Episode 121: Kendrick Trotter – Us In Technology

Success in sales is attainable to anyone willing to work hard and work consistently day in and day out. While underrepresentation and prejudice can be major stumbling blocks, Kendrick Trotter is an excellent representation of how they don’t have to be an entire roadblock.

In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Kendrick, now the CEO of Us in Technology describes his journey through sales, explains how he’s achieved success while being a member of a minority group, and unpacks how his company helps underrepresented ethnicities find a job.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Kendrick Trotter

💡 What he does: Kendrick is the CEO of Us in Technology.

💡 Company: Us in Technology

💡 Noteworthy: At just 27, Kendrick is the founder and CEO of Us in Technology (UIT), a virtual community, job placement, mentoring, and training platform aimed at bridging the gap between hiring companies and qualified underrepresented talent. Before launching UIT in 2019, Trotter was an award-winning sales manager operating primarily within cybersecurity. In 2017, while moonlighting as an Uber driver, Kendrick picked up a successful tech executive, and the pair struck up a conversation about his career that would not only change his professional trajectory but his life mission: to give others the same opportunities he’d been given to succeed in one of the world’s most lucrative career fields.

💡 Where to find Kendrick: LinkedIn l Website

Key Insights

⚡ Being different gives things value. Kendrick started working at memoryBlue as an SDR with no previous experience, and that time was very difficult for him. It was only after three months that he started having success, and as he says, being African-American helped him. “Being an African-American in a space, it’s actually rare. And that rarity, scarcity, gives things value from the dip; it is actually what made me special because I was so different. So, when I called on the phones, I wasn’t trying to be the super technical person; I was the social person. I was calling for a cybersecurity client, and I’d be like, ‘Hey, what are you using for your email defense?’ And they’re like, ‘You sound like a hacker,’ and they would hang up on me. And so my goal ended up becoming, ‘I want these people to feel like I’m not trying to trick them.’ Like, if they take a meeting or not, they’re going to feel like — when they hang up the phone — ‘That guy was pretty cool.’ And I leaned into that — that I was just a pretty cool guy.” 

⚡ At the beginning of your career, it is important to be in the office. While remote work is a better option for many people than working in an office, it has its drawbacks. According to Kendrick, it is very important to be in the office when you start your career because you will be able to learn faster and better, but you will also create important relationships, support, and trust. “Being in an office, being in that environment, it’s everything that shaped me. Every job I took after that allowed me to connect with great mentors and good coaches and build relationships with different influencers in a business.”

⚡ Sales it’s not selling; it’s listening. Many people have the wrong assumption about sales and think that you have to be a huge extrovert and that you’ll have to lie and trick people to be successful at sales. Kendrick notes that sales is the opposite; it is consulting more than selling. “I was actually a naturally good listener. And I can ask a good question. Most people listen and respond; few people listen and understand. And people are going to judge your intelligence, not based on your responses, but based on the questions that you asked.”

Episode Highlights

Through Sports to College and Building a Career

“I was a four- or five-sport athlete in high school. I did wrestling; I did baseball; I did basketball; I did football; I did track varsity — lettered in all of them except basketball. And I quickly realized if I wanted a different lifestyle for myself, it would have to be through sports because my family wasn’t in a position to send me off to college. So once I realized that — I actually started SDR work, and I didn’t realize it — I started emailing coaches, a hundred coaches a day, sending my highlight tape, sending an introduction email, and that led to me being the second athlete in history to get a full-ride football scholarship because of me outbound prospecting. So that led to me negotiating my first deal where the coach was like, ‘Hey, we can give you this partial scholarship,’ and my mentor told me, ‘Kendrick, don’t take it. Go where your mom’s not going to have to pay anything.’ And it was my dream college at the time; it was Humboldt State. And I told the coach like, ‘Hey coach, my goal is I don’t want my mom to pay anything, and if that means me having to go to school in Nebraska, instead, that’s what I’m going to do.’ And he said, ‘Okay, Kendrick, I wish the best for you.’ And two days later, he called. He said, ‘Hey, we found the money.’ And so I signed my scholarship to Humboldt State, which was really cool because we were a top division two football program at the time.”

Short-term Win Isn’t Always Long-Term Success

“Because I leaned into the process, the learnings, the entire journey of always being humble enough to prioritize learnings over earnings, now the opportunity I have is much larger than those people who are laughing at me because I was on a 45K salary instead of 100K OTE. 

When I came to memoryBlue, I was making 45K, and that 45K was probably like 5k because I was commuting. I was spending all my money at lunch. And in my first full year of being in-tech sales, I made 106K. In my third year of being in tech sales, because of memoryBlue, that 106K target that was ultimately my goal, it became my base salary. And then, in my final promotion, as a major account rep for a public cybersecurity company, that 100K opportunity to earn, my base became 150, and my opportunity to earn was $300,000. And then from there, I started my own company where I had to start off again at 45K, and me stepping down and out 45 K, it put me in a position to lead a business that had accomplished a day of 100k-in-a-day.”

Entering Sales and memoryBlue

“One of the best things for me was, respectfully, the ignorance that I had. The ignorance that I had, allowed me to be so coachable; it allowed me to be so open to doing whatever the hell it took. I was not talented when I came to memoryBlue, but I was resilient. I was coachable, I was relentless, even when I wasn’t doing things right, I damn sure was doing it to the best of my ability and always doing it at a top value, controlling my inputs. And so that prideless ego has honestly been the key to my success at memoryBlue. But even beyond that is, I feel like I have nothing to lose and everything to learn. And when you’re like that, it’s hard to beat a person who feels like every loss can be a lesson.”

Us in Technology

“Us in Technology is a community. ‘Us’ is the underrepresented people, the people who everyone counted out; ‘Us’ is people of underrepresented ethnicities: women, members of the LGBTQI community, military veterans. My initial goal when I got into this industry was I wanted to make six figures. When I did that, that shit was cool, but when I helped London make six figures, the feeling was way better. And that was ultimately what I was attached to — I felt selfish, and I felt that I owed it to helping other people like me bridge this gap. So, from there, we had a Slack community.”

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Kendrick Trotter: Sales is consulting, it’s not selling, it’s listening, and I was actually a naturally good listener, and I can ask a question. Most people listen and respond, few people listen and understand, people are gonna judge your intelligence, not based on your responses, but based on your questions that you asked. 

[00:00:15] Marc Gonyea: Kendrick Trotter, what’s up?

[00:00:40] Kendrick Trotter: That is, uh, you’ve always called me.

[00:00:42] Marc Gonyea: Hey, I’m so, I’m so excited to have you here, I can’t wait to, for you to tell your story, talk about, you know, your entire life and what you’re doing today and what we’re doing together, I, the listeners, they’ll get a lot outta this episode. So, thank you for making time for us.

[00:00:54] Kendrick Trotter: Of course.

[00:00:54] Marc Gonyea: I really appreciate it. 

[00:00:55] Kendrick Trotter: Sure.

[00:00:56] Marc Gonyea: Listen, Chris and I know you, we’ll probably get to know you a little bit more over 60 minutes, just for folks listening who don’t know you, just give people a little background, who you are, where you’re from growing up.

[00:01:06] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. So, uh, I think a big part of understanding of who I am today is understanding how it was I was raised and, you know, my imperfect journey that has really prepared me for what I believe is the perfect opportunity.

[00:01:18] So, a little bit about myself is, although I grew up just 15 miles away from the Silicon Valley, I had no idea about the opportunities in tech, I always had aspirations of making six figures, and I was, you know, in an area where the only way you could make six figures was generally by playing sports, being an entertainer, or unfortunately being in the streets.

[00:01:37] So, um, my mom is a Libra, she’s really strict. So, the streets were not an option, and, um, I think I am the best karaoke singer in memoryBlue history, but

[00:01:47] Chris Corcoran: We had the TOPS trips we did, we would’ve found out. 

[00:01:52] Kendrick Trotter: Yes, sir, yes, sir, but, uh, I guess we are, a lot of people don’t recognize great singing talent, so I was fortunate enough to play college football at the University of Idaho. And, uh, after I graduated, I returned right back home. 

[00:02:05] Marc Gonyea: Well, let’s go back real quick. So, when you were growing up, like, what did, so streets weren’t an option, like, what did you think you were gonna do? 

[00:02:12] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, you know, that’s a really good question. So, for me as a kid, it was really clear to my older brother who was, like, a father figure to me, he’s six years older than me, that like, whatever it was I was going to do, like, I was gonna do it all the way. So, like, if it was gonna be the streets, like, I was gonna have the tattoos on my face, like, I was gonna do that.

[00:02:32] And quite frankly, growing up, like, that was what I was attracted to, that was what seemed as like, it was cool. So, like, growing up initially, like in Richmond, and seeing those things as being cool, I actually had to relearn some of my behaviors when we moved to Vallejo, and it was a nice area and doing things like picking fights, beating people up, that wasn’t cool to that, those types of kids.

[00:02:56] And, uh, I think that was really instrumental for me because it was the first time I’ve also seen two-parent households.For me, like as a kid, if you had two parents, like, you were picked on, like that was weird, we teased you because you had two parents. If you had two parents and your dad wasn’t the baseball, football, or basketball coach, you know, it was just that abnormal.

[00:03:17] And so, for me, what I always had aspirations of is I always kind of liked business people who, I liked people who wore suits, I was like, you know, one day when I grow up, like, I wanna wear a suit and I want to talk smart, and I wanna be a business person. I didn’t know what that meant, I didn’t know how I would ever get into business, but that was kind of the image I always kind of dreamed of.

[00:03:38] Marc Gonyea: I got it. All right. So, you were an athlete, and athlete helped you get you into higher ed. Let’s talk about that. 

[00:03:44] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, a hundred percent. So, for me, I was a, a four or five-sport athlete in high school. I did wrestling, I did baseball, I did basketball, I did football, I did track, varsity-lettered in all of ’em except basketball.

[00:03:58] And, um, I quickly realized if I wanted a different lifestyle for myself, it would have to be through sports because my family wasn’t in a position to send me off to college. So, once I realized that I actually started SDR work and I didn’t realize it, is I started emailing coaches, um, a hundred coaches a day, sending my highlight tape, sending an introduction email.

[00:04:20] And that led to me being the second athlete in history to get a full-ride football scholarship because of me outbound prospecting. And, uh, so that led to, that was also me negotiating my first deal where, you know, the coach was like, “Hey, we can give you this partial scholarship.” And my mentor told me, “Kendrick, don’t take it,

[00:04:39] like, go where your mom’s not gonna have to pay anything.” And it was my dream college at the time, it was Humboldt State, and I told the coach like, “Hey, coach, you know, my goal is I don’t want my mom to pay anything, and if that means me having to go to school in Nebraska instead that’s what I’m gonna do.”

[00:04:52] And he said, “Okay, Kendrick, well, I wish the best for you.” And two days later, he called, he said, “Hey, we found the money.” And so, I signed my scholarship to Humboldt State, which was really cool because we were a top, like, Division 2 football program at the time. And during my experience at Humboldt, I didn’t think I was better than everyone, right?

[00:05:09] I had my challenges, I had my successes, but I just wanted to say that I tried to go bigger, like, I can live with myself if I tried to go bigger. And when I made that decision, there were a lot of people who didn’t agree with me, the people who didn’t agree with it was my mom and my brother, and it was the first time in my life they ever, I felt like didn’t really support me.

[00:05:28] And they were like, “Kendrick, you have a full scholarship, you’re gonna come back to junior college where you’re gonna have to pay money for the chance to potentially get another scholarship, why would you do that?” And I just told ’em like, “I would rather live with, like, if it doesn’t work than me never trying.”

[00:05:45] And that was a really big transition for me, and I remember when one of my coaches, he told me, he said, “Kendrick, I don’t know why you’re leaving, you should be grateful to be here, you’re an NAIA talent.” So, for those of you who knows sports, there’s Division 1, there’s Division 2, there’s Division 3, and then there’s NAIA.

[00:06:03] So, his comment to me was he felt like I was an NAIA talent, and I didn’t get angry, I didn’t take it personal, I didn’t respond anything, I just kind of kept that in my back pocket, bounced back to junior college, was taking about, you know, 20 units a semester, commuting an hour and a half to practice every day, doing that whole work schedule.

[00:06:22] And, uh, ended up earning my scholarship to University of Idaho, which was the only Division 1 football scholarship I got because I played that season mostly pretty injured. My first year at Idaho, we brought in, you know, 16 college transfers, I was one of 16 to earned a starting spot, and, um, was battling injuries pretty early.

[00:06:41] I actually earned my starting position against USC, so we played against USC, Juju Smith and, uh, a few other legends, uh, Dory, and then that game, like I just, you know, coaching ability, drive, integrity, intelligence, I was making plays. And the next week the coach came in, in front of the whole team, and he says, “I don’t care where he plays, he starts next week.”

[00:07:02] That was how I got my first position at Idaho. First year we won four games, it was a big deal ’cause they were only winning one game a year, and the second year I was voted as a captain by the players and the coaches, and we only lost four games, won a Championship, so that was definitely one of the proudest times of my life.

[00:07:18] Marc Gonyea: Went to a Bowl?

[00:07:19] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, went to a Bowl game, and, uh, we played against Colorado State and, you know, we had all these, uh, predictions that we were gonna get blown out, and uh, we put it on them, we put it on them, we, we beat ’em, think about, like, 20 points, it should have actually been by more, but yeah. 

[00:07:36] Marc Gonyea: Well, talk, talk to, talk to the listeners about what you did before the Bowl game.

[00:07:39] Kendrick Trotter: Oh, yeah. So, before the Bowl game, there was actually a joint event that was hosted by the sponsors of the Bowl game, and it was with Christian athletes, there were a lot of people in attendance and our, my coach asked me to be a guest speaker on behalf of Idaho, and one of the things that he mentioned when he introduced me, which was really rare, ’cause our coach is, like, he’s a hard ass, so 

[00:08:03] Marc Gonyea: He said, he said, he said something nice, you think.

[00:08:05] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, he’s so, he’s, he’s a hard ass, so when he was up there saying these positive things about me, I was like, just blown back. And, uh, one of the things he mentioned was he said, “You know, one day Kendrick is gonna make a lot of money,” and that just blew my mind,

[00:08:21] it was like, why does this guy think for whatever reason, I’m gonna, like, maybe he knows something I don’t know, but, you know, I don’t, I don’t see how this is gonna happen. So, fast forward, there’s definitely a lot of opportunities in front of me to, you know, make that coming to fruition.

[00:08:35] Marc Gonyea: Great. So, you finish up school and then, walk us through what ha, what happened.

[00:08:40] Kendrick Trotter: Man, I, I finished up school, there’s a honeymoon period of, like, three weeks of, like, my brother keeping money in my pocket. And uh, honestly, like, I’m just right back in the hood where I started, and I’m right back in the same areas that my mom tried so hard keep me out of, and I was interviewing with Gallo Wine and Mercedes-Benz of Oakland, Gallo Wine,

[00:09:00] I don’t even like wine, yet, I want to, but was interviewing at Gallo Wine and Mercedes-Benz, like, my uncle is the head sales director at Mercedes-Benz of Oakland. So, I was like, “Hey, I’m a sales guy, like, I guess I can talk, I can make people feel comfortable, like, okay, I’ll try sales.” The interview process took a while, and I started Ubering to keep money in my pockets in a respectful way,

[00:09:21] and as I was Ubering, I was a horrible Uber, I took a lot of breaks, my overhead was horrible, I talked a lot, and, uh, everybody 

[00:09:31] Marc Gonyea: Kid, you have a terrible score, just like.

[00:09:34] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, don’t, don’t, don’t yelp me on the Uber, there are a couple people out there, you know, still looking for me, but nonetheless, like, everyone who got in my car and looked somewhat successful, I just went into my pitch, and I’m like, “Hey, I’m considering Gallo Wine, I’m considering Mercedes-Benz, what should I do?” And all the conservative people was like, “You know, you should do Gallo Wine, it’s a good family.” I was like, “Okay, cool, cool, I’m gonna do Gallo.” And then, the other side was like, “Kendrick, if you could sell a car, sell a Benz.” I’m like, “Oh, shit, I’m gonna sell a Benz.”

[00:10:00] And then, um, I met this gentleman, and who was taken on to buy a house and I was like, I don’t know what you do, but you’re gonna hear my story and whatever you tell me to do, that’s what I’m gonna do. He said, “Kendrick, you should get into tech.” I was like, “Tech? I can’t do that, you know, like, what is a guy like me gonna do in tech?”

[00:10:15] And he said, “Kendrick, if you could study a playbook for football that changed every week, you can study product knowledge.” And I said, “Okay, like, you know, that makes sense.” And I said, “Well, I got this ambitious goal, I’m trying to make six figures by the time I’m 25.” And at the time, I think I was 22.

[00:10:30] “And where I’m from, I don’t really know too many people that make six figures. So, this is a very, very ambitious goal.” And he laughed at me, and he said, “Kendrick, you don’t understand, kids make this in entry-level positions, and great companies are always looking for more diverse candidates like yourself that come from, you know, sports backgrounds and so forth.” 

[00:10:48] Pulled over, popped my trunk, gave him my resume, and was, it was like, yeah, he had the same response, right? So, it is dusty, crusty, he’s like, “Why does the guy have a resume in his trunk?” And I, you know, gave him my resume, he told me about this weird website I’ve never heard of before, called LinkedIn. And he also told me about memoryBlue, and he said, “Kendrick, 

[00:11:08] Marc Gonyea: He was a client?

[00:11:08] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, he was a client, and, um, he said, “Kendrick, I’m working at a company where I can probably help you to get an interview, but what I strongly suggest is, like, you should really consider starting your career at this company called memoryBlue because they really focused on their training and your foundation and they have a lot of successes, particularly, like, with previous student athletes.”

[00:11:29] And from there, he told me about memoryBlue, probably, like, a week or two later, I had my first interview, and then the rest was, uh, was history.

[00:11:39] Marc Gonyea: Crazy how that works. Did you kind of know what you were getting yourself into?

[00:11:44] Kendrick Trotter: No idea. 

[00:11:45] Marc Gonyea: Right?

[00:11:45] Kendrick Trotter: I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I knew that on memoryBlue’s website it said, “Year two, you will have the opportunity to earn six figures.” And now it’s all I was fixated on. So, I was like, okay, it’s legal, and they said by year two, like, you can make six figures. 

[00:12:02] Marc Gonyea: You didn’t even believe it, right? When you started.

[00:12:03] Kendrick Trotter: I didn’t believe it, I didn’t believe it because that’s how distant the numbers sounded to me, and 

[00:12:08] Marc Gonyea: This is, this is me, jump it over, this is when I was like, we gotta get five more Kendricks. 

[00:12:12] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, oh, yes. 

[00:12:13] Marc Gonyea: You know, because like, it, that pa, it’s just crazy for people to grow up not knowing that that’s an option. And that’s, we’re gonna get to that, that’s what you’re doing, you’re doing a big part of that, now we’re kind of doing our own thing on our own level,

[00:12:24] but you’re, you’ve elevated so much, it’s not even funny, but I still remember you told me this earlier for the first time, you were in the, you were talking to some of your coworkers, and you said, “Do you think these guys were making ?”

[00:12:34] Chris Corcoran: And you didn’t believe it, right?

[00:12:35] Kendrick Trotter: I think, uh, one of the best things for me was, respectfully, the ignorance that I had, the ignorance that I had allowed me to be so coachable, it allowed me to be so open to doing whatever the hell it took. I was not talented when I came to memoryBlue, but I also was resilient, I was coachable, I was relentless, even when I wasn’t doing things right, I damn sure right was doing it to the best of my ability and always doing it at a top value, controlling my inputs.

[00:13:08] And so, that prideless ego has honestly been, like, the key to my success at memoryBlue, but even beyond that, is I feel like I have nothing to lose and everything to learn. And when you’re like that, it’s hard to beat a person who feels like every loss can be a lesson. So, to your point, the six figures goal, you know, was something I had,

[00:13:30] I was like, I don’t care what happens, I just, don’t get fired, I make six figures, don’t get fired, I make six figures. And I remember we would bring in guest speakers every now and then, alumni to come talk to memoryBlue, and they’d be like, “Yeah, like, I made six figures, like, I left memoryBlue, and like, you know, I got an opportunity to earn,

[00:13:47] and I was kinda like the guy in the back of class, I’m like, “Man, these dudes are lying, right? These dudes are lying, there’s no way that person who does not have Beats is making six figures.” And I remember you two came in and you all were talking to us about alumni and where they are, and a lot of ’em were promoted,

[00:14:05] and I was just, remember tapping my buddy, and I said, “Do you think these guys even make six figures, like, Chris and Marc?” I might, I might have even asked Joe Reeves, like, “Do you think these guys, yeah,

[00:14:18] do you think these guys actually make six figures?” He’s like, “Yeah.” And it was hard for me to believe that, like I just, the idea of a hundred thousand dollars was so distant to me and seemed so unrealistic until I got into a room of a bunch of other people who were one percenters.

[00:14:37] Marc Gonyea: Let’s talk about that. So, what did you, what did you get into because this is for SDRs listening now, or like, they like to hear about the struggle. So, talk about learning the SDR gig. 

[00:14:47] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, I think that, um, for anyone who hears my story, I hope that I’m motivational to the imperfect SDR, they’re perfect, who doesn’t, the person who doesn’t come in and have success right away, and I hope that I encourage anyone out there, like, me, Kendrick Trotter, memoryBlue, if I could go back and talk to him, it would be just don’t give up, right? Like, it’s hard to be the person who doesn’t give up first.

[00:15:12] And so, for me and my on-boarding at memoryBlue, I didn’t know what the job was, I thought I was gonna be a telemarketer, I didn’t really realize what a cold call was until, like, three weeks in, I had no idea what I signed up for, I just knew I was on a mission to make six figures, and I struggled in my interview, my final interview, Marc was actually in the office, and he stepped in an interview, and the one thing he told me was like, “This is gonna be hard.”

[00:15:35] And I was like, “Duh, like, my whole life’s been hard, like, you’ve been ever raised by a single mom, like, do you come from the hood? This shit gonna be a breeze.” And you were like, “This is gonna be hard,” and I respected it, but I didn’t really believe you, you know, and when I was a football player when I needed to get stronger, I lifted more weights, when I needed to get faster, I ran more sprints, when I need to study more, I studied more. And I remember my transition at memoryBlue, it was the first time in my life I was bad at something for 90 days, for three months, no exaggeration. I was bad, like, I just struggled, and I was bad because of things that, like, were so different to me, talking to people who didn’t look like me,

[00:16:14] talking to people, I remember my mentor, my boss at the time, was like, “Hey, talk to them like you’re talking to your dad at the dinner table.” Like, “I didn’t grow up with my dad at the dinner table.” “Talk like you’re talking to your friends.” I’m like, “Oh, my God, you do not wanna see my friends.” Like, you know, 

[00:16:27] I just gave him a football, like, thing, and I remember some of the more tenured people in the office, like Colin and Jeff, yeah, they were, uh, they were in the back row, and they were so good, but they were like cool, calm and collected, they were calm, like with their feet on their desk and they talked so slow and they were just the smooth operators.

[00:16:48] And so, I was trying to mimic that, and it just was horrible, like, it was horrible, and it was unnatural, and, um, I was always asking for help with everyone in the office, I was asking you for help, Marc, you, Chris, Joe, poor Joe was meeting with me, like, two and a half hours a day, I was scheduling things with my mentors, you know, I struggled for so long that it was coming to that time for me to have that conversation of like, maybe this isn’t for you, right,

[00:17:14] and maybe you should think about doing a different career. And, um, ultimately, like, when that conversation was had, I reflected back on the advice that you gave me, Marc, was like, this shit is just gonna be difficult, and I wasn’t gonna allow myself to quit, I wasn’t gonna allow myself to lose, and my breaking point is, like, I found my superpower,

[00:17:34] and my superpower was that being an African-American in a space, it’s actually rare, and that rarity, like, scarcity gives things to value, from The Dip

[00:17:45] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, Dip

[00:17:46] Kendrick Trotter: is actually what made me special because I was so different. So, when I called on the phones, I wasn’t trying to be the super technical person, I was actually the social person. I was calling for a cybersecurity climate, client, and I’d be like, “Hey, like, what are you using for your email defense?” And they’re like, “Yo, you sound like a hacker.” And they would hang up on me. And so, my goal ended up becoming, like, I just want these people to feel like I’m not trying to trick them.

[00:18:09] Like, if they take a meeting or not, they’re gonna feel like, when they hang up the phone, “That guy was pretty cool.” And I leaned into that, that I was just a pretty cool guy you invited to barbecue, I’m gonna bring some beers, I’m gonna bring some food, I’m not gonna be weird, and you’re always gonna invite me back.

[00:18:23] And so, once I learned, like, my superpower was my indifference, I leaned into that, and I started having success, but it took me a long time to have success, 30 days, 90 days, not being good at something, having the work nightmares, 

[00:18:39] Marc Gonyea: It’s a hard time

[00:18:39] Kendrick Trotter: having, yeah, having the tough conversations, it was hard.

[00:18:44] Marc Gonyea: Yep. You got Jeanne, so Jeanne Ball interview, Jeanne, yeah, you got people who are trying to help you, but the, and they’re doing their thing, I gotta hit for Jeanne, but big thing is the reps, right? You have to, we try and give you people a framework, and you go through, like, an identity crisis as the sorts, right?

[00:19:03] Whether you’re, where you’re from, or you’re not, I remember questioning, like, do I have to change who I’m as a person to be good at this ’cause kind of who I am as a person doesn’t translate into what the, and you learn stuff from the people next to you because that’s part of the big thing that we, we advocate here is, like, this hybrid thing,

[00:19:18] work from home is not, you know, we’re not really down with that for the SDR role because you, you talk about that, did you learn from some of the other, your colleagues in the office too, as much as you learned from, you know, your, your own reps? 

[00:19:30] Kendrick Trotter: So, my, we’re, in my company now, I’ll talk about that later, but everyone comes to Kendrick, and they’re like, “Hey, I want the remote job.” And what I tell them is, it’s, “The easiest person to fire is someone you don’t have to see in the hallway.”

[00:19:47] Chris Corcoran: 100%. 

[00:19:49] Marc Gonyea: That’s true. 

[00:19:50] Kendrick Trotter: If I didn’t know you, Marc, you, Chris, I would’ve been let go. 

[00:19:54] Chris Corcoran: No.

[00:19:54] Kendrick Trotter: But what, what happened was, is like, I built a relationship with so many different people, personally, that there was so many people built into trying to help me to be successful, that if I would’ve failed, everyone would’ve felt like they failed, right? So, that was a big piece. And then I had so many mentors around me, like, in the office that

[00:20:17] Marc Gonyea: I learned from you, too, by the way, right?

[00:20:19] Kendrick Trotter: But a lot of people were bought into, like, helping me out. Man, I remember the first time I booked a meeting, I almost cried, and the second thing is I almost lost the book meeting because I, I was, uh, so, I, I, I, uh, called this guy, he’s a CISO, and he’s like, I go through my pitch, and he is like, “Call Jeff.” 

[00:20:40] And I was like, “Okay.” So, Joe Reeves, he’s like, “When you call Jeff again, just tell him, like, ‘Jeff, I talked to John, he said we need to talk,’ and just leave it white space.” Right? Like, he’s like, practice it with me, practice it with me. 

[00:20:55] So, I call him, and I’m like, “Hey, like, Jeff, like, I just talked to John about email security, he said we need to connect.” And I’m just, like, white space, and I’m a talker, so this is awkward, and Joe Reeves was, like, on the other side of the headset, he’s, like, leaning in right, and, um, the guy doesn’t say 

[00:21:12] anything and I just hear him typing, he’s like, “Send me an invite for tomorrow at 9 o’clock.” I was like, “Okay, I’ll send you an invite tomorrow at 9 o’clock.” Joe’s like, the whole office is, like, going ballistic, and I hang up, I was like, “I got a freaking meeting, I got a meeting,” and everybody’s like cheering me off and, you know, I hit the gong and, uh, Joe’s like, “Send that invite right now.” I was like, “I don’t have his email.”

[00:21:37] So, it is like, so I had to call him back, and I had to call him back, and like, “Hey, you know, what’s your email, by the way?” And so, that was my first meeting. And then, like, the next three meetings I booked, it was kind of like that, it was a little tricky of, like, you know, I was kind of just like, oh, yeah, like, you know?

[00:21:55] And then, um, I kind of developed from there, but yeah, being in an office, being in that environment, it’s everything that shaped me, um, even for me, and like, every job that I took after that, it allowed me to connect with great mentors, and good coaches, and build relationships with different influencers in a business.

[00:22:14] Because the reality is, like, at that time, if someone wanted to fire me, it wasn’t just gonna be a Joe decision or a Jimmy decision, they would’ve had to tell Chris, they would’ve had to tell Marc, and Chris and Marc had their own relationship with me that I had built through you all being in office.

[00:22:29] And when I got to my next company, like, I made friends with the decision-makers, right? My CEO of that company that memoryBlue connected me with is my lead investor in my business today. So, like, right, like, it’s chess, not checkers. So, when it came time for me to get a promotion, and this is the things that I tell my team today, “If you’re fired from your company today, like, who does that affect?

[00:22:52] Is it just your team, or does it affect the culture of the company? Is the marketing team, like, what happened to that SDR? Is the engineering team asking about happened to SDR? Does the CEO not notice you in the office?” Like, so, if you wanna get promoted, right, or ultimately not fired, the influence of different relationships is really important.

[00:23:12] And being, I think that in starting your career, I’m always big on being in office, like be in the office, immerse yourself, like, I was actually commuting an hour and a half to the office, and it was taking me, like, two and a half hours to get home because of, like, that’s the scenario I was in, but I was also so appreciative of the opportunity to be in a situation.

[00:23:36] And now, being in that culture at memoryBlue, this is something I’ve adopted at my company, Us in Technology, Us in Tech is not for everybody, it’s for the people who want to be one percenters, like, I’m not here to motivate anybody, I’m here to give guidance. So, if you’re already here, you’re the right type of person.

[00:23:53] And like, I try to push people away every chance that I get because I’d rather give time to those who are committed. So, at memoryBlue, it was truly a culture for one percenters. And when I pitch memoryBlue to other people, like Isiah Walters, right? Oh, that’s the guru story, now, I’ll talk about it a little bit, but when I talk about memoryBlue, 

[00:24:13] I talk about people who prioritize learnings over earnings, right? Like, if you’re a person who really wants to have the most earnings, you need to prioritize learnings, and this is the place you need to start. So, for anybody that’s, like, going through that slump, or you have that memoryBlue contract and maybe, you know, the pay is what it is, and you’re getting these outside recruiters hitting you up with 70K, 80K, a 100K, respectfully, what I’ll say is

[00:24:37] I was one of the few who stayed through the memoryBlue process, and oh, I was interviewing other places, I was trying to get out, but I was trying to also buy into the, the, the process that was laid out for me. And in result, these are the two learnings that I have, there were a lot of people who made six figures before me, but they’re not a single person who made six figures in a day before me, right?

[00:25:00] And so, a lot of times that short-term win isn’t always long-term success, and because I leaned into the process, the learnings, like, the entire journey of always being humble enough to prioritize learnings over earnings. Now, the opportunity I have is much larger, larger than those people who are laughing at me

[00:25:18] ’cause I was on a 45K salary instead of a, a 100K, you know, OT. So, last thing I’ll make there is when I came to memoryBlue, I was making 45K, and that 45K was probably, like, 5K because I was commuting, I was spending all my money at lunch, right? And in my first full year of being in tech sales, I made 106K, and my third year of being in tech sales because of memoryBlue, that 106K target, that was ultimately my goal,

[00:25:48] it became my base salary. And then, in my final promotion as a major account rep for a public cybersecurity company, that 100K opportunity to earn, my base became 150, and my opportunity to earn was $300,000. And then, from there, I started my own company where I had to start off again at 45K, and me stepping down and 45K, it put me in a position to lead a business that had accomplished a day of a 100K in a day.

[00:26:17] So, like, when you think about money and you think about the opportunities to earn, you gotta fall in love with the process, not the result, because if you’re not in love with the process, you’ll never achieve the result. So, even when I was a horrible SDR, and you guys aren’t going to, I was horrible for a long time.

[00:26:33] Marc Gonyea: You were just learning. 

[00:26:34] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, yeah, I was bad, I was bad, but I was a hustler. 

[00:26:37] Marc Gonyea: Everybody was bad…

[00:26:38] Kendrick Trotter: But I was obsessed with the process, I was obsessed with the process.

[00:26:43] Chris Corcoran: I got a couple things to say. 

[00:26:44] Marc Gonyea: Go ahead.

[00:26:44] Chris Corcoran: One, so this speaks to you from when you, we were at a humble state, right? You were, I was talking to Marc about this, you had a B+ life, and you’re like, “You know what? I want a nag.” There’s not many people who will trade in a B+ to make their life harder temporarily ’cause they want to get an A, and you did that, raised some eyebrows with your mom and your brother, but it worked out well for you, right?

[00:27:05] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, it’s tough. And this is the process of elevation, and as I’m growing, I realize why people say the top is lonely because the higher you get, the less people that can actually understand you. And in The Dip, it talks about, like, when most people have the opportunity to take a step back in order to take two or three forward, and maybe you’re thinking about getting your masters, and that requires two more years of, of school.

[00:27:28] And my first AE job, the other people around me, my peers, they were making a 200K, they had a 200K OTE, I had a 100K. And I knew that, but I had to stay, you know, humble to, like, my own plan that I had, but I think the big thing is fear never disappears, like, I’m a leader now, I’m a CEO, it’s, you know, I’ve accomplished so much, fear never disappeared.

[00:27:52] I am fearful of almost every opportunity that I go into because it’s elevation, it’s new, it’s different, it’s uncomfortable. What has changed is every day I, every time I get that feeling of fear, I’m taking pride in attacking it. Now when I feel uncomfortable about something, I’m like, “Ooh, I’m gonna attack it.” so, it’s not that I’m not scared, it’s just that I’ve learned to respond to this fear in a positive way.

[00:28:19] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, you gotta hit head-on, 

[00:28:21] Kendrick Trotter: You gotta hit.

[00:28:21] Marc Gonyea: it’s not gonna go away. 

[00:28:22] Chris Corcoran: And one, one thing I’ll also say is you’re talking, you’re saying that you were bad SDR, I will never forget, I was in the San Jose office, I’d never met you before, and I’m in the office and all of a sudden I see you, and you’re like, “We’re going to lunch.” And I was like, “Oh, who’s this guy? Who’s this guy?”

[00:28:38] And one of my mentors, he taught me this word called conation, conation, and what it means is the burning desire to succeed, and that’s you, Kendrick. 

[00:28:46] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, I always had that.

[00:28:47] Chris Corcoran: Like you, no one’s gonna stop you, no one’s gonna stop you, and that is a skill, that’s a skill 

[00:28:53] Marc Gonyea: That’s to be developed.

[00:28:54] Chris Corcoran: that, that you, you, well, we, you, we didn’t develop that, he walked into the room with that. 

[00:28:59] Marc Gonyea: But as your own personal at memoryBlue? 

[00:29:01] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, yeah, but he had that, that’s, served him well, football, here, Austin Tex, the whole thing, that burning des, where did that come from?

[00:29:11] Kendrick Trotter: Being raised by a single mom, and like, like, when we grew up, it was so bad, like, a lot of people, like I don’t talk a lot about my childhood because, like, where I’m from, like, you don’t really talk about yourself, and when you’re good at something, people tell your story for you. And so, my older brother, he actually gave me feedback,

[00:29:34] he said, “I don’t think you talk about your story enough.” and I said, “Well, I don’t want people to feel bad for me.” And he said, “But I think you need to motivate the people who grew up like that to understand, like, how bad it was.” So, for me, like, living in Richmond, only up until, like, third grade, the reason why we moved is there was a drive-by shooting, like on the left of our house, the right side of our house.

[00:29:56] And this was so normal that I remember coming back outside pa, playing with the bullet casings, and there were bullet holes in my neighbor’s car, and I was literally sticking, like, pulling the styrofoam out the bullet hole, like just playing around with it. And I remember I had a friend come over, and he had a sleepover, and he was, like, hearing gunshots.

[00:30:15] And he’s like, “Those are gunshots, like, I’m calling my mom to pick me up.” I was like, “That’s not gunshots, like, they’re just dumping the trash.” That’s what my brother told me.

[00:30:22] Marc Gonyea: Oh, it’s what your brother told you.

[00:30:23] Kendrick Trotter: I was like, yeah, I said, “Hey, like, Reese, like, tell him those are,” and he’s like, and my brother kind of gave me a look, and he is like, whoa,

[00:30:30] like, you know, I was like, oh, my God. And then from there, like, my mom took a chance, and she moved to Vallejo, which for us was a lot different, and like, you know, Vallejo was interesting because, like, I played some sports with kids that were mostly white in Napa. And then I played my baseball and some other sports, like, in North Vallejo in the hood.

[00:30:48] And then we lived in different parts of the hood in Vallejo. And then, from Vallejo, we went to Oakland for a little bit. And we lived in a decent area, but the school I went to, like, I didn’t know anybody, and a lot of the schools had closed down that year. So, it was a bunch of people from all these different areas,

[00:31:05] and there I was, just by myself. And then, from Oakland, we moved to Stockton, and we were in one of the worst areas of Stockton, right off of Mariposa. And so, I think the resilience comes from my mom, which she just was fearless, and she was determined that she wasn’t gonna allow her kids to have the same life that she had, and she was gonna do whatever it took.

[00:31:28] And it wasn’t about being the smartest, it was just about refusing to lose. So, my work ethic and perseverance, it comes from my mom, my obsession with learning comes from my learnings of being a student athlete, right? And so, as an athlete, I was never the fastest, I was never the strongest,

[00:31:46] I was never the quickest, but if I know where you’re going before you know where you’re going, I can beat you to that point, and now it looks like I’m really fast. And so, just being a student of the game, I see how far that took me. So, by the time I made it to memoryBlue, a combination of my mom and my rough upbringing and a combination of being a student-athlete was that the positives I did had I, I was horrible from a technique perspective of cold calling, but I had no lack of, like, charisma, like, drive and, and so forth.

[00:32:16] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, and you don’t, and you kind of know, like, when you have a coach tell you he thinks you’re an NAIA type player, that, a lot of people that’ll shake ’em to the core.

[00:32:25] Kendrick Trotter: Oh, he is my biggest fan. So, you know, he was the guy that was re-sharing my post when I was on the bull game holding the trophy, and he’s apologized to me multiple times, but I never did it to prove him wrong.

[00:32:39] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, but he might not even, he might have believed that, you know what I mean? Not trying to be spiteful, but that’s probably, everybody makes mistakes judging talent.

[00:32:46] Kendrick Trotter: Yes, yeah, and at the end of the day, I’m happy he said that ’cause it was motivation for me.

[00:32:50] Marc Gonyea: Of course. But some people will take that the wrong way and settle. 

[00:32:53] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. So, Pharrell is, uh, an investor in my business today, and we had a meeting last week, or week before, in New York, and he said, “Q-tip, quit taking it personal.” Right? And I think so many people, like this girl, made a tweet the other day, and she’s like, “Oh, like, you know, great leaders are like, they inspire people to be their best selves.”

[00:33:15] And I said, “Well, the reality is, like most people are incapable because of two reasons,” oh, she said something along the lines of like, “A good motivator can make everyone a star.” And I said, “I disagree. Most people can’t be stars for two reasons. One, they don’t have the talent, and the other thing is, like, most people aren’t okay with playing their role because of pride.”

[00:33:36] You know, like, you don’t have to be a star to be on a championship team. And so, yeah, I think that’s how that

[00:33:41] Marc Gonyea: That’s the big sports thing, saying sport like football, but just, but he didn’t adopt that and not have a boarding mindset. But just, going back to the SDR and, you know, you, the analogy for football are lots of things in life, like, some people think, well, there’s a certain personality, you have to be a bullshit artist, or you have to be a huge extrovert, which is, like

[00:34:56] Kendrick Trotter: That was my thoughts.

[00:34:57] Marc Gonyea: But, but right, but same with sports, right, but same with sports, like, you gotta be the quickest or the fastest, and like, what we want people to understand, hopefully, like to get good at the SDR game because the SDR game, if you’re gonna, let’s say if people work 30 years, you start working at 23, you’ve done 53, that’d be an amazing career,

[00:35:13] you’d only be an SDR for a moment in time, but you gotta get good at the things that you can, whatever your superpower might be, you, you figured out real quick, I gotta be a student of the game. To be a good SDR and then make it, ’cause we want people to make it, you gotta be patient enough to get good at it.

[00:35:31] Kendrick Trotter: Hundred percent. 

[00:35:32] Marc Gonyea: Right? Like, so, what, this, what’s a quick little feedback? I’m starting off my career as an SDR, and you forgot what your super talent was, is that the same thing that you would tell someone who’s three months into an SDR job, and they’re like, “Good lord, what have I got myself into?”

[00:35:44] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. So, that’s a good question, and, uh, most people that I interact with are looking to getting, like, customer, most people are looking for a lot of money for a little work, but in the movie, like, the book, The Dip, it explains, like, if you can do something everyone can do, why would you get paid a lot to do it?

[00:36:02] So, like, the reason why this job pays a lot is because of the difficulty. And so, what I would tell someone is, like, my assumption to your point coming into this is like, I’m gonna be a good salesperson ’cause like, I’ll learn how to bullshit, I’ll learn how to lie, and I’ll learn how to trick people.

[00:36:19] Like, okay, that’s gonna be sales. But when I got to memoryBlue, I learned that, like, sales is actually the opposite, sales is consulting, it’s not selling, it’s listening, and I was actually a naturally good listener, and I can ask a question. Most people listen and respond, few people listen and understand.

[00:36:36] And people are gonna judge your intelligence, not based on your responses, but based on your questions that you asked. So, here we are, like, seven years later and, and you said the part that you remember about me is the questions that I asked, not the responses that I gave. So, I would say, you know, if you’re looking at, to jump into the SDR space or in the tech industry as a whole, be honest with yourself about what you’re getting yourself into and the difficulty of this, but also the opportunity of what you can achieve if and when you accomplish this.

[00:37:06] Also, the world does not end as an SDR, but the reason why an SDR position is so important is because it teaches you sales, it teaches you marketing, it teach, teaches you business acumen, it teaches you how to be in a meeting with other leaders, how to show KPIs, these are terms and tools and products that if you don’t know how to use these things, no one’s gonna want you for any position.

[00:37:29] So, what I learned about being an SDR is, like, all business comes down to marketing and sales, and marketing is, like, ultimately driving demand to whatever it is you’re selling, and then the selling is just the execution of that. And being an SDR, you’re actually like an entrepreneur because you have to be creative on how you market yourself, how you get those opportunities created, and it gives you a foundation that’s not limited to just this industry either.

[00:37:56] So, now, after coming from memoryBlue, I think I can sell anything in the world because I know how to get my own pipeline, I know how to get people, you know, I started a clothing brand, and the clothing brand did awesome because I knew how to market it, I knew how, how to identify buyers, I knew how to scale it and so forth.

[00:38:12] So, I remember I asked one time, like, I was like, “Hey, Marc, like, do you have to be passionate about like, what you do to make six figures?” And you were like, “No.” And I agree with that, you don’t, you just have to be a passionate about what you’re trying to accomplish. 

[00:38:26] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, this is like the people, like, “I don’t love the tech.”

[00:38:29] Kendrick Trotter: I don’t love tech.

[00:38:29] Marc Gonyea: You don’t, you don’t, you don’t have to, you don’t have to be passionately in love with cyber, that’s, but you have to be in love with the kind of what you’re doing and why you’re doing and where you’re going, this is all means to an end, but we all wanna be ballers, I would love, love, love to make a run in the NBA, but that’s not how I’m gonna make an income, it’s these other reps. All right. So, let’s transition ’cause we got limited

[00:38:49] Kendrick Trotter: Getting into a job as an SDR and socializing yourself to different departments is the easiest way to get into the department you want, but if the door’s not opened at all, how are you ever going to get into a customer success, a sales engineering role?

[00:39:04] I tell people all the time, people care about two things. How you gonna make me money and how you gonna save me time. No one wants to hire someone they technically have to coach because that slows ’em down. So, if you’re a person that’s looking for some of these mid-level roles and you don’t have any relevant experience, there’s no incentivization for that person to hire you.

[00:39:21] Kendrick Trotter: But if you are ready, are performing for them as an SDR, and now you come to the business and say, “Hey, this is what I’ve done for you, this is my ask, is that I want to learn more about these things.” That’s the easiest way to actually get into the department you want to be in.

[00:39:36] Marc Gonyea: That’s the best way.

[00:39:37] Kendrick Trotter: It is the best way. 

[00:39:37] Marc Gonyea: That’s the best way to do it, that’s the best way to do it. 

[00:39:40] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, definitely. So, I can, I gotta hear this story, right?

[00:39:43] Kendrick Trotter: Okay. 

[00:39:43] Chris Corcoran: So, you did well with us, you got hired by your client, sky’s the limit, promotion, promotion, promotion, promotion, doing well, far exceeding what you thought was possible financially and professionally. Then all of a sudden, you decide, “I’m leaving Corporate America.” You can walk us through how did that all happened. 

[00:40:02] Marc Gonyea: And not, like, the, the sudden, when did you start to think about it? It might have been as early as memoryBlue ’cause you and I talked about why, where memoryBlue was, but like, when did you start to think about it, when did you seriously start to consider it? And then, I wanna talk about when you kinda made that ’cause you make, you left behind, you can always go back to it, but like, you left behind. Well, Chris has just kind of laid out. 

[00:40:22] Kendrick Trotter: Oh, man, it’s a good story. 

[00:40:23] Marc Gonyea: When did you start thinking about it?

[00:40:24] Kendrick Trotter: So, I never thought of myself as being an entrepreneur, even now, I sh, if someone ask me what I do, I don’t tell ’em I’m an entrepreneur, I tell them like, “Oh, I work in tech,” right? And I didn’t even know what the word entrepreneur meant until probably, like, a couple years ago. What I thought an entrepreneur meant because of Soul Plane, the movie Soul Plane with Kevin Hart, 

[00:40:47] and like, you know, the beginning of the movie, and like, you know, he loses his dog, and he’s in court, like, “What do you do for a job?” He’s like, “I’m an entrepreneur.” She’s like, “So, you don’t have a job.” My, majority of my life, like, entrepreneur to me meant it’s a fancy way of saying you don’t have a job, and I didn’t admire that, right? So, like, my journey was like, oh, I was, we talked about I was trash, right, for three months.

[00:41:12] But then, once I started doing good, I started doing good, right? I started doing really good, I started converting, like, one of four calls, got hired externally, negotiated my own pay. Oh, man, thank God for Joe Reeves, again, for helping me negotiate my pay with my client ’cause I went in there asking for a million-dollar contract with zero years experience. Um, and I got that pay raise, and then I got promoted, and, you know, I went from, like, an SDR to an AE, from an AE to a major account rep. One of the things that I want to talk about is, like, when I took that SDR job, I took it because there was a path to be promoted, I performed, I created a path for me to get a role, and the business did that in exchange of the, the services I had rendered to them.

[00:41:54] When I got that promotion as an AE, I was actually still getting paid as an SDR, right? And so, a lot of people were like, “Oh, the pay’s not this, the pay’s not that.” And they allowed the pay to get in the way of promotion, but again, it’s a game of leverage, I had no leverage. And at the end of the day, the business felt like they were winning because it was low risk, and I felt like I was winning because I was updating my resume 

[00:42:16] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, and good experience. 

[00:42:17] Kendrick Trotter: And in that position, I became a top performer and President’s Club, my peers, again, making 200K salary, I probably made 120K in that year, and I was at 115% of my quota, but I didn’t really focus my energy on that, I focused on, like, getting more and more leverage.

[00:42:35] So, then from there, you know, when it came time for me to be promoted at that company and they wanted to finally pay me what was quote-unquote fair, I now had leverage to go to a different company. And when I went to that different company, I actually took on, I went back from a, a quota-carrying AE President’s Club to being a strategic SDR because the director of the major accounts team was like, “Kendrick, if you come here and you help me for seven months build pipeline, you got my word that you could be a major account rep.”

[00:43:07] And in being a major account rep, you know, this is the fastest way to getting there. So, I put my pride to the side, I put my ego to the side, and I went back again valuing. 

[00:43:17] Marc Gonyea: Very, very difficult for people to do that. 

[00:43:19] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, and very rare.

[00:43:21] Marc Gonyea: Very rare, very rare. 

[00:43:22] Kendrick Trotter: But I was chasing the opportunity, I was chasing a great coach. And so, I put my pride to the side and went back, I was an SDR, did my work, did what I was supposed to do, and now I’m a major account rep for a public cybersecurity company, and I’ve only been in this space for three years. And so, to the outside world, I can really say whatever I wanna say in regards to my salary, but if I didn’t put my pride to the side, I would never be in that position.

[00:43:47] So, to answer your question, I start making money, and I start making money, I start spending money. So, um, I went back to the Mercedes-Benz dealership, copped a 2021 C-Class Coupe, all white, blacked out windows, sports package, went and got this penthouse apartment in San Jose, two bedroom, 1300 square feet, 1390, and I’m living life.

[00:44:11] I’m getting bottle service from everywhere, from San Jose to The Bahamas. I’m just showing it on my Instagram, and people start reaching out to me, they’re like, “Yo, like, what do you do? Like, I know you’re not selling drugs, I know you’re not in the NFL and thank God, I know you’re not doing karaoke for a living.” And, um, my 

[00:44:27] Marc Gonyea: Not yet. 

[00:44:28] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, we gotta probably take this part out of it, my best friend, Landon, I would talk to him on my commute home, and at the time, Landon was a chip runner at a casino, Landon was someone I played college football with. 

[00:44:39] Marc Gonyea: Landon Miller. 

[00:44:40] Kendrick Trotter: And so, yeah, Landon Miller. So, he was a chip runner at the col, at a casino, and he was like, “You know, if you can do this, I bet I can.” I was like, “I bet you can, too, like, you can make six figures in your second year.” And so, what started was Landon was like, “You know what? Forget this. I’m going to, like, quit my job, and like, I’m gonna move up on your couch, and like, I’m gonna get mentored by you.” And I was like, “I got just the company, memoryBlue.”

[00:45:08] Marc Gonyea: Wow. 

[00:45:08] Kendrick Trotter: Right? Like, “If it wasn’t for memoryBlue, I wouldn’t have this, right? It’s gonna be hard. Right. It’s gonna be tough, you’re not gonna make a lot of money, but if you do this the right way, you will have the same.” And Landon said, “I don’t care what it takes.”

[00:45:25] Marc Gonyea: “I’ll do it.”

[00:45:26] Kendrick Trotter: Landon was the first person I mentored, and I referred him to memoryBlue, and you all trusted me enough to interview him, he crushed his interview, and he crushed his experience in memoryBlue.

[00:45:37] Marc Gonyea: Crushed it.

[00:45:38] Kendrick Trotter: Second thing, okay, Isiah Walters, right? Wow, that dude, something else, blowing me up on Instagram, we have mutual friends ’cause of football, and he was like, “What do you do? What do you do? Like, hey man, like, can you repeat with me? Like, nice car, bro, like, how’d you get that?” 

[00:45:56] Like, balling me up. It ran a whole sequence, and he’s like, “Can you help me?” And I’m like, I’m like, “All right, man, like, meet me at Starbucks on Tuesday.” Oh, no, it was a Saturday. Comes to Starbucks in a suit and tie, he comes to Starbucks with a suit and tie and a notepad, right? And I was like, “Okay, I can win with this.”

[00:46:20] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can win with this.

[00:46:22] Kendrick Trotter: I said, Isiah, I said, I said, “I can get you a job tomorrow where you make 70K, or I can get you a job where you make a lot less, but your foundation and your ceiling will be a lot larger.

[00:46:34] Which one do you want?” He said, “Give me the job where I make less, and I build a stronger foundation.” And so, now, like, he was the second person that I recommended to memoryBlue, rocked it, kicked butt, and now Isiah’s only three years into his career, very similar journey to me

[00:46:53] where he sacrificed comp multiple times. Now, he’s a major account rep for a public cybersecurity company, not to mention a cybersecurity company I left, right? So, this is, like, now good or bad, Landon’s recommended some friends. 

[00:47:06] Marc Gonyea: You’re doing this while you’re doing your, while you’re working

[00:47:08] Kendrick Trotter: Oh, I’m kicking ass as an AE, yeah, yeah. So, I’m just, you know, so all these people start, like, hitting me up on Instagram, and like, I started helping people out, and then it starts growing, like, more and more people, I just started helping ’em out, and I was like, you know, like, maybe I could do more of this.

[00:47:23] And my first meeting with Us in Tech, it was actually called Brothers in Tech, and it was me, Timmy,

[00:47:29] Marc Gonyea: Timmy. 

[00:47:30] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, and Willow Si.

[00:47:32] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, Willow 

[00:47:33] Kendrick Trotter: And Landon. 

[00:47:34] Marc Gonyea: Landon Trammell.

[00:47:35] Kendrick Trotter: And Isiah Walters, it was during, I think it might have been during Black History Month, and I reached out to you both, and I’m like, “Yo, I’m having this event with, like, this group I’m trying to start, and I don’t have any office space.”

[00:47:49] And you are like, “Yeah, come to our office, host it, we’ll make sure no one’s there. Enjoy your time.” And I invited Isaac Vaughn, who’s a former CRO of Zenefits and Jimmy Sanders, who’s a CISO of Netflix DVD, to come in as guest speakers, and they just, we all told our stories, and they talked to us about our careers and just gave us some guidance.

[00:48:07] And I was like, okay, like, I’m gonna try to start this company, Brothers in Tech, and like, let’s see how many people we can help. So, it started growing, but I didn’t have any backbone to the business, and I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur. And what was happening was I was mentoring people, I got Aniles as well.

[00:48:24] Marc Gonyea: That’s right. 

[00:48:24] Kendrick Trotter: So, Aniles was helping me on a campaign because I was sending physical millers to my accounts, again, being creative and to, like, top Fortune 100 companies I was sending handwritten notes, and my handwriting was horrible.

[00:48:39] And, uh, Aniles was at my place because her and Landon were dating, and I was like, “Hey, Aniles, like, you got good handwriting, can you write these for me?” She’s like, “Okay.” she ghostwrites my notes, gets me meetings with, like, Apple, gets me meetings with Visa, and it gets me meetings with American Airlines. 

[00:48:57] Marc Gonyea: I remember you telling me about this

[00:48:58] Kendrick Trotter: Right?

[00:48:58] Marc Gonyea: campaign you’re doing. 

[00:48:59] Kendrick Trotter: So, I told Aniles, I’m like, “Hey, Aniles, like, this is what it’s like.” She’s like, “It’s that easy?” I’m like, “It’s that easy.” And she’s like, “Well, like, I want to get into tech, like, can you mentor me?” And she’s like, “Do you mentor girls or do you only mentor guys?” I was like, “Oh, shit,” I was like, “Ah,” I was like, “Brothers in Tech? Brothers and sisters?”

[00:49:19] So, she was the first woman, and like, again, I recommended her to memoryBlue. So, everyone that I love and I trusted, I recommended down to memoryBlue. And then, as I started working with other clients, it was kind of messed up because I was getting kicked out of deals. So, I would do, like, the mentoring, and I would do the coaching, and I would do the introduction and then they would go to hire them.

[00:49:43] And I was like, “Hey, like, what about my payment?” And they’re like, “Oh, like, yeah, like, we didn’t know you needed payment.” And I’m like, “You’re not set up as a business, but if you don’t want us to hire your friend, we won’t.”

[00:49:54] I was like, that’s messed up, like, you know, like, you would pay anyone else, and I don’t wanna be the reason they don’t get this job. So, then I, I started incorporating it as a business, I was connected to somebody on LinkedIn who really helped me to, like, create a backbone in the business. So, now Us in Tech is a community in Slack, growing.

[00:50:10] Marc Gonyea: So, you changed the name? 

[00:50:11] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, it changed to Us in Tech, thankful to one of our members.

[00:50:16] Marc Gonyea: What does that mean, us? Tell me what that represents?

[00:50:20] Kendrick Trotter: Us as the underrepresented people, the people who everyone counted out, Us as people of underrepresented ethnicities, women, members of the LGBTQI community, um, military veterans, and for me, my initial goal when I got into this industry was I wanted to make six figures,

[00:50:34] I wanted to make six figures, when I did that, that shit was cool, but when I helped Landon make six figures, the feeling was way better, right? And that was ultimately, like, what I was attached to was I felt selfish, and I felt that I owed it to helping other people like me kind of bridge this gap.

[00:50:52] So, from there, like, uh, we had a Slack community, Slack community started growing and, um, I was starting to get some revenue and my client, my company I was working for, they came to me, they’re like, “Yo, Kendrick, like, we want to hire some people from Us in Tech.” I was like, “I got just the people.” Right?

[00:51:10] So, I’m like, I prepped Isiah, I prepped Landon, and I prepped Willow Si, right, for the interview. They crushed it, right? So, they’re like, “Oh, like, yeah, like, we want to hire these people, they’re awesome.” And I was like, “Yeah, like, that’s cool, that’s 12K a person.” They’re like, “12K a person?” I was like, “Yeah, you said you wanna partner with Us in Tech.” And they’re like, “People actually pay you that?” I was like, “Yeah, a lot of people.”

[00:51:34] Marc Gonyea: All the time.

[00:51:35] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:51:36] Marc Gonyea: All the time, yeah. 

[00:51:37] Kendrick Trotter: And so, she was like, “Well, we are gonna give you the $2,000, like, referral bonus.”

[00:51:41] Chris Corcoran: Oh, man.

[00:51:41] Kendrick Trotter: And I was like, “Hmm, I’d rather take the 12K.” And so, and so, what happened was, the HR lady was like, “Kendrick, I think this is a conflict of interest.” And I said, “Why?” And she said, “Because, like, you have another job, and like, you’re getting paid for it.” And I was like, “I don’t understand a problem.” She said, “Well, technically, if you help another company with a candidate, you’re helping someone that’s not us, and like, that’s a conflict of interest.” I was like, “All right, just tell me who not to work with.”

[00:52:11] She’s like, “Well, it’s not that simple, it’s kind of everyone.” So, it was a funny dynamic because my sales leaders were like, “I don’t give a hell what you do, right? Keep hitting your quota, keep crushing it for us, like just, you know, if you need to be a contractor, we’ll make you a contractor.”

[00:52:28] I was really caught in a horrid place because I didn’t wanna leave my company, and I didn’t necessarily have aspirations of being a full-time entrepreneur. And I met with one of my mentors, and he’s like, “Kendrick, like, you’re on the perfect rise of, like, Corporate America, like, I think you should just, you know, do your business as like a nonprofit and you know, volunteer your time.”

[00:52:50] Kendrick Trotter: And I was like, “Damn,” like, I really respected his opinion, but what I was really stuck to was like, I’d rather say I tried and it didn’t work than I didn’t try at all. 

[00:53:00] Marc Gonyea: Going back to it. 

[00:53:01] Kendrick Trotter: Humble, right? 

[00:53:02] Marc Gonyea: But this is, this is interesting. 

[00:53:03] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, like, constantly. 

[00:53:04] Marc Gonyea: His B+, A-, A-, you know, but like

[00:53:08] Kendrick Trotter: And it wasn’t for money, like, it wasn’t for money, it was.

[00:53:11] Chris Corcoran: You wanted to make a difference. 

[00:53:12] Kendrick Trotter: It was the difference, like, I wanna create as many millionaires as possible, and like, helping Landon, helping Isiah, helping these people, it was so rewarding to me that I couldn’t walk away from that because I feel like this was how God was using me and this is, like, the debt that I owed.

[00:53:28] And so, when I went back to my company, and I didn’t want to, like, resign, and I ultimately made the decision, I said, “Hey, I’m gonna go full-time to my own company.” And their response was the best, they said, “Okay, well, we want to be your first customer.” I was like, “Well, you’re not gonna be my first customer, but you could be my customer.”

[00:53:49] And they hired Willow Si, they hired Landon, they hired Isiah, they hired John Scott, who was someone else to lesson technology, they hired another person. And they became one of our biggest partners. 

[00:54:01] Marc Gonyea: Great.

[00:54:01] Kendrick Trotter: So, that was, like, how I got into being a full-time entrepreneur. 

[00:54:06] Marc Gonyea: When was that? 

[00:54:07] Kendrick Trotter: Think two years ago, now. So, November 2021, November 2021. 

[00:54:14] Marc Gonyea: That’s how…

[00:54:15] Chris Corcoran: And what about, what about being an entrepreneur? What, what advice would you give to someone who wants to go out on their own? 

[00:54:22] Kendrick Trotter: Hmm. So, the first thing is, like now I’m in entrepreneurship, it’s a beautiful struggle, it’s kind of like a rose. 

[00:54:30] Chris Corcoran: Great way to put it.

[00:54:31] Kendrick Trotter: Right? 

[00:54:31] Chris Corcoran: Great way to put it. 

[00:54:32] Kendrick Trotter: A rose is a ugly flower into blossoms, but the thorns and the perseverance is honestly what makes it so unique and so beautiful. A lot of people start entrepreneurship because they don’t want to work for anyone, that is the wrong reason because, as a great entrepreneur, you work for everyone.

[00:54:50] So, I used to have one boss, now I have a lot of bosses, right, I have my team that I support, I have a community that are 13,000 people, I have more than 45 customers, like, now I work to serve them. So, I have a lot of bosses. The other thing is, like, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, but they don’t wanna be a good worker. I was a great worker, which is what has helped me at a great entrepreneur,

[00:55:13] like, I’ve always been a good worker, when I worked for memoryBlue, I was very following of directions, and yeah, I was very committed. And so, I would say entrepreneurship is, is scary, it’s lonely, it’s like being an artist and looking at a blank canvas and trying to convince someone why they should buy the canvas before you put the paint to it.

[00:55:36] Because as an artist, you have this vision that only you can see, and the rest of the world isn’t gonna value that vision until they can actually see the paint on that wall. So, every day, like, I feel like I’m looking at this blank canvas where I can see a beautiful mural, and it’s now my responsibility to craft this mural so everybody else can understand it.

[00:55:55] But it’s constant risk, it’s constant chances, it’s lonely because, again, like, most people don’t understand that, and it’s just, it’s truly just about, you know, perseverance and not giving up.

[00:56:06] Marc Gonyea: Powerful. For sure. So, talk to us about Us in Tech, what, talk about what, what you’re doing today. 

[00:56:11] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. So, Us in Tech is a hiring platform that is intended to bridge the gap between hiring tech companies and underrepresented people. My personal goal is I want to create more equity in a world for underrepresented people.

[00:56:22] Equity is ownership, ownership is power. There’s a lot of programs in the world that teach us, as minority people, how to be consumers, very few peop, things that teach us how to be owners. So, the tech industry being top five highest-pay industries in the world, is only comprised of 1.3% African-Americans, 3.3% Latinx and 24% women.

[00:56:40] So, my goal is, is that if we wanna resolve gentrification, we need to do it by infiltration and if we can help more diverse candidates get into these jobs and earn these salaries and earn these benefits and so forth, now they can control and have decisions on the areas in which they live in.

[00:56:57] So, in our two years, the average salary for replacement in Us in Technology is, you, just like memoryBlue is a 100K by the, the second year. We’ve placed over 350 people. 

[00:57:10] Wow, 78% of the people that we placed said that they got an improvement in their health benefits, um, once they accepted those jobs.

[00:57:18] And, uh, right now where I’m at is I’ve raised capital from some notable investors, like, Pharrell is an investor, Nelson Technology, and, uh, we’re looking to launch our mobile app this summer. And then tension of our mobile app is to really be able to scale the size of our community, we’re at 13,000 right now.

[00:57:36] We wanna get to 50,000 users by the end of the year. Creating a safe space for people to be able to interact with each other, to upskill, to get, uh, coaching guidance and, um, ultimately, also have access to companies that are prioritizing them.

[00:57:50] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, I mean, there’s a, a lot of companies out there that are just dying to see who was a, well, who showed up with a suit on?

[00:57:56] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, yeah, Isiah.

[00:57:58] Marc Gonyea: Isiah. 

[00:57:59] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. 

[00:57:59] Marc Gonyea: We can, you said it the best, I can win with this, right? There’s a lot of these companies that are dying to get access, and then there’s other people who are dying to get access to these, just to access, 

[00:58:09] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, it’s to access.

[00:58:10] Marc Gonyea: access, access to the opportunity, right? Shot, like I, I used, we used to always wonder that, like, how, we know there are more Kendricks out there. 

[00:58:18] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, there’s a gap, there’s a big gap, like, one, we all feel comfortable with people who look similar to us. And so, even those who create a LinkedIn profile, like, they don’t have any guidance on what to do next, right? LinkedIn memoryBlue recruiter’s not gonna find somebody with three connections, right? 

[00:58:36] Marc Gonyea: Right. 

[00:58:36] Kendrick Trotter: And so, at Us in Tech, like, we’ve really built the program based on my experience at memoryBlue, like, my learnings at memoryBlue, my personal experiences. Like, what are all the things that could have led to Kendrick getting fired,

[00:58:48] what are all the things that led to Kendrick being promoted, and how do we make that repeatable and scalable? And so, like, at Us in Technology, people get assistance with their resume building, digital and physical, they get assistance with, like, how to answer interview questions, how to present themselves at interview questions.

[00:59:04] Marc Gonyea: You and I talked about this early, you’re like, “Marc, it wasn’t,” like, ’cause it, I mean, when you started it, you were like, “You know, memoryBlue’s good at one thing that we do, that’s just very successful.” You remember saying like, “Even when I got into the role, memoryBlue provided me a lot of things to be good

[00:59:19] to role, but there are other things that I wasn’t exposed to that would’ve helped me back, but I was able to make it through, but other people may not have made it through, they weren’t made, they might, there aren’t not always gonna be all Kendrick.” Some of those things, when I get the job, 

[00:59:32] I may handle it myself in a meeting, right? Like, when I look around the room, and nobody else is like me in the room, and I’ve got a manager who supported, but they’re not, right, they, they can’t support, we can’t see totally, and like, that was part of the inspiration, and I was like, “Dude, this makes complete sense to me.”

[00:59:49] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, I think, you know, memoryBlue was supportive to me in all areas possible, everyone in the office were like, they were all behind me, like, it started off as a story of, like, rallying behind me, so you don’t, like, I don’t want things gotta get fired, and then it was just rallying behind me because I started to get some traction,

[01:00:06] and now, as a business owner, everyone in the community is still supporting me. But to your point, like, there were things that I needed guidance on socially, communication-wise. 

[01:00:16] Marc Gonyea: Right, right. Which your platform can provide. 

[01:00:18] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah. Yes. 

[01:00:19] Marc Gonyea: Right? Both before, during, and after. 

[01:00:20] Kendrick Trotter: Yes. Correct. 

[01:00:21] Marc Gonyea: Right?

[01:00:21] Kendrick Trotter: Correct. 

[01:00:22] Marc Gonyea: Which is, which is what’s really fascinating can be powerful about it, especially the more people who get attracted to the platform.

[01:00:28] Kendrick Trotter: A hundred percent. And that’s, you know, kind of my, my trick plate I got in my back pocket that I’ve shared with you both offline, it’s like, how does this become a billion-dollar idea? And, you know, that’s what we look to grow into eventually. 

[01:00:40] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, my, my other thing with you is always, it’s not what you’re doing, it’s who you’re bringing with you, right? Well, 

[01:00:45] Kendrick Trotter: Someone told me.

[01:00:46] Chris Corcoran: you’re bringing lots of people with you

[01:00:48] Marc Gonyea: Impact. 

[01:00:49] Kendrick Trotter: Someone told me that every tsunami starts with the, with the wave, and every wave starts with a ripple. So, like, I personally might not be able to talk to a million people, but if I help ten people, and those ten people help five people, and those five people help another fifteen, and honestly, that has been Us in Technology, we have yet to leverage a marketing ad, we have yet to, yet to launch our mobile ad. We have 13,000 people

[01:01:12] Marc Gonyea: That’s amazing.

[01:01:12] Kendrick Trotter: who have joined the community because of referrals, 90% of the people who are part of Us in Technology have actually shared they’ve already referred a friend to be a part of this. 

[01:01:23] Marc Gonyea: Of course. 

[01:01:24] Chris Corcoran: That’s great. It all starts with your Instagram. 

[01:01:26] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, the bottle service.

[01:01:29] Marc Gonyea: Yeah, yeah, bottle service. 

[01:01:30] Kendrick Trotter: The bottle service, that’s, that’s how the business started, it was bottle service. And, and I think this, the part, the reason why I bring that up is I think that, you know, even the way I’m dressed today is like, I wanna be the role model I didn’t necessarily have, and for a lot of underrepresented people, you grow up chasing a type of lifestyle, not necessarily a job,

[01:01:49] you’re like, I just wanna be able to have a nice house, I wanna be able to get my mom some stuff. And with the limitation of how it is you can accomplish that, it puts you in a corner, and I think incentivizes people to do things they probably shouldn’t be doing, but if we can bring awareness to more people in those areas, that there’s actually a different route,

[01:02:07] like, that’s how I got Isiah, he was like, who’s this guy riding around Oakland in a Benz, right? Like, he’s not selling drugs. Is that I wanna motivate the people, you know, who look like me, who grew up like me, they’re like, “If this imperfect guy can accomplish this, I know I can do that.” So. 

[01:02:25] Chris Corcoran: But you’re doing, you’re doing it.

[01:02:26] Kendrick Trotter: We’re doing it.

[01:02:27] Marc Gonyea: Yeah. 

[01:02:27] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, actually, we’re doing it.

[01:02:29] Chris Corcoran: Which is great, which is great. Any other words or wisdom? 

[01:02:33] Marc Gonyea: You got something else? 

[01:02:34] Kendrick Trotter: Yeah, yeah, I would just say to my fellow memoryBlue elephants, you know, it’s, it’s hard to beat a person who doesn’t quit first, learnings over earnings, I’m not on this podcast to say like, I was in love with my comp structure, and, you know, I was just, I was not taking interviews,

[01:02:56] that’s not the case, I was taking interviews, but I’m so proud of myself that I had mentors like Joe to encourage me just to lean into the process. If you wanna make money, you need to have leverage, the more time you have on your resume, the, the more accolades you accumulate, the more leverage you have both with your clients and to the rest of the world.

[01:03:15] And like I said, for those of you who are chasing money, there were a lot of people who made six figures before me, but there’s no one who made six figures in a day before me, and when you think about my story, think about it not as someone who is always super talented, just someone who just refused to give up,

[01:03:31] Kendrick Trotter: someone who was obsessed with learning and ultimately was just prideless. So, wherever you are in your journey, always control your inputs, refuse to be outwork, there is no excuse to not have inputs, there’s no excuse. And just, you know, find a way to win.

[01:03:49] Marc Gonyea: That’s true. 

[01:03:49] Kendrick Trotter: And if you’re thinking about starting a business, my advice is do what you want to do for free first, learn it by doing it for free, after you do it for free, then it’s always easier to find ways in which you can monetize it. So, a lot of people are like, “Hey, Kendrick, like, I wanna start a business, I wanna make this money, I see what Us in Technology is doing. Us in Technology was free for a long, long time, but because it was free, I got leverage, I got learnings that positioned me today.

[01:04:19] I did a lot of free guest speaking sessions where I didn’t get paid anything, but because of those guest speaking sessions, like, now for guest speaking session I get, I get paid $2,000 an hour, right? Which sounds like a lot. Even like, podcasts for me to develop my skills and doing podcasts, I used to have to pay to be on podcast. So, again, like, learnings over earnings, lean into the process, and the result will eventually come. 

[01:04:42] Chris Corcoran: Awesome. Well, Kendrick, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. 

[01:04:45] Marc Gonyea: We appreciate it. Good work, man.