal.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah, Marc. So, I mean, the thing is like, for me, how I got there was so knee capping man. Cause at every step, when I thought I was making that next jump, I got knee capped over and over again. And people were telling me the right things. I was, I knew I was doing the right things. So what happened at zoom data? Right. And I don’t want to get into it too much, but what happened to me just it almost broke me a little bit because I was the top performer. And then you get, let go for whatever reason. Right. So I didn’t know how to process that. And then when I joined AppDynamics, the hiring manager and I got really close, I told him, I said, listen, I’m going to have a lot of opinions.

Not because, you know, I don’t want to work for the company, but if I think we could do something better, I’m going to give you my opinion. And some managers, especially when you imagine a group of young BDRs, you don’t know how to take that. They kind of see it as a threat. So he looked at me, he goes, no man, like we want that. We want to foster people like you, that have ideas. Right. They know, but they might not all be good, but we’re at least gonna listen to you. So when I heard him say that it made me even want to work harder for him. And nine months later, cause usually it takes about a year to get ramped up when you go join a company. But you know, it didn’t take me that long to figure it out.

Marc Gonyea:
So, you got put into a well-deserved closing role. What was the biggest thing you had to learn from transitioning from that BDR position? And you had mastered that obviously. So, okay. Now I’m going to responsible for closing work. What’s a skill or mostly you had to develop that you hadn’t previously worked on?

Percy Darkwah:
I say that the biggest skill gap I had was how to ask the right questions at the right time. How to ask open ended question doing your homework before you, you know, you get to the game. It’s like sometimes when you’re in a BDR role just want to set the meeting and just, you know, Hey, my job is done. But when you’re closing, you have to take all the information that you gathered while set up the meeting. And then how do you use that information to really discover, okay, why is this important to you? Right? What is the future state that you guys want to have? It was, it was being curious, right? The most cause as a BDR, I wasn’t very curious. I was like, okay, you have a pain. I think we can solve this, set up a meeting with somebody else. And then he’s going to take it from there. But you know, when you’re closing, you have to be really curious and to really figure out like what’s important to them and why the solution that you’re presenting is going to impact your business.

Marc Gonyea:
What was it like when you closed your first deal?

Percy Darkwah:
It wasn’t a big deal. So I, you know, I’m not going to be hyperbolic and say it was the greatest day ever. I mean, it was very transactional, right. I think it was about four weeks sales cycle. Right. We know we get in there, we discounted the hell out of it and got the hell out, you know, got out of there. So, it wasn’t anything mind blowing. But it felt good because it kind of proves that, Hey, you know, I can do this type of thing. Right. So you take that and then you build on what are some of the things that you could have done better. But yeah, it was definitely a good day.

Chris Corcoran:
You were a BDR. Was the company headquartered in Dallas?

Percy Darkwah:
No. San Fran.

Chris Corcoran:
So West coast based company, but they have a big team of their BDR team was in Dallas?

Percy Darkwah:
Yes. The inside reps, BDRs were in Dallas.

Chris Corcoran:
Okay. And then you got tapped and elevated to carry a bag. What was your patch? Was it the Texas area or is that when you moved up to Toronto, or walk me through your initial territory?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. So my initial territory was Boston and Eastern Canada. So you had to use the same skillset that I learned early on in my career. Calling in a different time zone, you know, figuring out what times to call what times not to call. And even when I called up in Toronto, right. You have to learn the different cultural nuances. Right. Because Canadians don’t really like to be pushed, right. Like for folks in Boston. So I had to like turn my brain on and off when you’re calling the Northeast where people are aggressive. So when you’re calling Canadians, when you’re a little bit like, Hey, relax, you know, you know, stuff like that. So it was good for me because you just have to learn how to, how to match people’s personalities and people’s intensity.

Chris Corcoran:
What is your favorite sales technique? That’s actually worked.

Percy Darkwah:
Silence. We’re natural talkers, right? We like to talk and show people how good we are at the gift of the gab. And I had to learn this later on at memoryBlue. It’s probably like my last month there. And you know, we had something called I don’t know. We’d call it skid row a quota carrying row with me, Ben Decowski, Nelson Imade, Justin, Julian Sweat. Oh, and Frank Barile. I mean, we had a bunch of killers, so, you know, it’s like when you’re talking and you’re hearing people on the phones and then the constant feedback was, Hey man, just ask the question, be silent and see what happens. Right. So I took that to heart and I still use it today. Silence is gold.

Marc Gonyea:
That’s great. So did you learn that in that role or did you learn that previously? Cause I still haven’t learned that and this is so powerful. I need to work on that.

Percy Darkwah:
I learned that at memoryBlue, but I use it more effectively as a closer, as a quota carrying account exec.

Marc Gonyea:
Well, Chris, what is it? He who speaks first loses? Is that, is that what it is? I mean, that’s a good one right? When you’re on the phone with a prospect, you’re rolling something out and you’re talking there, maybe you’re negotiating with someone, be it someone you work prospect or somebody you work with or whomever. And it’s that silence for, particularly for salespeople, it kind of makes them a little bit awkward and some people feel like you have to say something and even with SDRs, you hear it now. And it’s like, just be quiet and let it play. It’s hard. It’s a skill. That’s a great, that’s a great answer to that question.

Chris Corcoran:
So Percy, you talked about your first deal and how it wasn’t very memorable. What is the most memorable deal that you’ve had win or lose the most memorable?

Percy Darkwah:
Well, I, as an athlete, you remember the ones that you lost more than you win. But for this response, so I am going to share a win because we had to get creative you know, on the two yard line. So company based out of Kitchener, Ontario, I’m in Dallas. Right. So, so remember, you know, even as a commercial rep, I’m not in the field, I’m not in Canada. So I can’t go see these guys as much as I want to. So I was still come visit them right. Every other month or so. And we almost have a deal like we’re there. So I’m calling this guy at the end of our quarter. You know, I’m saying, Hey man, like, you know, the coach ready? You know, just give me a timeline when you can sign it. When can, we expect the PO and he’s not responding. This guy just went completely dark. And I remembered his favorite place to go eat. Every time I’ll come up to Kitchener to see him, you always take us to this burger joint orders the same f****** thing.

I told my manager, I said, Hey, I think I have something that’s going to work. And this is like the last day of the quarter. Right. And he knows, so this guy’s trying to, he’s trying to apply the pressure on us. And I knew he was doing it right. So I said, okay, I think I might have the thing to get us over the hump. So I called that restaurant and I said, I want to order this meal. Do you guys know this guy? Oh yeah he comes in all the time. I’m like, I know he does thing, right? They say, well, we can’t deliver, like, we’re a restaurant. We don’t, we don’t deliver. I said, listen, I’ll give you a hundred bucks USD. If you walk it across the street, his office right now, the guy said, okay, I tipped him. He calls me literally 15 minutes late. He goes, nice, touch the PO is on the way. Had to do it, had to do it. And to this day, him and I still laugh about that because he goes, I was waiting to see when you’re going to crack and what you’re going to do. And he goes, it worked.

Marc Gonyea:
So you’ve had some really interesting jobs to some interesting companies in the startup world. Right. And you said, obviously settled at AppDynamics, but what do you think is more important along the way? What does people keep in mind? Is it, do you want to have a great company and an okay boss, is it a okay company and a great boss. Is it both like, what do you look for? Cause you, you know, you worked at memoryBlue, you worked at MarkLogic, you had the cup of coffee at Zoom, and now you’ve found your place. So what are you looking for culturally in a company? What do you think people should be looking for? Technology or culture or is it something else?

Percy Darkwah:
There are plenty of great companies out there. I mean, as you guys know you know, being the outsource inside sales company that you run, right? So you see all these great companies come through. There are very few good people that, that you, that you work with and, and work for. What I look for the most, what I tell people that want to get into sales is find somebody that you trust that, you know, have your back no matter what. Right? So to me, the answer, it’s always going to be a good frontline manager.

Marc Gonyea:
Well, what makes them good though?

Percy Darkwah:
Are they open to feedback? Are they willing to get in the trenches with you when things get tough? Are they open to falling on the sword when they know it’s on them and not on you? And even at some times when it is on you, are they willing to kind of give you that air cover that you need for you to gain that confidence and keep that confidence for you to keep doing your job day in and day out.

Marc Gonyea:
And how do people find those things out, you think before they go to work for someone? How do you know?

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. So usually I have a good idea because of the type of questions that I ask during an interview, it’s always going to be a time when they go, do you have any questions for me? Right. And I go, Oh, well, let me tell you. Right. You know, so I always have a few questions that I think is important to not only get the character of the person, but also just get to learn. Can they help you develop? Right. And I know that’s the last thing I left out. Are they good at developing their players? So I mean, I always ask them, like, you know, just tell me about your weakest link on the team. Tell me about the best person on your team. Right. And the way the answer is going to give you a lot of insights as to who they are and how they can help you get to the next level of your career.

Marc Gonyea:
It’s good. Cause a lot of people will do that and say, I know you’ve answered all my questions. Some people might not be comfortable asking those questions, but that tells a lot about their style of manager. Right.

Percy Darkwah:
They’re nervous. Right. I mean, especially for the person that’s getting interviewed, they just want to get the hell out of dodge when it’s over. Right. Especially if they think they smashed it, like, okay, I’ve done everything. I don’t want to say anything. Anything’s that’s going to potentially ruin me getting the job. Right. So, but what they don’t think about is at least for me, what I used to not think about is this as much as they’re interviewing me, I’m interviewing them. Right. And especially if you’re good, like I said earlier, you’re going to win. So if you’re good, they want you, and a lot of hiring managers respect the folks that ask tough questions during the interview process. Because when you’re in the call with the prospect, if you can ask those tough questions, you probably don’t have what it takes to, you know, to cut it.

Marc Gonyea:
Yeah. How you interview is probably how you sell or certainly a reflection on how you sell so well, what type of person would you want to work for the person who can answer or ask the good questions are the ones who kind of ignore them and are uncomfortable with them or are they sort of, I think that’s very telling how someone answers that question in that, may be a tip off, it might not be a manager you want to work for. What about from a company perspective? So you talked about the manager. What do you think folks should be looking for in a company?

Percy Darkwah:
What I look for in an company is, you know, especially at a software company, all right. I’m not as in love with, startups as I used to be right before, it’s like, Hey, go chase that unicorn. But then when you get to a certain level, that’s not as appealing. Right? So for me, what I look for now is did it have a solid balance sheet? Like, do they sell right? Who works there? If I go on their LinkedIn, do they have a bunch of bad-a** players working there? Right?

Cause some companies only hire C and B players. Right? You don’t want to go, you don’t go work for them. So who works there are they crushing a quarter over quarter, year over year? Are they, are they growing? And what is the future roadmap for their product? Right? Because especially for a company that I work with today, every time we have an all hands there’s, Hey, this is what we’re going to do. So we can keep the gap between us and the competition. Right. They’re never rested on their laurels. Right. So, you know, that’s a sign that’s going to either tell me, do I want to stay here? Or is it time for me to make a move?

Marc Gonyea:
Talk about Canada. So people are afraid to move early in their career. Particularly we’ve got the five offices now in the company. And a lot of the folks like, you know, you got the DC, this is a great place to live, you know, hate it or love it. It’s not a bad place. So let’s put it that way. But a lot of people don’t want to leave. And like you took the risk to move to Dallas, paid off, you know, now you moved North. So walk us through, I think you talked a little bit about why you moved to Dallas. What, so what’s your philosophy on like the risk people should take in their career, move into a new city? I don’t know if you know anyone in Toronto or not, but like what’s your perspective on it?

Percy Darkwah:
I think if anybody’s having second doubts about moving to quote, unquote, chase your dreams, they should do it. The worst thing that can happen is you come back home and find another s***** job that you had.

Marc Gonyea:
That’s the worst thing that can happen. Right? I agree. I agree.

Percy Darkwah:
When you bet on yourself and you learn so much about yourself, right? When you go to another state, another city and you don’t really know anyone it’s not comfortable and either you make it or you don’t that satisfaction of when you actually get over that hump, it’s nothing like I’ve ever felt before. Like, Dallas scared the s*** out of me going there. I told him, I said, I didn’t want to go. I only knew one person that was in Dallas. And when I got there, it blew me away because of what I thought Dallas or Texas was versus what, you know, it ended up being was two different things. So after that, man, I was so gung ho to take on new opportunities if it was the right opportunity, right. Once you assessed the risk reward, if it makes sense. And is the only thing you’re worried about, is this a travel or is this a new location? Do it life’s too short not to.

Marc Gonyea:
I agree. I agree with you. And then what about moving to Toronto? So you had settled a little bit in Dallas. Yeah. Boom. Next thing I know. So talk to us about that.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. But the Toronto decision came two and a half, almost three years after I got the Dallas. Right. And this is why, you know, I’m doing very well in Dallas. I’m getting comfortable. I’m meeting friends, you know, like I’m doing my thing. So I get approached from the hiring manager in Eastern Canada. He said, listen, man, like, we really like you, we’re going to take a chance on you. If you want to move up to Toronto and you got to look at it from my lens, right. When you’re getting settled, you’re single. You’re like, okay, this, I could see myself just like settling down here. And the Dallas Cowboys are there. Like everything, everything lined up for me. But once again, I spoke to my trusted people that I trust Ryan, my brother, Rob, who you guys know. And funny enough, we’re actually in Las Vegas for Rob’s bachelor party. And that’s what I said. I said, Hey guys, like, I’m just going to take a poll right now. And I just went around the room and said, should I move to Toronto? And everybody said, yes. And you know, three months later I was in another one way plane headed into a foreign land.

Chris Corcoran:
Hey Percy. So are you fluent in French or do you ever have to speak French to any of your clients or prospects?

Percy Darkwah:
No. So the great thing about Toronto it is very much like Chicago and New York, right? It’s a financial hub and it’s predominantly English speaking right now. If you get up to the Northeast, like Montreal, Quebec area, you know, they’re not going to do business with you unless you speak French. You know, that’s just the way it is. So for me, no, don’t have to worry about that, but I do want to learn French someday.

Marc Gonyea:
So was it a new role too, when you moved to a foreign land, into a new position?

Percy Darkwah:
A different job, right? So I was always supporting the Eastern Canada region. So when I took on my first role, you know, carrying the bag, I had New England and then I had Eastern Canada and then I got to the next level, which is a territory rep. So, so how I worked at the company I am now is, you know, there’s essentially just, there’s three tiers of carrying a bag there’s commercial territory enterprise. Right. So when you’re commercial, you’re supporting a territory remotely when you’re a territory, you kind of travel more to that region. But when you’re enterprise you’re living in that territory. Right. So when I said yes to an enterprise job, I knew I’ll have to move. I couldn’t support the region from here because you’re just dealing with massive companies, right? The biggest banks, the biggest retailers, all that here. So you have to go see them, you have to touch, feel the accounts and you know, and just be on site all the time.

Marc Gonyea:
And what’s that job been like, has that been learning a new muscle to being on site all the time versus being in Dallas, we’re going remote and maybe go in sometimes, but not as often.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. You know, I think there’s something to say about selling remotely. It takes a different set of skill to be able to convince somebody to write you a check over the phone when you’re doing an in person and when you’re running kind of a multilayered multi-lines of business deal, you have to be on site. Right. And just mapping out the players who has influence who doesn’t that that’s a new muscle, right. That a new muscle that I had to learn, because, you know, when you’re dealing with these companies that somebody had to stake their name on the previous solution they’re using, right.

So, you have to understand the political dynamics within the company. And then you have to go in and then sometimes convince a potential enemy to become an ally. Right. Like that’s very tough. So that’s one of the things that I learned the most. And it’s paying off a lot for me to do because when I go into an account, I’m thinking, okay, let’s identify these folks, ally, potential enemy, enemy, and then you just have to figure it out from there.

Chris Corcoran:
So you’re bringing up an interesting point, being the criticality of being onsite with your clients, how has that changed for you with COVID?

Percy Darkwah:
Oh man. Well, we’re handling it better up North than Benny hooligans down South, but no one is no one is still taking me, you know, in person, by the way. This is a quick story. I had a client that I was, I was doing business with. Right. And we’re at the goal line, but when COVID hit, right? So their business is very similar to Madison Square Garden. They get money from when people coming in to run the sports and et cetera, that that whole thing went to the wayside it died. They said, listen, we can’t spend your money. We have no revenue coming in and we can’t spend any more money. So then you just have to change the way that you prospect, right.

And, and you have to do it with empathy. You have to do it with, Hey, this is where you guys are going. Right. It’s on your TennCare. It’s on your revenue reports. It’s okay. This is how we fit into that. Yeah. You have to come to them with this more than, you know, Hey, we can do this feature functionality type of conversation. So for me how I’ve changed prospecting is just being very empathetic. Right. And just ask them questions. Is this the right time for us to talk? You know, if they say, no, I said, well, based on my research and where you guys are looking to go, I think it makes sense for us to talk now.

Marc Gonyea:
You’ve been challenged in these roles, obviously, because it sounds like they’re mature enough company that you need to move up you know, get more credibility, be more challenged, professionally, probably make some more money. And these are all really key skills that you want to learn as a professional salesperson. What are some other things that you do to keep your skills improving? Keep them sharp.

Percy Darkwah:
I read a lot now. Honestly I read a lot of not just sales books, just nonfiction. You know, recently I read Winston Churchill and just to figure out how these leaders like negotiate through tough times. Right. Because sales is very hard. And sometimes when you, even, when you think you have a deal done, negotiation makes, you know, people that you’re friends with. You kind of look at him like, Hey, you know, were we really friends or were you just BSing me the whole time? So I’m always trying to get better at the psychological aspect of the game. Because especially when I look back on early on kind of my charm and like, you know, you know, people just wanting to do business with me got me a long way, but then when you’re playing with these, you know, big companies, they don’t care. They don’t care about that. Right. You know? So when, when it came to negotiations I struggled early on. And then until I understood like psychologically, what is in it for them, what is in it for them. And then when you can piece those things together, you become very dangerous.

Marc Gonyea:
Go into that a little bit more. So you said at the bigger companies, they don’t care about. I mean, I think they care about it a little bit, but it’s not as important, like the charisma and then the personal connection, or maybe that’s as important, but what are you talking? Are you saying like how it impacts your business or how impacts them personally and professionally? Like, what did you realize? Oh, this is like a different league here. Like the games played at a higher pace or is it what’s different about it?

Percy Darkwah:
It is both at a, at a higher, a faster pace and slower at the same time, you can’t be in a rush to fail. Right. So when I say psychologically, you’re dealing with so many factors, right. You’re dealing with, like I mentioned earlier, political factors that you’re dealing with budgetary constraints that a company has. Right. If they’re going to move off their current solution to go do business with somebody new that they have to vet you out. So for me, I want to identify, okay, who are the decision makers and what is in it for them personally and also professionally, right? Does it mean a promotion? Does it mean if they don’t do this, they potentially get fired. I have to lose people on your team, et cetera. So there’s always that this is a matrix that I have. Right. And I draw a big triangle, I’m sorry, a big rectangle. And I cut it in half personally, professionally. And I just list those things out. And as you’re going through your sales cycle, you just ask them, you take them out for beer, you do whatever and say, Hey man, like, you know, just talk to me, like, if this doesn’t happen, what happens to you? Right. This humanizing that, and especially over a drink, people will open up and it will tell you all kinds of stuff. They say, man, listen, I’m under a lot of pressure. Whatever they tell you, Hey, make sure that it doesn’t get outside of that conversation. And then you can use that to really make sure that, you know, they become a, you know, a star within that company.

Marc Gonyea:
What have you seen since you left memoryBlue, you’ve been around you obviously, I’ve got a close to circle of folks that you consult with. The also sounds like you’re still kind of aware or you stay in touch with some of the people you worked at with memoryBlue. What are some mistakes you see folks make in their career along the way?

Percy Darkwah:
Oh man, this is tough, man. So, I mean, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve heard other guys answer this same question on your podcast. Right? Like I said, I’ve been watching film. So for me, that’s hard because everybody makes that decision that they believe is the best decision for them in that moment. Right. So I can’t say that’s a mistake because they want to get, you know, they want to get a ticket out of memoryBlue and some people are more patient with it. So I’m not going to say that. Yeah. There’s a biggest mistake that people make when they leave memoryBlue. Right now, all I’m going to say is when you’re at memoryBlue, you have to get out of it, what you want out of it. And what I wanted out of it was to become a better sales professional. Right. And I didn’t want to leave to the next level until I thought I was ready to leave for that next level. So like when I got my swagger and I kind of knew I was a bada** and I was ready and when MarkLogic came by, I was like, yeah, let’s do it. You know? Like, so for me, it’s hard. It’s hard for me to say that people make mistakes because they’re making the best decision for themselves in that moment.

Marc Gonyea:
Would you apply that to post memoryBlue? When you see people like maybe you’re working with some folks there and somebody leaves your company to go someplace else and you’re kind of like, Hm, that’s an interesting decision. Or like, do you see folks chase startups still? Cause you kind of said earlier that I’m not as in love with startups, as much as I used to, like you think other people fall in love with them too easily are still the same.

Percy Darkwah:
I mean, at the end of the day, we’re all wired kind of similar in sales, right? Comp, drives behavior, money drives behavior. So when I see people leave for certain companies into two things, right, there were three things they weren’t performing they hated their boss or their boss, hated them, or they’re chasing the dollars. Right. So, you know, if somebody chased the dollars and then a year later, I see on their LinkedIn, they’re at a different company. That wasn’t a good decision in my opinion. Right. So, you know, once again, it’s the grass, isn’t always greener. Okay. Cause you can imagine, right. When you get to a certain level of the enterprise rep, you get all kinds of solicitations, LinkedIn, whatever, Hey, we want you to come work here. And a lot of people say, yeah, you know, I’ll take it because the OT or whatever package that gets put in front of them is better than what they currently have. And that’s good enough, you know, for me, I weigh everything, right? What is the territory going to be like? Am I going to be set up for success is the person that I’m working with. You’re going to help me develop and get to the next level of, of my career. Right? And if, if those combinations of those things, if the negatives outweigh the positives, I’m not going, I don’t care how much money you put in front of me. I’m not going.

Marc Gonyea:
That’s well thought out because I will tell you, based upon how long you’ve been there, you’ve been there working up the ladder. Most people are in their position at your stage of their career. And that’s the tricky thing was sales, I mean, next thing you know, in sales, if you look up, you could be a journeymen in sales. And sometimes that’s the scary part about it. They’ll get someone’s LinkedIn profile. And in five years they’ve had seven jobs or in seven jobs, they’ve had five years, they had seven jobs values. It gets a little bit, it could be hazardous. So you’ve gotta be very thoughtful with where you go. It’s easier for me to say that, right? Cause I’m not doing, I’m not in that game anymore, but I think it’s great. You’ve been there for as long as you’ve been. And, I think it’s good for people to hear that. Cause the grasp people tend to think the grass is green or not. And not always is.

Percy Darkwah:
Well, it’s the easiest of the two options, right? It’s the easiest path at least initially. Right? Because when you say we’re going to give you more money and we’re going to potentially give you a, you know, some shares of some stock in the company, that’s hard to turn down. Right. I mean, that’s really hard to turn down. So, you know, I, don’t fault people. I just think that not everybody does your due diligence before signing on the dotted line. And I had learned that too. Right? I’m not sitting here. I have it all figured out, but I’ve learned some things that I try to pass it on down to people that are coming on mistake don’t make the same mistakes I made. Right. Because somebody did it for me.

Marc Gonyea:
This is your interview question if you could put somebody on Mount Rushmore, one person past present, dead or alive. Who would you put on there?

Percy Darkwah:
Well, I mean, I kinda think that’s still a cheesy question. Cause there’s so many people.

Marc Gonyea:
It is, it’s a terribly cheesy question. So that’s why I like it.

Percy Darkwah:
Yeah. But it kind of exposes the person that’s answering it.

Marc Gonyea:
I asked you when you interviewed, I wish I knew what the answer was.

Percy Darkwah:
I’ve already said something dumb, like Jay Z or something.

Marc Gonyea:
What about your mom?

Percy Darkwah:
You come up with a better answer than I could have. You know, but, but to me I’m thinking impact on the human race, right? To me that’s who it should be up there when it talks about Mount Rushmore, like I’m thinking Truman, right. What he did for what we know as the modern Western civilization, he doesn’t get enough credit. Right. So like I said, I’m reading a lot of books and you’ll read about all these leaders in the past, like Churchill, you know, Theodore, like all these past presidents that have made Western civilization, what it is today. It’s unbelievable.

Chris Corcoran:
Hey, so Percy, I’m hearing, your story and witnessing it for, for your time when you were at memoryBlue, what I’m taking from you and it’s important. I think it’s probably your greatest skill or certainly one of them is just your refusal to quit. I mean, you went through a rough patch and I would say many, if not, most people would have said, you know what, I’m going to go do something else. There’s easier ways to make a living. My friends and family are saying, Hey, do something else. But you said, no. It was like unshakeable confidence in yourself. And I’m going to pick up and I’m going to go to Dallas and I’m going to make it happen. It’s hard to beat a man who doesn’t quit first. And I think it’s that skill and that perseverance, that’s going to lead you to the heights that you’re going to go.

Percy Darkwah:
That’s good. Right? Like I said earlier, if you’re good enough, you win. More of us need to take calculated risk to go get what we want. Cause the thing, I always look back on it and I talked to all these, you know, younger guys and women that say, Oh, I want to do this. Right. And I said, well, what are you willing to sacrifice to go do that? Right? Are you willing to sacrifice leaving your family, leaving your friends, moving somewhere new. Right. Are we really willing to sacrifice like potentially your kids having to go to a different school? So, so yeah, you know, for me, I always live by the mantra. If you’re good enough, you win.

You just have to go give yourself enough at bats to go hit that ball out of the park, man. I mean, it might sound cheesy, but it’s, you know, I’m not opposed to taking on taking on risk. And quite frankly, it’s fun. It’s fun to go travel the world. It’s fun to go see different parts of the country. You just learn so much about yourself and you grow so much as a person that, you know, when I look back on my 33 years in what, seven years in sales or whatever it is, man, light years, light years from where I was to where I am now. And I’m just so happy that I started out at where I did and let’s not forget my time at memoryBlue wasn’t all roses. Right. If you remember me and JB started out the search program, right. P So I got, I did some good things and I got fired from memoryBlue. Right? So once the search came back to, you know, to the regular day in and day job, right. But even then I knew I was good enough. Right. And I said, okay, let’s stick with it. I could have quit then. But I didn’t. So, you know, that’s say for anybody, that’s listening, stick with it, do the right things. And trust me, it’s going, gonna work out.

Marc Gonyea:
The only reason why you got put in that role, because you were doing a really good job, we said, let’s get Percy more. There’s a whole staff of company who, in that recruiting, wasn’t for Percy. Percy’s crushing enterprise technology sales. Right? You have to try it. You have to try things before, you know what you’re going to be good at or not. Right. So it’s not like you weren’t doing a good job. You did such a good job. We said, Hey, why don’t we identify this guy? All these other people are there. That’s how it works. You know?

Percy Darkwah:
So all jokes aside. I f****** loved that job. Like me and JB, trying to figure out how are we going to make this thing work? What’s like the best. It was the most memoryBlue. I felt every day we came in, we were like on the headsets training trying to figure this stuff out. But you’re right though, Marc recruiting wasn’t for me. Right. I’m more talented at selling, but I had a taste, those different things before, you know, I knew what wasn’t, what was not for me. So yeah, no, a hundred percent agree with that.

Marc Gonyea:
It’s painfully aware. You know, when you talk about things that don’t work out in life, nobody likes talking about them, but what’s beauty of it. I think with you and with most people, the most people do well. They will take the risks Percy. Most people will take the risks. They want to play it safe. You know, am I playing to win where I’m playing not to lose. And a guy who’s moving to Texas moving to Toronto, you’re playing to win, and you learn those things, and everybody cannot take risks and not have it all be. You might go through some of the pain. And what I respect is that it obviously has developed within you a level of self-awareness as to how to be good at this job. What I’m good at? What I’m not good at, you know, decisions that I need to make. And I think it would be helpful if we all had higher degrees of self-awareness. So we all went through some things that didn’t work out. Like you said you know, perfectly. So thanks for sharing that. They should be an honest and open about it because you know, we wanted you on the podcast and I saw on LinkedIn that you wanted to do it. I said this, let’s go, let’s get Percy on here.

Chris Corcoran:
I’ll meet you at the rim.

Percy Darkwah:
The old Corcoran-isms. I don’t know if you remember, but you said tell me and some other guys all the time. It’s like, you got to get them all lathered up man.

Chris Corcoran:
I love it. I love it. I still say that all the time.

Percy Darkwah:
I bet you do.

Marc Gonyea:
I think you need to take one of the Corcoran-isms and start deploying that in your day to day life there in Canada.

Percy Darkwah:
So yeah, of course guys, listen, thanks for having me. This was a pleasure to do anything I could do to help you guys out, man. You know I’ll always want to pay respects to where I got started.

Chris Corcoran:
There you go. Likewise, Percy.

Marc Gonyea:
I’ll come track you down in Toronto if I ever get up there.