Tech Sales is for Hustlers Podcast

Episode 73: Omar Lopez – It All Started With A Moving Truck

Where you start doesn’t need to dictate where you go. Watching his parents work multiple jobs to provide for their six children taught Omar that hard work and resilience can carry you far.  ⠀
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Now the Corporate Account Executive at CrowdStrike, Omar, the first of his family born in the United States, got his first job while still in high school, showing his hustle mentality early. Years later, he met former memoryBlue AE Taylor Pierce, who recognized Omar’s determination and drive while working at the same moving company and referred Omar to memoryBlue.⠀
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In this episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers, Omar shares what it takes to control your own narrative, why limitations are a fallacy, and firsthand advice on how to tackle adversity and uncover opportunity.

Guest-At-A-Glance

Name: Omar Lopez

What he does: He’s the Corporate Account Executive at CrowdStrike.

Company: CrowdStrike

Noteworthy: Omar started his career in sales selling puppies in a mall. Fast forward a few years, he’s now a sales rockstar and an experienced account executive.

Where to find Omar: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ Bad news is a blessing in disguise. Omar opens up about his rocky path to becoming the successful account executive he is today. It certainly wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. He had to experience a few rejections before finally getting a chance to shine. But just like in sales, you have to be prepared to get a few nos throughout your career before landing that final yes.

“I didn’t get the role. They told me they love my drive. They love my story and my enthusiasm. They just want people with more of a background. […] It was a little disappointing. It hurt me and my confidence even more. But I was just like, ‘Screw that.’ So I kept my visitor badge, and I put it on my laptop, and it’s still there. It’s on my old laptop, but it’s still there, and I just use that as inspiration and motivation to start applying to more jobs.”

⚡ Great opportunities come to those who ask. If you’re looking for a new job, a new client, or a new project to take on, sometimes all you have to do is ask. Omar certainly did that, and look at where he’s now. Because he recognized and seized every opportunity, he’s now a thriving account executive and an experienced salesperson. He talks about those decisive moments in his career. “I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’ve been trying to get my feet wet, and it’s why I’m here — to get some sort of sales background so that I can get a tech job or an opportunity at a software firm.’ And then he was like, ‘Man, I have just the place for you. They take people in the same position as you.’ […] But he’s like, ‘They take people just like you and me with no background, and it’s a great kick start into your career in tech sales. Look into it, man.'”

⚡ Never give up. It’s a tale as old as time. If you want to succeed, don’t ever give up even when things get tough or when you think you’re about to lose. That’s precisely the moment you need to hustle even more. Omar tells us about the first time he applied for a job at memoryBlue and why, luckily, it wasn’t the last time. “There’s a ‘but;’ there’s a huge ‘but.’ And so Libby did say, ‘Omar, if you see it again, if you’re still looking, and you happen to come across memoryBlue again, please don’t hesitate to apply again.’ […]  I just emailed Libby, and I was like, ‘Hey, I see this job listing which was posted on LinkedIn. Is this valid? Can we do this again?’ And then I think she called me half an hour after that saying, ‘Omar, yes, yes, come!'”

Episode Highlights

There’s Always a Way to Get It Done

“One of my managers was really tight with requests. One thing they always said, ‘Omar, get it done,’ and that’s one thing that I really pride myself on. I do get it done. I figure it out. And I think that helps me relax because sales is a very up and down game. Highs are highs. Lows are lows. And when lows are lows, you panic. I still do to this day, but then I just remember that I know who I am. I know what I’ve done. I know my track record. That’s why I have my accolades on my desk. Sometimes, I remind myself that I can get this done, and it helps a lot.”

Tech Is the Place to Be

“He was like, ‘Omar, if I was your age, if I had a choice, I’d be in tech right now. I would do tech. It’s not horrible over here. We’re successful, as you can see, but if I were you, I’d look into that more.’ […] I was leaning towards memoryBlue. I just didn’t know it yet. I wasn’t a hundred percent there yet, and I was like, ‘Okay, this is it, I’m doing it. I’m confident. I’m telling memoryBlue, let’s do this.’ It’s like in the movies where the girl runs out of the car and says, ‘Wait, stop here,’ and runs back to her love.”

Always Try to Humanize the Conversation

“We adapted to the world of antivirus or input security, and what these guys want to hear. And then, we adapted a great script. I was talking to you about it when you came. One thing you said to me, which I still tell people when I coach them, is, ‘Humanize the conversation. Don’t be afraid to humanize the conversation; be human.’ Obviously, […] no one wants to talk to a cold caller. If I cold-called you guys right now, you guys probably wouldn’t even pick up. And I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s true.’ And so that’s when I got my script and just humanized it a little bit.”

Transcript: 

[00:00:16] Marc Gonyea: Omar Lopez.

[00:00:41] Omar Lopez: Yes, sir. I guess, done. 

[00:00:43] Marc Gonyea: How are you doing? 

[00:00:44] Omar Lopez: Doing well, guys. Doing pretty well. I’m excited.

[00:00:46] Chris Corcoran: Thrilled to see you 

[00:00:47] again. 

[00:00:48] Omar Lopez: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it’s been quite a while. 

[00:00:50] I don’t know. It’s been like, 

[00:00:51] Marc Gonyea: I don’t know. It’s been, like, what? Three years? Two years. Two years. So, Mr.

[00:00:55] Lopez 

[00:00:55] late ’19, or 2018? 

[00:00:56] Omar Lopez: 2018, 2018, 2018. 

[00:00:59] Marc Gonyea: You were with us for 

[00:00:59] almost nearly a year, and so, you’ve got swept up by Malwarebytes, your most recent employer, and when you were here, 

[00:01:08] you were killing the game. 

[00:01:10] Omar Lopez: Yeah, it was fun. 

[00:01:12] Marc Gonyea: It was fun to have you here. But, before we get to that, let’s get 

[00:01:14] to know 

[00:01:15] Omar Lopez a little bit.

[00:01:16] So, tell us, for the benefit of those listening who don’t know you, and you probably shed some light for Chris and I a little bit more, what makes you feel the man that you are, tell us about yourself, where you’re from, where you grew up and kind of go from there. 

[00:01:28] Omar Lopez: Of course. So, 

[00:01:30] was born and raised in San Diego with my parents and the five siblings, six siblings, including me.

[00:01:37] Marc Gonyea: So, yeah, it was pretty interesting growing up, right? Both of my parents immigrated in the early nineties, were undocumented until I was about 22, 23. So, tell people what that means, “undocumented” ’cause a lot of people don’t know what that means. 

[00:01:52] Omar Lopez: Keep it simple.

[00:01:53] They just didn’t have their papers, didn’t have access to pretty much nothing. They didn’t exist. in America, in America database, I guess you could say. So, growing up, no one could hire them, right, they didn’t have social security number, any of that. So, but they had to work under the table a lot back then, early nineties.

[00:02:11] It’s pretty easy to work on a table at a, I don’t know, at a restaurant, at fast food. So, the 

[00:02:15] parents, they would work two to three jobs 

[00:02:17] at a time. Seven, eight, I’d say, eight days a week, because I barely saw them. That’s kinda where I got, I still speak Spanish, but that’s where I lost my touch. They were just never around,

[00:02:26] and then we, my brothers would play. We grew up in Section 8 housing, so there’s a bunch of kids, bunch of kids from everywhere, Russians, Middle East, all around, right? And so, we grew up playing with them, but, anyway, going back to my parents though, so, it was just pretty hard for them to put money on the 

[00:02:41] table,

[00:02:43] but one thing that I learned as a kid was work, work, work, and always work hard, and, at that time, anything just going off time, anything, just keep working and keep working, got to find a job soon, start making money because we got payment.

[00:02:56] Is it to a point where we got switched into a three-bedroom house and we would have another family, a family of four living into our third bedroom, the Kinko’s I ended up the, uh, steam, so, their bedroom call with the master, 

[00:03:08] master. 

[00:03:09] It was to the point where, we had, like, a family living in the master bedroom so we can afford to live there.

[00:03:14] So, it was, just really cramp, thousand square feet. It’s, like, nine people, nine to ten people, and it was pretty stressful. I mean, pretty stressful growing up, there was a lot of things that I wasn’t able to experience, but you hear kids at school experiencing a lot of things,

[00:03:30] and I always wanted it, right, but I thought for me, I mean, as a kid for me, but now I want that for my future generation, right, right? And, so, so yeah, just growing up, it was, we didn’t have the luxury as other middle-class families, right? Or, we didn’t have a lot of resources, and with that, my education was pretty straightforward.

[00:03:49] What I learned in school, they teach you your basics, right? And, from there, other than that, it was getting outside again with fingers dirty, as a kid growing up. But then, yeah, growing up from there, right, you know, a little bit about me, I guess, that’s one thing, I was 

[00:04:01] taught to work, was just to work, right? 

[00:04:03] Marc Gonyea: Where were you in the? You’ve got, you’re one of 

[00:04:05] six kids?

[00:04:07] Omar Lopez: Was number three. Number three. I was the first one in my family to be born in the US, so my two older brothers were undocumented as well.

[00:04:13] So, there was a lot of, well, there was a lot of pressure growing up on me.

[00:04:15] Chris Corcoran: Yeah, I bet.

[00:04:16] Omar Lopez: Like, a lot of pressure, 

[00:04:17] a lot of stress, 

[00:04:18] me, because, “Omar, you can get your driver’s license, your tools, your two brothers can’t. Omar, you can get a job. You can legally get a job,” I think I was 14, I don’t know if it still is, but it was 14 then, your brothers can’t. Your mothers got to do something on the table,

[00:04:31] and go out and work on people’s yards and stuff, like my mom or my dad did, at least.” 

[00:04:37] And so, 

[00:04:38] they taught me how to work, like, starting, I think, third grade is when my dad would pick me up after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and after his first job or first two jobs, pick me up, like, at 4, we drive over to just, like, some garden work he’s working on the house.

[00:04:52] And so, that’s where I kinda, like, started getting my hands dirty working for cash. I mean, so, it was pretty cool, and, I just remember thinking as a kid, like, “Wow, this is going to be my life.” I remember, like, a counselor talking to me because they thought I was really, like, unmotivated, right? And then they asked me what I want to be when I’m older, and I said, I just personally thought about my mom, was, I was going to work at Jack in the Box, and so, then, so they pulled in my parents, friendly conversation about, but then my dad told me, like, essentially after that conversation, “You’re more than that, you’re more than that.

[00:05:22] Marc Gonyea: Just because you see what we’re doing, we’ve done, doesn’t mean it’s for you, but you have an opportunity here. You are a blessing, you are a gift, and you have an opportunity because you were born here too, don’t waste that. Use it. Find something.” That was in fourth grade? 

[00:05:36] Omar Lopez: Third, fourth grade. 

[00:05:38] Chris Corcoran: Heavy stuff, man.

[00:05:39] Marc Gonyea: So, 

[00:05:39] you’re, like, 

[00:05:40] 9 or 10 years old? 

[00:05:42] Omar Lopez: I was pretty young. I grew up and I remember it vividly because that was, like, the first time I recall having a father-son conversation, because also he was hurt himself thinking that, because he found out through my teacher, not me, he found out through my teacher that I wasn’t motivated,

[00:05:57] I just wasn’t really happy to go work at McDonald’s or be a garner or go with my dad ’cause I already, that was my dad, I know how renewable the work 

[00:06:05] takes, entails. It 

[00:06:06] wasn’t fun. It wasn’t fun, trimming bushes, cleaning up people’s backyards and giving us 20 bucks. But yeah, and so, then from there, my dad, “Sorry, mom,” it was at a mall and then we found out that this puppy store was hiring people at 14 with work permit,

[00:06:22] and that was eighth grade, and so, that’s when I got my first job and my first job wasn’t, like, sales, because I would sell puppies at the puppy store. And, I think it’s illegal now to sell puppies at a puppy store, but it was legal then and that’s where I kinda got, that’s where I kind of, like, broke out of my seal, 

[00:06:36] and, like, I was always a goofy kid,

[00:06:37] extremely goofy, I mean, 

[00:06:39] I’m pretty goofy now, but that’s when I started getting comfortable with people I don’t know, right? Just shaking hands, working as a customer service rep to sell the puppies, kind of, I don’t know, I don’t know crap about puppies, you know, but I learned a lot from, 

[00:06:49] there was, like, a Dog Bible we had, and so, I just learned from that and go from whatever, I learned from that, and also other people that were working there for years before me, people who were in college and the managers there. That’s where I kind of got the, I got a real sense of what it means to hustle,

[00:07:05] right?

[00:07:06] I know, I mean, it’s being 14 years old, working in 

[00:07:08] a 

[00:07:08] puppy store. It doesn’t even sound like a lot, but to me it was like, “Oh crap.

[00:07:11] Chris Corcoran: It’s a lot, dude. Yeah. 

[00:07:13] Omar Lopez: This is what it takes,” and then I got commissioned. I got 

[00:07:16] paid hourly, I think it was, like, $8. No, it was, like, 

[00:07:19] $7.25 an hour,

[00:07:20] and then I got 0.15% of every puppet I sold, and puppies were ranging from, like, 800,000 bucks. 

[00:07:27] Chris Corcoran: Really?

[00:07:28] Omar Lopez: Yeah, it was cool. And so, I started selling, I noticed, like, a few extra bucks on my, on my checks, ‘ cause I didn’t have to watch it. So, I just looked at everything, and then I was like, “Wow, I’m taking home, like, a few hundred bucks a week, a week.”

[00:07:42] And so, then, I was like, “I like this.” And then, at the end, again, it goes back to like, I didn’t have anything growing up. We’d go to thrift store to buy shoes and, you know, like, basketball or basketball, basketballs I find from the trashcan. 

[00:07:52] And so, 

[00:07:53] it’s all just, like, “I can finally afford, like, I dunno, assuming pair of cleats because I was at football, and, like, the actual, like, new pair of cleats instead of some bringing the last payment or something.

[00:08:02] And so, I was like, “I want more, I mean, I want more of this. I want be able to go out to movies with my friends.” And so, that’s where kind of, like, I started working lots, “Let’s sell more puppies.

[00:08:11] Marc Gonyea: What are we doing? Let’s go.” Right? So, you’re in eighth grade, were 14 or 13? 

[00:08:20] Omar Lopez: Yeah, 13, 14.

[00:08:22] Yeah. So, so, I think I turned 14 in December. So, that’s when I started working and it just, inviting my friends and I was selling puppies to my friends’ families, either parents would come in and 

[00:08:33] it was cool.

[00:08:34] Chris Corcoran: I see how you work.

[00:08:35] I know how you operate. 

[00:08:36] Omar Lopez: It was fun. 

[00:08:36] And then, from there, I had that for a few years and then, I think it was, yeah, it became illegal, just stop selling puppies in local malls. And so, then, by that time I was here in college, and then I went to, yeah, I went to college.

[00:08:48] Marc Gonyea: So, how did college work out then?

[00:08:51] Omar Lopez: College was 

[00:08:51] fun, college was great.

[00:08:53] Marc Gonyea: Well, how did you, like, so, how did you decide where you wanted to go? Did you have an obligation to your family to go local?

[00:08:59] Omar Lopez: So, yeah. Good question. So, college was a good, another step, right? I know that though. I mean, like, I, no one’s ever applied to college.

[00:09:05] My mom, she dropped out in sixth grade. My dad was a history professor at a junior college in Mexico. They dropped everything, right? I mean, and things over there are much, much different than over here, especially for comparing, at least, Mexico in ’92 versus 

[00:09:21] America in 2012,

[00:09:22] what we were 

[00:09:22] doing 

[00:09:23] is completely 

[00:09:24] different ends of the spectrum. And so, 

[00:09:26] my parents being uneducated and kind of, like you say, naive, that’s where I got the, “I need to do this myself. No one’s going to do it for me.” That’s where I started, like, “Nope, I can’t figure it out.

[00:09:35] Well, I can’t just figure it out, my parents and my two older brothers ’cause they don’t know crap either.” And so, yeah, I just started asking for help, and I utilized my resources at school, counselor, ms. Vargas Wilson, that’s her name, and so, she definitely helped me out a lot, helped me out with my college applications and stuff,

[00:09:50] and then I just applied to all state schools because I was, I got the California, the 

[00:09:54] state-free lunch, 

[00:09:56] so if you can state-free lunch, you get five free applications for state of California state schools. Those were San Diego State, of course, ’cause that’s where I lived in. My mom wanted me home to help work,

[00:10:04] and then, I think it was Chico, San Diego State, of course, Fresno, I think Cal State, LA or something like, Cal State LA. Got into all of them, first one was, 

[00:10:14] yeah, so then, I had no idea, to be honest. I, for one, wanted to get out of San Diego, because my mom, I just knew growing up in San Diego, if I went to college in San Diego, I wouldn’t be just working, right? Working, go to school and working and helping my mom out with bills and helping her in the house.

[00:10:30] My little siblings weren’t old enough yet to take care of themselves. There was three younger, right? And, at this point my parents divorced too, so she was a single mom, I’m helping out and we’ll need help helping around the house. She’ll, I won’t say “bad”, but she was just like, “Are you sure you want to do this?

[00:10:42] Are you sure you want to leave?” And I was like, “I think I, yeah, because I did some thinking and while I was really traditional,” right? Means I’m a big believer of, like, you know, you are who you surround yourself with. Not saying my mom, but, like, I just would’ve, I don’t know, been unmotivated, stayed stagnant, just being a hard worker and working in, I dunno, cooking, cleaning somewhere, but, like my mom and dad did,

[00:11:06] but I knew there was more out there for me, in turn of what, but I knew if I stayed there, it was just, my chances of branching out and 

[00:11:13] learning a new 

[00:11:14] careers and stuff. I think I just have a better opportunity somewhere else. And so, then, that’s when my counselor said, “Which one do you want?”

[00:11:20] I was like, ” Chico. I don’t know. I know I heard it as a party school. I like to have fun, 

[00:11:28] but at the same time I want 

[00:11:30] to stay there. I want to graduate. I don’t want to be sucked into that. Like, I want more of a city.” And so, then she proposed Fresno, San Jose State, and then, San Jose State was a bit more of the city school.

[00:11:40] I didn’t really know much about it, to be honest. I was just 17 years old, it’s like, “Yeah, yep, yep. That sounds fine.” She’ll do one look into it, like, “Any of the careers?” Well, I was like, and that’s when we started talking with careers, right? “It was just teaching, and that’s what I want to do because.”

[00:11:52] Chris Corcoran: Like your dad?

[00:11:53] Omar Lopez: Exactly,

[00:11:53] like my dad, and so, I thought, ” Maybe that’s the way to do, to make, to become successful, is be a teacher here in America.” Man, I didn’t know anything else, but I was undecided at first. And then, 

[00:12:04] just going to school here. 

[00:12:05] Marc Gonyea: Were you working when you were in school here?

[00:12:07] Omar Lopez: Yeah, so that’s when I 

[00:12:08] became, essentially a janitor. They call it something fancy, ” building 

[00:12:12] assistant”. It was building assistant because 

[00:12:17] what I liked about, it was on campus. I wanted to jump on campus, because I didn’t want to take a bus, I want to be able to be flexible with my school schedule, I, you know, after class I can wear my suit to class and go straight to work, get 

[00:12:29] as many 

[00:12:29] hours as I can, right? But yeah, I was a building assistant, but, essentially, it was just being a janitor in the schools, student union services building.

[00:12:39] Didn’t really know that at first, I should have read the job responsibility.

[00:12:43] I don’t think I did. I just saw they were hiring and 

[00:12:47] hiring on the spot and I saw a whole, as whole, it was $12 an hour, and that was huge because I think the minimum wage was, like, $8, $8.50 then. I was like, 

[00:12:56] “Yes, I can walk there, like, a five-minute walk. Yeah, let’s do it.” And then, you know, they put me in training

[00:13:03] and I remember the first day of training. It was one of the janitors with two trash buckets, gloves on his hands and the mop, “Let me show you guys around the building, so I’ll show you what I do.” I’m like,

[00:13:18] I just signed up for it. Let me go to the bathroom,” and then he 

[00:13:20] teaches us how to freaking plunge the toilet and we had, and then how to, like, mop up, how to mop up the floor, if one were to overflow and stuff, and I was like, ” This is my life, I guess.” But, yeah, so that was my job then. I was doing history and the reason why I just didn’t really know anything else, honestly, I didn’t know,

[00:13:39] like, I had no idea what tech sales was at the time. Didn’t even know the term, “I lived in Silicon Valley,” and it wasn’t until I met a solid group of friends there 

[00:13:51] in class, 

[00:13:52] Omar Lopez: class cafeteria ’cause everyone would go to cafeteria, a lot of stuff, and then just, there was two guys that went to my high school they introduced me to some people, ’cause they lived in another dormitory of our building and a little bit of a ner d still,

[00:14:06] so we keep that about, like, comics, Marvel, 

[00:14:10] movies and stuff and sports. And then, 

[00:14:12] from there, when having all that in common, you know, being cool, everyone’s trying to make friends freshman year, so, and then went from there and it was, and then, circle got smaller, of course, but the people I was staying tight with, feel them, we’re getting internships at sales gigs and stuff,

[00:14:29] and I remember one had an internship at Cisco, think it was assistant SDR, they called it. And so, that was, like, our junior year, right? And, we just turned 21, so, we just go to local bars, have a drink and shit-to-shit, right, and talk

[00:14:43] and that’s when they were like, they will tell me, ” Why are you being, why are you schooling to be a teacher?” 

[00:14:47] “Why not? Why not? What’s the matter about it?” He was like, “Dude, you realize, like, 

[00:14:51] a) Do you realize how expensive it is in the Bay? How expensive it is to live in the Bay area?

[00:14:55] In California?

[00:14:55] Omar Lopez: California. Yes. Yes, California too, right? And then they’re saying, b) There’s no money in teaching and that’s what I do, why 

[00:15:03] isn’t your ass in sales?” Dude, like, if anything, you’re 

[00:15:06] my friend that’s not afraid to talk to people, and not only that, like, you have all these traits and you get along with people and not to, like, but I agree. 

[00:15:14] All true.

[00:15:15] Omar Lopez: All true, right? Yeah. Check all the boxes. Yeah, exactly. I knew that, I knew, and I was really confident in my work.

[00:15:22] Marc Gonyea: There are people that are, have those other traits, don’t work as hard as. 

[00:15:25] Omar Lopez: Exactly. It’s very true. Extremely true. I met so many people starting memoryBlue, went up. I met so many people that our personal goal, but it doesn’t mean we didn’t think 

[00:15:35] Marc Gonyea: You gotta put it to 

[00:15:36] work.

[00:15:37] Omar Lopez: Exactly. 

[00:15:38] But yeah, long story short, he just told me, “Get your ass in tech sales, man. Think about it. Look at it.” I was like, “Whoa,” I didn’t know anything about sales besides, like, real estate stuff, knocking door-to-door for Verizon or something, selling puppies. 

[00:15:49] Marc Gonyea: You can connect the two, right? 

[00:15:52] Omar Lopez: Right.

[00:15:52] Exactly. So, I was just so intimidated by it, to be honest. A) I didn’t know Squad, never heard of it. 

[00:15:58] That was the first time. 

[00:15:58] Marc Gonyea: The tech thing throws people off. 

[00:16:00] Omar Lopez: Exactly. I didn’t 

[00:16:01] own a computer till freshman year of college, let alone, didn’t have internet, yeah, until freshman year of college. And so, I was just so afraid of tech, is, I, that’s something that was way beyond me, still is,

[00:16:12] and so, I was just like, “Screw it. I’m gonna give it a shot.” And so, then I just started going to trade shows, sneaking in, actually, ‘ cause there was a lot of them that was only available to people with the, if you were in marketing, in other things. 

[00:16:25] Marc Gonyea: What year in college was it? 

[00:16:26] Omar Lopez: This was, so summer going 

[00:16:28] into my final year, senior. 

[00:16:31] Marc Gonyea: After 

[00:16:31] junior year?

[00:16:32] Omar Lopez: So, that’s why I was like, “You know what, maybe I should start doing it.” 

[00:16:34] So, I staged, like, go home for the summer, but that year I didn’t get that much FAFSA. And so, I usually use FASFA to pay for my rent, financially, and so, I stayed to work and get some hours. 

[00:16:46] You still working on campus?

[00:16:47] Omar Lopez: So, that’s how I knew about these trade shows because I would have to clean up after them. And so, then I was like, “Huh.” So, I kind of went in as a, I have my janitor suit on, but I just put the bucket, put the bucket in the back row, in the back of, you know, way behind, right, and then I just started talking to people, as I was working.

[00:17:07] And so, 

[00:17:08] I started talking to a lot of tech companies, 

[00:17:10] and I didn’t have a resume. I went without the first time, and then they’re like, “Where’s 

[00:17:14] your resume?” 

[00:17:14] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re going from booth to booth with your, your 

[00:17:16] janitor outfit on?

[00:17:18] Omar Lopez: And I talked to and I talked to, and then one of ‘

[00:17:20] em. 

[00:17:20] Marc Gonyea: And, 

[00:17:21] you just say, “Hey, I’m a, a senior, right? 

[00:17:23] Omar Lopez: Senior, history major, 

[00:17:25] “Listen,” told them, I was honest. I like, “Listen, senior history major, but 

[00:17:29] I want to be in sales. Like, I made a decision, a little late, but I want to do this and it was a take, you know, what do I got to do to work for you guys?”

[00:17:38] And then, from there it just became a conversation and people’s just noticing, they started noticing my drive, “Hey man, you seem like you, like you want to do this, you have a great personality. It takes some guts to do what you just did right now, especially on the job.” And so, they’re just like, “Here’s my card, here’s your email.”

[00:17:52] And so, then I started communicating with people via email, started getting a lot of interviews from there. And then, I went to another trade show, and this time something a little different, brought some resumes, but, again, I was thinking of that one too, 

[00:18:05] because I was a history major. It wasn’t meant for me. If, I think, yeah, you had to be in marketing or something.

[00:18:11] And so, I just went in ‘ cause I have my badge and I just told them like, “Hey, I work for facility services. I just have my badge, like, “Okay,” because he thought I was going to go in and change for work 

[00:18:20] or something. And so, then 

[00:18:21] I started talking to people and that’s when VMware gave me, VMware gave me an opportunity to interview,

[00:18:26] they flew me out. Well, I did two interviews on the phone, screening and one with one of the SDR managers, and then they flew me out to Texas and this is like, yeah, this was a senior year. And I was like, “I never been out of the state at that point, at this point.” That was, like, my third or fourth time on the plane.

[00:18:43] Marc Gonyea: And it is just drive from San Diego up here? 

[00:18:45] Omar Lopez: Yeah. Greyhound. 

[00:18:47] Yeah. Yeah. It was tough, but, 

[00:18:50] yeah, man, and then they flew me to Texas for the interviews and I thought I was confident coming in, right? Got my, I got a suit from Salvation Army, going in, in the, man,

[00:19:02] there was kids out there from just all these bigger schools, Baylor, Michigan, all these big-time schools, and not only that, but they 

[00:19:11] have, like, sales programs, right? And they 

[00:19:14] have, like, these hall-of-fame yellow jackets, and, 

[00:19:18] like, they had, like, sales patches on them.

[00:19:20] Chris Corcoran: University of Houston, they have jackets for their sales programs. 

[00:19:23] Omar Lopez: And you know how they do it? I was talking to them about it and I was like, “Dude, how’d you get like, man, well, how’d you guys get that?” And so, they have to, well, one of their prospects that they call into when they’re interning, right, they have to get one of them to sponsor or fund the jacket for them.

[00:19:40] You can’t get it without them. That was a, “Wow this is nuts, like, oh man, if I had the, those resources then, if I can sworn about it now, that would have been so powerful.” Yeah. Oh man. But, anyways, didn’t have it, but the, I didn’t get the, I didn’t get the role. They told me they love my drive. They love my story. They love my enthusiasm,

[00:19:58] they just want people with more of a background. 

[00:20:00] Marc Gonyea: Talk about 

[00:20:01] missing in the drafts. VMware.

[00:20:05] Chris Corcoran: That’s like Virginia recruiting Seth Curry.

[00:20:11] Omar Lopez: Top ready to go on a sixth round. You got lots of talents, but you just, you know, for whatever reason you work in their minds, I mean, maybe yourself, you see Tom Brady with a shirt off at the drafting, kind of seeing maybe a little bit of that, but you got it, there’s a reason why he got picked up when he did, when his time came,

[00:20:28] Marc Gonyea: so that’s the blessing in disguise too. 

[00:20:31] Omar Lopez: Yeah, man. Yeah, definitely. 

[00:20:33] One thing I added after that was, you know, it was a little disappointing, hurt me or my confidence a little bit, but I was just like, “Screw that.” So, I kept my visitor badge and I put it on my, my laptop and it’s still there.

[00:20:43] It’s on my old laptop, but it’s still there, and I just use that as inspiration and motivation to start applying to more jobs.

[00:20:49] Marc Gonyea: So, your VMware visitor badge. Okay. 

[00:20:52] Omar Lopez: Yep. It’ll have the date that I interviewed on there too. And so, I kept that on my computer just as getting motivation and I loved it.

[00:20:59] It was just fueling me because I know I can do it. I just knew that they’d miss an opportunity on a hustler. 

[00:21:05] Marc Gonyea: When was this, was it spring of your senior year? 

[00:21:07] Omar Lopez: Yes, spring of senior year.

[00:21:09] Marc Gonyea: So, you’re like, “Oh, 

[00:21:09] this is what I want to do. It will work out.” 

[00:21:11] Omar Lopez: Yeah. I was just going to finish school. I was afraid that if I

[00:21:15] change my major at the time with two more classes, it’s more money. Couldn’t do that. And so, I just finished it off with school and then finished off school, but then, again, my last trade show was, that’s one of Penske. 

[00:21:26] So, you came back to San Jose and you’re still crashing the trade 

[00:21:30] Marc Gonyea: shows?

[00:21:31] Omar Lopez: And then, I’ll just tell him, like, “I want to be in sales,” and then also they pitched the sales thing, Penske, and yeah, “We definitely take people like you.” 

[00:21:39] Marc Gonyea: I’ve got another one. I got it. This is like Kevin Duran going to Texas, and I go to Maryland. True. Very true. He’s guy in the hardest Silicon Valley,

[00:21:47] and he used to go to Maryland, then the Tech. Penske is like, “Let’s go.” 

[00:21:53] Yeah, right. Yeah, Let’s do it. What was the role at Penske? 

[00:21:56] Omar Lopez: They called it 

[00:21:57] a “sales representative”. Essentially, what you do is you work on the counter and you’d do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, truck maintenance, a lot of logistics to them.

[00:22:05] So, that’s how they differentiate themselves from U-Haul, ‘ cause that’s one of my questions, like, “I’m not working with U-Haul, aren’t I?”

[00:22:14] They required a degree and I was like, “This is like U-Haul stuff, right? Like, no, but there is, like, B2C and B2B.

[00:22:20] So, then, and I was like, “The B2C stuff, like, yeah, it’s U-Haul responsibilities, but you’re gonna be doing a lot more B2B and U-Haul wouldn’t do that for you. 

[00:22:28] Chris Corcoran: Where were you working for

[00:22:28] Penske? What locations? 

[00:22:29] Omar Lopez: Santa Clara. Santa Clara. Yeah. That was actually one of the top browsing sites or branches in the West Coast. 

[00:22:36] Chris Corcoran: Really? 

[00:22:36] Omar Lopez: Yeah, because everybody’s moving here. Yeah, exactly. Everyone’s moving 

[00:22:40] here, and so, and there was, like, a lot of businesses around here, right? Yeah. The Bay area as well.

[00:22:45] It was busy. 

[00:22:45] I mean, I think, Penske, till this day, it was 

[00:22:48] probably the most challenging job I’ve had. Man, do they work, you’re not only that, but you’re also working with these businesses that are truckers and those truckers are, they’d give it to you. You don’t have their truck ready at 5:00 AM,

[00:23:01] they’d hound you, like, 04:30 sometimes, they’ll be like, “Yeah. I have food to deliver. I got to be on the road at 05:00, 4:58, it’s 5 o’clock, you’re 4 minutes late. You can’t be doing that. I’m gonna tell my manager to tell your branch manager,” and all this stuff, like, “Yikes, 

[00:23:15] sorry.”

[00:23:16] They’ll pull the, I got, you know, like, I got, they pulled this “Why me?” I mean, I know it’s true. It’s very true, actually, which is understandable, but they always say like, you know, like, ” Well, any minutes that I waste here or minutes that I waste doing another job, therefore I don’t get money, therefore I can’t feed my kids,”

[00:23:30] and so, they say that a lot, like, stuff like that a lot. But you’re just dealing with the, a lot of the, a lot of businesses, a lot of truckers and then making sure everything’s right, and don’t what they, in the past expo. You can’t control the check-ins you lender. I can’t. And so, especially, maintenance people work on it, and then for some reason you’ve got the truck ready and that’s the only truck you got for them and you think it’s ready, but then it’s like, you’re checking the truck at 4:30 AM,

[00:23:56] and there was a fucking check engine light on there. Excuse me. There’s a check engine light on, and you’re like, “Oh,” and then you go 

[00:24:03] to your computer 

[00:24:04] and you’re like, “Where’s the nearest, like, 26 footer?” 

[00:24:07] Chris Corcoran: It’s at Fresno.

[00:24:09] Omar Lopez: It’s like, “Oh my goodness.” And then, you always work around, you always work around and you find trucks that are in maintenance that could be ready to go,

[00:24:17] it’s just the morning guy hasn’t cleared it to go. So, you make phone calls and stuff, 

[00:24:21] so stuff like that, but 

[00:24:23] it was cool, but it wasn’t for me. I just did it, give me a few lines. I knew ’cause that’s what everyone was telling me when I was interviewing Freedom Wire, Map R, other tech companies.

[00:24:34] They’re like, “We love your drive, love your enthusiasm, but we just want someone with more background. Sorry.” 

[00:24:38] Marc Gonyea: How were you supposed to get the background, though? I mean, I don’t know. I know my background was building assistant, janitor stuff and history major stuff. I understood.

[00:24:46] Omar Lopez: Yeah. I understood. That was the reality. I understood, and it’s a competitive, tech sales is 

[00:24:50] competitive, right? 

[00:24:51] And so, then, I was really grateful for Penske, all the, it reminded me that you just gotta work hard, right, at work, don’t be intimidated, work hard, going to ask questions and don’t be afraid to screw up, obviously just learn from them.

[00:25:05] And so, then, yeah, so I’m really grateful for that. It was a really stressful job, but we got it done and I was making my way up there to become a sales representative, meaning closing the accounts for the Santa Clara branch. So, for example, memoryBlue, few guys were loading things and ship them off somewhere,

[00:25:21] I’d ask you guys, you know, “How you guys, you guys got your own trucks and you use less for example, because they know, well, sign a contract with Penske. Let me show you, let me tell you why, right? X, Y, and Z. Here are the benefits.” And so, that’s what I was going to do because I didn’t have a car yet.

[00:25:34] So, I was Ubering everywhere.

[00:25:39] That’s when the, 

[00:25:39] I don’t think they have it anymore. 

[00:25:40] Chris Corcoran: You’re, like, a preferred customer. 

[00:25:41] Omar Lopez: Yes, I was a platinum member for a customer. 

[00:25:45] And, they also had a, right, no, right share. It 

[00:25:47] was like, you could split it for the term, share with people, now

[00:25:50] it’s so cheap. It was like, “God, bless it, makes a, it went from, like, $10, a ride

[00:25:54] to, like, $3 for me, and it helped me out so much. But, 

[00:25:56] let’s say, oh yeah. So, 

[00:25:58] the reason why I wanted that gig mainly was because when we comment, they call it RSR, is that, you get a car and it’s your car, obviously it’s on the company, but you can use that on the weekends, it’s your personal car too, quote-unquote.

[00:26:10] And so, you got a car, you pay dimes for gas, right? And the thought was like, “Oh my God. Yes.” And it was like, I think they were giving, like, Chevy’s, like, Malibu’s and stuff like that, and I was like, “Yes, like, that’s all you need to do, is, just get the promotion, like, hell yeah.”

[00:26:25] And so, then I was already showing the update, I impressed them with, would run the counter by myself, just picking up things. So, like, was really fast, and not only that, but pleasing my customers, that’s when I started getting the hang of things, I nailed what my clientele wants now. I know I need to do it,

[00:26:42] then I applied to the RSR position eventually, but, let me rewind a little bit, then eventually I did actually, never remind myself. But, I think it was that summer when I was on, indeed, and this is when we start getting weird now.

[00:27:00] Now I remember, yeah. So, I see memoryBlue. I didn’t 

[00:27:04] apply. I didn’t apply, and the, ‘ cause I didn’t apply because I saw it on my lunch break and I got my resume with it. I have my phone open calls. “I’m not going to apply to it, I’ll bookmark it.”

[00:27:13] Then sometimes, I worked six days, six days a week to get some overtime, which is, would be that Saturday, and Saturday is just pretty much B2C. 

[00:27:21] And so, then that’s when this fellow named Taylor Pierce came knocking 

[00:27:24] Omar Lopez: on my door, big guy, 

[00:27:28] I’ve been doing well.

[00:28:26] Yeah. He comes in on a Saturday and he gets 2 26-footers, or he gets one effort, 

[00:28:34] and I think it 

[00:28:34] was, it’s 3K, right, it’s, like, 3K and I see you can see he’s moving North Carolina, and then my friend just came back from a tech sales internship, North Carolina, told me all about it, “North Carolina is, like, a tech hub

[00:28:44] now. Go look into it stuff,” right? So, I see a little North Carolina. He gives me his freaking credit card. I was like, “Hey man, it’s like 3000, and then some for one way for 2600. 

[00:28:54] I’m, like, scared because symptom, I tell 

[00:28:56] people the surprise 

[00:28:56] to 

[00:28:56] get a heart attack. And they’re like, “Oh, are you out 

[00:28:59] of your mind?”

[00:29:01] And then try to negotiate with you, and which is so nice about it, He was like, “Okay, 

[00:29:07] cool. What do I need to, can I get insurance on that and stuff? When people are, if you’re paying that much, you could only have insurance.” 

[00:29:12] ” Added the insurance, added all of it, I get a few bucks off insurance 

[00:29:15] too.” “All right. Yeah.”

[00:29:22] Chris Corcoran: “You want me to throw in a puppy?” So, he asked me, he asked me, 

[00:29:27] “How many rules is it?” And I told, I was like, “46,” and then he was, like, “Woo.” I think, he was with somebody, I don’t recall who, and then, in the they asked me, “Should we get another one?” You’re like, “Yeah, we probably should.” “Wait, give me, you have 2 26 -footers here?”

[00:29:40] “Yeah. All right. Put them on there.” Like, 

[00:29:43] “Okay. Wow.” And so, I was blown away. This has been just, you know, at 

[00:29:48] Omar Lopez: least $6,000, and then some. “I’ll just two trucks in one way,” and didn’t make no fuss about it, right? So, chaining the trucks, and I’m just like, “How am I walking back with my clipboard?” Like, “What? Did that really just happen?” 

[00:30:00] Because you have no idea guys.

[00:30:02] Like, when I say, 

[00:30:02] like, people, it was, it’s 10 for 10, like, people make a fuss about it, right? And then, I was like, “That was the easiest customer I ever had.” I was like, what does he do? North Carolina is moving from Silicone Valley, right, to North Carolina, which I’ve heard that the Little Silicon Valley itself and some cities around there.

[00:30:20] And so, as I’m pulling the truck around from the block to the front, I, “Gosh should I ask him?

[00:30:29] Oh, that’s kind of weird. It’s Saturday, he’s moving to 

[00:30:34] North Carolina. He says no, if I turn off the right or the wrong, run off the wrong way.”

[00:30:39] Right? And so, 

[00:30:40] I come out, I’m like, ” Here you go,” but I was like, “Hey, just quick question for ya, like, you were the first one that’s ever been

[00:30:46] Omar Lopez: so kind, so nice about throwing this much money now for two trucks, and I appreciate that. Why do you change it? Are you? Do you do with tech sales?” And he kind of, “Yeah. Like, how’d you know?” 

[00:30:56] “Like, I didn’t, I just put all the pieces together. 

[00:30:59] Thought I asked, like, I know it feels a lot, it might be a long shot here.”

[00:31:02] “Like, no, actually I am, like, well, why do you ask?” I’m like, “Oh man, I’ve been trying to get my feet wet, and it’s why I’m here, to get my feet wet, to get some sort of sales background so that I can, you know, get an opportunity at a tech shot, right? Software, firmware.” And then he was like, “Man, I have just a place for you.

[00:31:21] Like, they take people like those times, same position as you,” I think he said he wasn’t doing, forgot what he said he was major in, but it was definitely wasn’t marketing, I think, background in sales. But he’s like, “They take people just like, just like you and me, need no background, and they, it’s a great kickstart into your career, tech sales.

[00:31:37] Look into it, man, and it’s in downtown San Jose, is that ok?” “Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s great. What’s it called? Is it memoryBlue?” He was like, “Dude.” I was like, “Yeah, I just saw them on LinkedIn, like a week or two ago.” And he was like, “Dude, yeah, apply. Talk to the recruiters, mention my name.” And then, I gave him my card.

[00:31:52] He wrote down his email in the, he gave me his iCould, that was odd, but you never go back to iCloud.

[00:32:00] I 

[00:32:01] applied and I immediately emailed him through his iCloud, saying like, “Hey, I applied, like, I know you’re busy moving, but if you definitely put in a word, if you can, totally understand if not, but I appreciate this,

[00:32:13] thank you so much. It was great, it was great to meet you, shake your hand.” And then, I think it was, yeah,

[00:32:18] oh, I put them on a referral. Yup. Yup. And that’s when Libby immediately called me. 

[00:32:22] Marc Gonyea: Libby, Libby. Libby’s still working with us.

[00:32:29] Omar Lopez: Top dog. 

[00:32:30] Good, good. Really, she’s made you professional. She, I thought she was, like, I dunno 

[00:32:37] way older than I was.

[00:32:42] I think we were only 

[00:32:43] 23 

[00:32:44] or 24 at the time. But yeah, she gives me a call just like, ” Taylor Pierce,” and then I was like, “Until Taylor Pierce told me who he was, he just didn’t work there.” Then she was like, 

[00:32:51] “He was alumni of the year.” “I think it was 2014, he was alumni of the year at memoryBlue.”

[00:32:57] “Whaat?” I looked at because of websites, I saw alumni of the year and I was like, “What the heck?” “He didn’t tell me that.” And then, I was 

[00:33:06] like, “Wow. All right. What a humble and modest man.” But, it’s so then, we chatted and, “Let’s get you from the interview right on site.” 

[00:33:14] It was supposed to be on the phone, but you were in the office 

[00:33:17] Omar Lopez: and then Libby calls me, like, a last minute audible and saying, “Hey, do you wanna come to the office and do it in person?”

[00:33:22] “Like, yeah,” because it was a Monday, I had Mondays off at Penske and I remember that and I was like, “Yeah, I’m free all day.” I called Uber. Got ready. 

[00:33:32] Chris Corcoran: They’re like, chris, skinnier. Now, there you go. You’re healthy. Thank you.

[00:33:43] Marc Gonyea: Take care of himself. 

[00:33:45] Omar Lopez: Health, as well. But yeah, man, I met you. We had a great, I think it was interviewing with you and Jill. You were sitting right there. It was right there, and I was right here and we’re talking, talking and you guys are telling me how this is a great start to a sales career,

[00:33:59] right? So, you’re in tech sales, right, if you’re a hustler, and I was like, “Yes. All right.” And, long story short, I’m into the market, 

[00:34:06] the 

[00:34:06] call. I think I did it too much by the book. I remember getting the scripts. Oh man. I thought I can remember the example. 

[00:34:13] Chris Corcoran: Claire 

[00:34:13] words. 

[00:34:16] Omar Lopez: Yes.

[00:34:17] Yeah, I remember that. And then, over there, Jeanne, Jeanne Ball, Jeanne Ball. She’s, she was a great coach, but Jeanne Ball was my, she was a little too nice on me on my feedback, but she was just like, “You know, you did good. I appreciate you, you try to close,

[00:34:31] but the questions I would have asked, this instead, I would ask this instead and it was great.” It was great advice. And I just, like, “We’re going to do, then we’re going to do some digging and we’ll give you a call or Libby will give you a call or an email on the final decision,” right? But then I just remember walking out,

[00:34:47] I was like, “Wow. That’s, like, the best sales advice I ever got more than working at Penske or anywhere else in my life,”

[00:34:52] right? 

[00:34:52] Marc Gonyea: The 

[00:34:52] feedback she gave you on the call? 

[00:34:54] Omar Lopez: The feedback, right, and I was like, “That was great, like, I need that. I need more of that,” right? And then got the call and they said they went with someone else,

[00:35:04] right? 

[00:35:12] We’d be making fun of Marilyn, 

[00:35:13] Gary Williams, right? 

[00:35:15] Omar Lopez: But, and so, there’s one, there’s a huge but. And so, Libby did say, like, “Omar, if you see on a need again, if you’re still looking and you happen to come across memoryBlue again, please don’t hesitate to apply again. They really wanted you to hear this.

[00:35:30] They only, I think it was because, yeah, there was only one spot open for a client. You guys have been here in this office and they give it to someone that had a better mock-call than I did.”

[00:35:41] Marc Gonyea: Do you know who it was?

[00:35:43] Omar Lopez: I think, I want to say, because I got hired, like, two weeks after Jake, Jackie, Maddie.

[00:35:51] I want to say it was one of them three, because I, they started, like, two or three weeks ahead of me. 

[00:35:58] Marc Gonyea: Okay. And so, so 

[00:36:00] you didn’t get it, you worked for Penske. 

[00:36:03] Omar Lopez: So, we’re capacity, and that’s when I applied to the 

[00:36:05] sales position there, that’s when I was like, “You know what, I didn’t get it. I’m going to try and really try for the sales position there, get myself a free car.”

[00:36:12] I hate Uber. 

[00:36:15] So, 

[00:36:16] yeah, so I applied and then, and I was, it was, like, it was like a 14th step interview process there, and it was within a month or two, all within four weeks, and I remember, like, week two or three, that’s when I saw in, October 2017, that’s when I saw I was, I usually eat my lunch in the back of a truck, in the parking lot,

[00:36:39] and I’m just going to go on my phone and eat, yeah, that’s what I went on ‘DIn, I saw you guys again. I don’t know. I was like, “Wait, this real, is this the same job posting from last time?” And then I e-mailed, I didn’t even apply that time. I just emailed Libby and I was like, “Hey, I see this job listing,

[00:36:52] it was just posted on LinkedIn there. Is this, this is valid, like, can we do this again?” And then, I think she called me, like, half an hour after that, saying, “Omar. Yes, yes. Come. Like, I just, I actually called Jeanne and Joe and they remember you, they want you back in, it’s going to be a little bit, it’s not going to be as small as it was last time. We just want to talk to you,” and it was great.

[00:37:13] And so, I went in that same day and, yeah, we spoke, well, it was a great conversation. We spoke for, like, an hour, and hour and a half actually, I think we left at, like, 06:30, but I was just talking to Jeanne, kinda explain to her what happened and then just, they started going over what this job entails. I had a questions a lot because there’s obviously, reviews at Glassdoor and there were some reviews there, but, I don’t like to listen to Rotten Tomatoes,

[00:37:38] I like to watch the movie myself, and if that makes sense. Yeah. I like to, everyone has their own opinion, so then. I was like, you know what, like, these people just probably just weren’t ready to be challenged and pushed. 

[00:37:51] Marc Gonyea: It’s a difficult job. There’s always a kernel truth in everything,

[00:37:54] right? We’re not perfect. 

[00:37:56] Omar Lopez: Yeah. Well, it is absolutely, exactly. But 

[00:37:59] it, but then again, it was just like, the things that, it was just, before I got in, it just, people just weren’t ready to be able to be pushed and work hard. That’s all it was, I think. More, I was just, I was like, “Dude, like, he probably just didn’t want to work hard.”

[00:38:16] That’s it, like, ’cause when I did it, and then I always refer people, I try to refer people to here when I can, when I meet people at memoryBlue. 

[00:38:25] Marc Gonyea: And you have.

[00:38:25] Omar Lopez: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, but anyways, we talked about it and they were honest with me about everything, and, I was like, “Okay, well, what do I got to do to get it this time?”

[00:38:34] They were like, “We want to give you the offer right now, verbally.” And so, then I’m like, “Yeah, I’m ready.” And so, 

[00:38:40] yeah, I was there. 

[00:38:41] I was, I walked out. I was so 

[00:38:42] happy. I was like, so relieved. 

[00:38:44] Chris Corcoran: I thought, no, I thought that, like, this is my recollection of the story.

[00:38:47] So, I remember meeting you, and I was like, 

[00:38:50] “It was perfect, like, Taylor Pierce referral.”

[00:38:53] Omar Lopez: You called me.

[00:38:56] And, I was like, “Let’s,” and they were going to someone else, I’m like, “Wait, why aren’t we hiring this guy? What are we doing?” And then things got serious with that sales rep at Penske, and didn’t know, you were like, “I don’t know, this Penske thing is looking pretty good”

[00:39:13] Chris Corcoran: Joe, Jeanne. “Well, what are we doing here? What are we doing? Are you serious?” 

[00:39:20] Marc Gonyea: As I remember it, 

[00:39:21] these guys just new in their role, last spot to fill, so they’re like. 

[00:39:26] Omar Lopez: Oh, wow. Yeah. 

[00:39:27] No, no, no, absolutely. That’s why you exist. 

[00:39:31] Chris Corcoran: Well, we got a lottery pick here. 

[00:39:33] Omar Lopez: That’s right.

[00:39:34] Oh my goodness. Oh gee. Yeah, guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:39:38] I remember now. I can 

[00:39:39] go to that. So, I remember that. I remember now. 

[00:39:42] No, you’re right. I thought it was good, and then no, but that’s not how it went, actually. Yeah. They wanted me to work there, but then that’s when I got the final interview with Penske,

[00:39:52] and they hadn’t given me an answer yet. That’s why I was so quick. I remember I said after talking to Libby on the same day, the reason why is because I just finished my round of interviews a few days prior, and I was like, 

[00:40:04] Omar Lopez: “Crap, let’s do this now.” And so then, yes, 

[00:40:07] it’s all coming back to me.

[00:40:08] And so, then, yeah, I did it and I was like, “Oh, okay, right? And then they were pitching, being, like, 

[00:40:13] the salary, 

[00:40:13] and a job had a car, sales, right, and the, I mean, at that point I was already comfortable with trucks and the knowledge of what I got to do to be successful in that role, right? It was about a year in.

[00:40:24] Omar Lopez: And, and so, then I was like, “I gotta take this big decision here, progressing my career with Penske and get that car,” 

[00:40:30] and that car was really poor to me as you can tell, or, ” Go here and taking slightly pay cut and come to memoryBlue.” And then, I remember, yeah, that’s when you called me because they told you I was on the fence.

[00:40:40] I did tell him, and then we had a great conversation talking about, you know, doing the trips thing, take my mom to Spain, which we were going to plan it, then all this craziness has happened, and then I really appreciate the conversation because, it’s not every company where a founder or CEO reaches out to you and has a conversation with you,

[00:40:58] certainly not getting that now in my recent game or at Malwarebytes either, because I really appreciated that, and I was like, “Wow,” that was really touching to me, and, you know, when you told me, was like, “Omar, you have the work ethic and you have the desire. That’s what I noticed about you.”

[00:41:10] I was going to say that myself to you, but you beat me to it. I was like, “Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth. I wanted to explain, right, why I wanted this job,” right? And then, I remember thinking, talking to, at the time, one of the branch directors at Penske and I told them, I told the regional bay area director, like, “Hey, I don’t know where you guys are with your decision, but I want to be as honest,”

[00:41:34] because it was really competitive. It was, like, four guys interviewing including me for that spot, and there were guys that were there for, like, two or three years, and I was like, “Hey,” like, I’m friends with them too, and I talked to them a lot, especially on the phone, for jobs, for work, I was like, “Hey man, like, I want to be honest with you, like, I’m thinking about this opportunity for tech sales,

[00:41:52] so if I don’t know where you guys are in that decision, but I definitely will let you guys know, out of respect for you guys and also to the other candidates as well, because they’ also equally deserve,” not as much as me, 

[00:42:04] but they can do the job. 

[00:42:06] And so, then that’s when they’re like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait,

[00:42:11] what? No, like, Omar, sorry we took so long, but we’re going to pick you. We want you.” So, they called me a last minute to their, ’cause their headquarters for the Bay area is in Hayward, San Leandro, and then they’re like, “Come up, come up, take, take 

[00:42:28] kind of a car,” I would take a truck. I had to take a truck. “Take your ass to the truck, come over and let’s 

[00:42:35] chat in person.”

[00:42:36] So, a chat with two, the VP and the director, and they’re like, “Are you sure you want to do this?” “I think so. Yeah.” ‘Cause I had a conversation prior to that far, prior I left was with the branch director and I was like, “I don’t know what to do here.” And then, he think, he was, like, in his, he was, like, older, older, he’d be on fifties.

[00:42:55] And he was like, “Omar, if I was your age, bad choice, I’d be in tech right now.” 

[00:43:01] Marc Gonyea: Good for him. Yeah. 

[00:43:02] Omar Lopez: “I would do tech, man, because 

[00:43:03] I’d 

[00:43:03] do tech. It’s not horrible over here, you know, all successful, as you can see, but if I were you, I’d look into that more.”

[00:43:09] And then I was like, okay, after that I was like, all my butterflies went away. I was like, “Okay.” I was leaning towards memoryBlue, I just didn’t know immediately, like, I wasn’t a hundred percent there yet, and I was like, “Okay, this is it, how I’m doing, I’m telling in confidence. I’m going to memoryBlue. Let’s do this.”

[00:43:24] It’s like in the movies where girl runs out of the car and says, “Wait, stop here,” and run back to my love.

[00:43:34] But, yeah, that’s, 

[00:43:35] yeah, told them and I just, that’s when I came here, 

[00:43:39] Omar Lopez: started November, 2017. Wow. There you go.

[00:43:44] Marc Gonyea: That is awesome. I mean, it goes, the reason why Corcoran got the next ’cause he interviewed you, obviously, but, you know, CrowdStrike and Malwarebytes, the product is the star.

[00:43:54] People are important, don’t get me wrong, right? The product. Here, truly, we can’t, the people. The people who work here are the star of the show. 

[00:44:04] They’re the 

[00:44:05] headliner. Absolutely. So, when we roll around folks like you and people like you, right? Absolutely. You worked with when you were here, so it was critical for us to do the lend.

[00:44:17] I remember 

[00:44:18] Omar Lopez: Chris was telling me that, he was like, “Man, I want you working right next to this all-star we just hired. His name is Jake Akin. You guys are working right next to each other and just hustle on and get the office real pumped up and ready to go, 

[00:44:31] And I was like, “Yeah, like, bring it on. I want to work on, I still want to be competitive and also be learning from this guy.” And then, next you know he’s, he became, like, one, I think my closest buddy, because I’m a huge Green Bay Packers fan. He’s from Wisconsin, Green Bay Packer guy, kicked off on that,

[00:44:47] new in town, was new to San Jose, just moved, you know, he was moving around and he was doing door-to-door sales, I think, and then we’re just learning a lot from each other, because I started with PPM, 

[00:44:56] PPM 

[00:44:57] endoscope software, in the essence’s called “tracking software” which I had no idea what that was. I just had to call hospitals. And so, then, yeah, and it was funny because I use Jake a lot, cause he had 

[00:45:08] experience, 

[00:45:10] in some,

[00:45:10] and so, not only that, but I want to give a shout-out to Jeanne, great coach, and Dan

[00:45:17] Chris Corcoran: Yorkie. 

[00:45:20] Omar Lopez: Man. those probably are the ones that set me up for success. They molded me into some seven-foot chiseled, big, healthy sales guy here, but I think I owe a lot to Jake too as well, because I was just a little, I won’t say intimidated, but people were, like, the kids are working here at the time were saying like, “Oh dude, you got this PPM,

[00:45:42] pretty tough to do. You get paid for meeting, it’s a bonus, and if that’s your full-time account, be ready mainly, can be tough, all this stuff.” And it was, I’d just remember, like, we’d go to the square to eat “Why didn’t you tell me that?”, I’m like, ” Screw this,” I mean, all those great, everyone was great roles, like, all great people, but, I was kind of like, “I’m gonna do it.”

[00:46:00] And what do I know, I think, first month was, first of all, month calling was December and I got nine occurs out of 10 quota, so it was one-off. One-off. I remember that, is, yeah, it was 

[00:46:12] like, oh, ’cause it was, like, a 

[00:46:13] starting bonus, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, “One-off.” And Jean is like, “:You almost had it.”

[00:46:22] Like, half have been released. But, it’s 

[00:46:24] Omar Lopez: good though that it was kept account, and then January came and that’s when I hit my quota for PPM, and it was, I remember her telling me like, “Dude, honestly,” she just said, she’s like, “I don’t want to say surprised and shocked as you worked your ass off,

[00:46:35] but lot of people here weren’t probably going to get that done. You got it done, and I know how hard this PPM was.” ‘Cause she was calling on it, that’s right, ’cause she was calling a member herself. She was calling herself before I came in, and so, then me and her were always, like, in this room, right here, I was sitting right here and she’d sit right here and we were going on prospecting hospitals,

[00:46:52] I remember she was like, “Dude, hospitals, going to start from HQ, work way up.” And so, because it’s not, there wasn’t much we couldn’t find online. And, yeah, I mean, remember that and that, I’m glad I started that way because I know we don’t really like to do HQ lines, right? But I had no other choice to make it work, make it happen.

[00:47:09] Worked my way up, referrals, referrals, call this number, call that number, and it was great. It was great, and to this day, I’m not, I still get the time for HQ lines. Just yesterday there’s a guy that I wanted to go online with so that there’s, like, reasonable opportunity in our system.

[00:47:22] Direct line wasn’t working, and I was like, “Okay, well, what’s the HQ line?” Went there, got transferred and then got transferred again and then caught him on the line. 

[00:47:31] Marc Gonyea: This is a recurring thing with you or more, you just find a way to get it done, right? The check engine light comes on at 04:30. “Yeah. We got a truck, a maintenance.

[00:47:40] Get the guy in here, release the truck,” or it’s, ” I want to go to the job fair. I’m just going to, I want to leverage my uniform, right, to get my ass in here.” You just kind of find a way. 

[00:47:49] Omar Lopez: Exactly. One of my managers was really tight with my request. “Well, I want you to end that,” one thing they always say to each when work is done, “Get it done,” and that’s one thing that I really pride myself, was like, I do get it done, figure it out,

[00:48:04] right? And that’s, I think, that helps me kind of relax ’cause Hills is a very uh, down game.

[00:48:10] Why panic? Right? I mean, I still do to this day, but then, like, then I just remember, I know I am, I know what I’ve done. I know my track record. I know, that’s why I have my accolades on my desk, sometimes remind myself, I’m like, “I can get this done.” And, it helps a lot. Once you relax, you’re working on the rhythm, with the rhythm there. 

[00:48:30] Marc Gonyea: Did 

[00:48:30] you go to tops here?

[00:48:31] 

[00:48:31] Omar Lopez: We didn’t have, we didn’t have, we didn’t have tops. 

[00:48:34] It was happening 

[00:48:35] as I was leaving. Yeah. It was like you guys were working, I remember we had state of the outfit and it was like the quarter, right, because I left the September and whatever that last, that summer was, the last one,

[00:48:49] that’s when you guys pitched the idea, and then I was like, and I already knew that I was going to leave, Malwarebytes already told me. They’re hiring me out. So, I was like, “Wow.” 

[00:48:56] Chris Corcoran: Omar, hold on. Say, so you’re doing PPM. How did you end up getting onto Malwarebytes? Walk us through your journey at memoryBlue.

[00:49:02] Omar Lopez: So, 

[00:49:03] yeah. Great journey. 

[00:49:05] So, they were saying, or Jeanne was saying, like, “Hey, we got Malwarebytes coming, starting February,” and I already hit my monthly quota in January, right, and so, with PPM and she 

[00:49:15] goes, “Well, here’s the thing, we’ve got,

[00:49:17] yup, and then, Malwarebytes, what do you want?

[00:49:22] You gotta pick soon because, man, we gotta figure it out now.” I’m like, 

[00:49:25] well, you haven’t heard my bed. Yeah. But they’re working with regards to the two client stuff. She was like, “Hey, like, I’ll take your opinion into account here,

[00:49:35] right, since you like to work your tail off for PPM firm.” And, I was like, “Wow, I appreciate that. All right. Can I just eat lunch over it, figure it out?” He’s like, “Yeah, yeah, go ahead.” And so, then, I was talking to the folks that have, ’cause, where are they, are they still a client? 

[00:49:48] Chris Corcoran: Not anymore. They are gone for a long time.

[00:49:50] Omar Lopez: They would 

[00:49:50] hire people out like crazy. It was, like, almost guaranteed. If you 

[00:49:55] just hit your quota a few times, like, you get hired out.

[00:49:57] Marc Gonyea: But, people who were on the 

[00:49:58] campaign by the time you arrived benefited from the originals, but they had to do well, but it wasn’t, it 

[00:50:04] was easier for them.

[00:50:05] Omar Lopez: Right. Exactly. And, 

[00:50:06] so, and they were hitting their quotas, but I remember that. It was insane, and people, there was a few people left that hadn’t left, to. Like, it’s almost guaranteed quote hitter and you’re, you will get hired out, but I was like, “Yeah, but kinda like, I dunno, we’ll get it tomorrow, but it’s a little bit guys,”

[00:50:25] and, I know, it’s kind of a brand name. I recognize them a little bit. And so, then, another big anti-virus company and so well-respected. And so, I was just like, “Yeah, I think I’m going to do that.” They’re like, “Are you sure, 

[00:50:36] Chris Corcoran: man, are you sure, are you sure?”

[00:50:37] The same people who are like, “Yeah.

[00:50:39] PPM.” 

[00:50:40] Omar Lopez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:50:42] Marc Gonyea: If you get this thing, then you would see why you didn’t go to school at San Diego State, why you came up here. This is why you kind of said, “Hey, I respect y’all, but I’m going to roll with PPM,” which is why you think these things 

[00:50:52] through. 

[00:50:52] Omar Lopez: Yeah. Yeah. I thought it through, thought it through and I was like, “I think I’m gonna do this.

[00:50:56] Like, I’m confident.” And also, that’s when Yorkie came aboard, and that’s when, right? Yeah. ‘Cause he, I think he got hired that January. 

[00:51:03] He came back. And he came back. 

[00:51:08] I don’t remember how late it went down that he would take on the client, but I just remember the wording was dark and off the battery, New York, I got, it was like, I was a dog.

[00:51:16] Omar Lopez: Like, he knew what he was talking about. He was giving great advice. 

[00:51:20] Chris Corcoran: Always great with numbers. 

[00:51:21] Omar Lopez: Yes. Those numbers, he just knows how to talk to people, especially in every, he’s the one who taught me that every word you say is important, and how you say it, right? And 

[00:51:30] so, and so, so, then I was like, “All right, let’s do this.”

[00:51:33] And then 

[00:51:34] that’s when we, I think, want to say that’s when Colby got his offer letter already. 

[00:51:40] Marc Gonyea: Colby in the house.

[00:51:47] Omar Lopez: That’s great. Oh, he’s great, man. Oh man. I really, I was really lucky to work with him for so long. But I’m gonna say, yeah, and so that’s when, that’s when he got hired and then, that’s when Nimit started coming back and forth to get them enough

[00:52:03] Marc Gonyea: to run the sales. 

[00:52:05] Omar Lopez: Oh really? Okay. I think I saw that. That’s right. So, 

[00:52:09] he’s, 

[00:52:09] is he? 

[00:52:10] Marc Gonyea: He’s in 

[00:52:10] Arizona.

[00:52:11] Omar Lopez: Okay. He relocated? 

[00:52:13] He had a house there didn’t he? 

[00:52:14] Marc Gonyea: He had a 

[00:52:14] place in Austin 

[00:52:15] and just sold for a bunch of money. Probably should’ve held onto it longer, but he crushed it, and then he got married. 

[00:52:20] Omar Lopez: That’s right. He got married.

[00:52:22] He went to the Kentucky Derby. 

[00:52:24] Yeah. I remember that. I remember that. I remember him saying something about Arizona too. I want to say. Yep. That’s good, man. That’s 

[00:52:31] good. Yeah. 

[00:52:33] Usually when Nimit. I appreciate Nimit too. I loved it when he was walking around ’cause he’d always mess with me and Colby. Me and Colby would always just say some smart remarks, and then he always would have good comeback. But again, he was busy, so I wish I had more time with him, to communicate with hi m.

[00:52:50] Marc Gonyea: I will tell you, like, this, Omar’s, like, the pitty me of, like, the bitterness of when people leave ’cause we want people to, they want to go work for the client,

[00:53:00] we want you to, but then we get these all-stars like you who are great, work hard, great perspective. Those are great. What’s really important is you influence the other people in the office. Like, people don’t realize when they’re just an SDR they think it’s about hitting their quota, but it’s not, you’re, like, a little leader.

[00:53:17] Chris Corcoran: That’s why I pulled you in, and I’m like, you and Jake to kind of 

[00:53:20] change the culture of the office. Yeah. The two of you guys, and you guys did 

[00:53:25] it, I think. 

[00:53:26] Omar Lopez: Yeah, because we tried, we tried, it’s funny because, it’s one of, because, I remember, Jake would give me a ride home too, because he knew that didn’t have a car and, great guy, man.

[00:53:36] He drove off, I lived in Sunnyvale and that’s, like, 20 minutes that way, and he lived right down that way, like, 5, 10 minutes I went to the drive for me, but those car conversations, like, we would always have, we talked about that, “Chris talked to you about, like, what he wants us to do?” Like, “Yeah.

[00:53:50] like, change, turn up a little bit over a year and create a great culture.” It’s like, “Yeah, man, I think we can do that. Let’s do that.” And then, I was like, “Yeah, no dudes, like, dude, I see your work.” Jake was telling me, like, “I see your work ethic, and I know you got it. Like, you can be successful with this man.”

[00:54:02] ‘Cause we talked a lot again, he helped me out with PPM too, give me great advice and stuff, on cold-calling. I just remember that we took that seriously as much, we wanted to obviously make it our own, make the culture our way, being funny, you know, getting people involved, being competitive, analysis.

[00:54:17] One thing we want to do is keep that competitive drive with each other, but also be a family, 

[00:54:21] ’cause we were small then. 

[00:54:23] Marc Gonyea: Small office. 

[00:54:24] Omar Lopez: How many people were here?

[00:54:25] Chris Corcoran: There’s 

[00:54:25] 70. 

[00:54:26] Marc Gonyea: Soon to be 71. 

[00:54:27] Omar Lopez: Wow. 

[00:54:27] There was like, I think, 12, 14, and so, then, but, yeah, man, we took that to heart and I was really grateful for that.

[00:54:33] Chris Corcoran: So, Jeanne said, “Hey, because of your performance, you can choose,” and you ignored the influences in the office who were all suggesting you be immobilized. 

[00:54:41] Omar Lopez: They were just saying, “Take the easy way, take the easy way, take the guaranteed way,” essentially.I get that they were trying to help me out.

[00:54:46] We’re all close friends, just trying to help me out. And so, then I was like, I don’t know, I was interested in the Malwarebytes a little bit ‘ cause I just kinda recognized them. Penalty two is, when I Uber to the 101, the 101 North, I’d always see their 

[00:54:58] fat building right there.

[00:55:00] Marc Gonyea: It was high stakes ’cause I was involved in the deal, and I remember, “Man, like, this is the legit, not that barn was, it’s two separate things, but this is, like, a legit technology company. You can’t mess that up ’cause you mess that up, word gets out, “memoryBlue guys,

[00:55:17] like, nah, not really.” So, like, there was pressure from everyone, right? Yep. We gotta make it work because those folks at Malwarebytes, they’ll remember, if it doesn’t work, if we want them to be clients again. So, I remember when you guys go along it. “All right. Let’s get Omar. He’s got, he seems to have it.

[00:55:35] Let’s go.” 

[00:55:36] Omar Lopez: Yeah. Yeah. And then, I remember Nimit and Yorkie asking me, like, ” How you feel about Colby, you know, how do you feel about Colby joining?” And ’cause I already told, like, “I want it.” And so, then, I knew we needed one more person ’cause we got two for us. Colby was just starting, and that’s usually how it works, right? Especially if you’ve got a hot client, you got a rockstar, you’re hiring, why not some more? And so, then, I was like, “Yeah, trust me, he’ll get here, he’ll get the job done. We’ll just need to coach him like everybody else, but that’s about it. And then rock ‘n’ roll, I’ll be 

[00:56:05] right next to him.” 

[00:56:06] Marc Gonyea: That’s how you, you know, you and Jake had influence, obviously, in the office and the culture, but I gotta give Jeanne and Yorkie credit for, like, involving you in the process versus not just telling you what you’re going to do,

[00:56:18] which is, like, kind of giving you. 

[00:56:19] Omar Lopez: That was great. Was extremely grateful for that. That was something that I was like, “Wow,” like, she touched me and I just knew the, in the past, other kids, other SDRs didn’t really get that opportunity, to be involved. 

[00:56:29] Chris Corcoran: Because you earned it. Those aren’t given out.

[00:56:34] Marc Gonyea: And then you take that decision more 

[00:56:35] serious. 

[00:56:36] Omar Lopez: Exactly. Exactly. It’s like what Aaron Waters was looking for before he came back this year, right, he wanted to be involved 

[00:56:42] in decisions. “Every peak quarterback I want to be a 

[00:56:44] little bit involved. I don’t want to make thinking decisions, but 

[00:56:46] probably in that.” 

[00:56:46] Marc Gonyea: Bring back some of my guys.

[00:56:54] Omar Lopez: Yeah, exactly.

[00:56:55] Marc Gonyea: So, so, we would you out on it 

[00:56:58] and then what happens? 

[00:57:00] Omar Lopez: So, in the beginning it was, like, a little talk because, because I remember the beginning of the other one rules, are so Salesforce rules and it took forever to figure how to get leads. That’s what it was. It took forever to get leads,

[00:57:12] so we weren’t dialing the first four weeks in February. Just a lot of prospecting. And so, then, then we just hit the ground running. I remember I already told them, “Dude, 

[00:57:21] so, you guys, once we get these leads we got a gun, ’cause every week that we’re wasting, that’s, like, 

[00:57:24] Omar Lopez: time lost.

[00:57:25] We got to make sure, like, we’re gonna start building associate pipeline.” 

[00:57:29] And so, we got, they gave me field, 

[00:57:31] which is 3000 employees up and they gave Colby enterprise, which is below that, which is 3000 sorry, about 500 to 2000, something like that, seats in place, right? They gave me the higher one because I have more experience.

[00:57:44] And so, we started, yeah, it was, then we started dialing and didn’t realize how competitive Cybersecurity was, how many competitors there is with antivirus at the time, were so many, and how hard it is to talk to people in IT security, especially in the enterprise-size companies. They didn’t want to talk. But, hey, don’t make it there.

[00:58:02] It’s really hard how to find our information, right? You deal with, they don’t want to talk to you, see, they’re not going to be, they are IT security folks. They got a lot on the plate, and the last thing they want to do is talk to somebody, but it did work. It did help that I said the name Malwarebytes. It wasn’t rare, sorry, it was common that when I dropped the name Malwarebytes, “Oh, Malwarebytes, I know that, you guys, use it, guys the whole time,” ’cause they have a consumer product as well. And then, from there, I remember, the first month was scary. We were getting close to not hitting quota. It was March. 

[00:58:35] Once you’ve been converted or once we started now, once we started on the campaign?

[00:58:37] Omar Lopez: Once we started the campaign,

[00:58:39] right. Yeah, and, me and Colby are, like, getting a little worried because Colby wanted a quick-starter, I wanted to keep the rotation in my quota flint every month and we took that seriously. I was in here, it was in here, yeah, in here or the other room and just kind of, called Dan Yorkie, went to the drawing boards and, like, “Dude, we got to figure this out, man.

[00:58:57] We gotta figure this out. Like, I need to leave a good impression because I knew me and Colby would do from the start. We want to get hired out from other lights.” And so, we wanted to go there and, you know, show them ’cause they had SDRs too. 

[00:59:06] Chris Corcoran: Still 

[00:59:07] Marc Gonyea: we were 

[00:59:10] Chris Corcoran: going.

[00:59:13] Omar Lopez: But 

[00:59:13] yes, ’cause they didn’t really outbound. They’re still. Indoor cats.

[00:59:17] Exactly. That’s what they were still getting flushed by, like, a lot of inbound and stuff, so they weren’t like us, me and Colby is straight-up outbound. 

[00:59:25] Marc Gonyea: Scrappy outdoor cats.

[00:59:27] Omar Lopez: Exactly, exactly. And so, going from there, right, we were just like, “Man, like, we need to figure this out.” What do you guys call it? 

[00:59:32] “C-Webs?”

[00:59:40] That’s what I was trying to receive, what you have is right.

[00:59:43] And so, 

[00:59:44] we’re getting those, C-Webs, right, but, like, my booking into C-Web ratio wasn’t as good, it wasn’t solid. And so, then, it’s so that we were just figuring it out and then we were still a lot of role-playing, role play with Yorkie and Joe helped a lot too at this point ’cause that’s when Nimit was just really busy going back and forth.

[01:00:01] And then, Joe was helping out, giving us a lot of role-playing tips because I was telling him, “Man, like, we got to go in quickly, like, we kind of went a little off what we really teach here and the machine music, she was a great mom, and so, then we kind kinda, like, adapted to the style,

[01:00:16] the world of antivirus or input security and what these guys want to hear. And then, we adapted a great script and, oh, man, I never used, because I was talking to you about it when you came, well, what did you say to me, which I still take, I still tell people when I coach them, humanize a conversation, don’t be afraid to humanize conversation. Be human.

[01:00:35] If you guys, obviously, these people don’t, no one wants to talk to a cold-caller. If I cold-called you guys right now, you guys probably won’t even pick it up, right? And I was like, “Yeah, it’s true.” And so, then that’s when I got my script and just kind of, like, humanized it a little bit, like, “Hey man, I know you would say, like, “Hey, more Malwarebytes,”

[01:00:50] I know,” like, and then, usually, ” Oh, we went in and then, that’s when we created just a senior from the field. Does that name sound familiar?” ” Yeah, I know, Omar, but it’s not okay.” “So, you know, X, Y, and Z,” Like, “Yeah, of course. I got a second. What do you want though?” And so, then we went in there and, and that’s when I kinda did my pitch, my eliminated,

[01:01:07] and then you start booking meetings, how many meetings, and that’s when it started like, “Ooh, I’m talking, like, 

[01:01:13] we were destroying, 

[01:01:14] we were doing, oh man, that was fun. I remember that’s when I started feeling, like, the confidence like a mother, we were so happy.

[01:01:21] Omar Lopez: We were happy kids, booking 

[01:01:23] meetings and working away, and then that’s when we started getting invited to work at, onsite and they put us all, like, we were all in the floor, the SDR floor, and we got there SDRs and me and Colby, and they wouldn’t doubt. They wouldn’t doubt that much at the time.

[01:01:37] Chris Corcoran: And you said they?

[01:01:38] Omar Lopez: Like, their SDRs, their internalist years.

[01:01:41] And so, then, we were just out a lot. 

[01:01:43] That’s what we do. Yeah. I think we’re, we’re hitting, 

[01:01:46] at first we’re hitting a hundred, but then we were being smart about people who were calling because first, we were just finally calling, then we started going on, like, then, inviting more people, accurate people that they’re using, they give us Zoom info or 

[01:02:01] discovery arcs, funny 

[01:02:03] direct lines,

[01:02:04] and it kind of slowed down our call process, so we were hitting, like, averaging 80, and not only that, but we’re also talking to people and we’re booking meetings, we’re getting referrals, we’re getting like, “Oh no, I’m not talking to this person, and this, IT security, all this stuff,” so, and then, we started just booking so many meetings, I think a lot of time was taken because we had to do our lead write-ups.

[01:02:26] Marc Gonyea: You’re already 

[01:02:28] booking tons of meetings. 

[01:02:30] Omar Lopez: Of course. Yeah, of course. That took some time, I remember Yorkie would always tell,

[01:02:35] “Dude. Don’t do it during a work day, do it after work.” But then it was like, “Dude, after work, like, I just booked, like, four meetings today, man. Like, you know how 

[01:02:41] long it is going to take? I just want to go home and work out.”

[01:02:46] I was like, and then I was, 

[01:02:49] “I 

[01:02:49] gotta do this right now. If I don’t this right now, I’m not going to do it.” And so, then I think. 

[01:02:53] Marc Gonyea: “Yeah, I’m booking the meetings, what do you want from me?”

[01:02:57] Omar Lopez: Yeah, we had, me and Colby have a 

[01:02:58] great relationship with Yorkie. And so, again, he was teaching us a lot and I remember we were just, we were intimidated a little bit because we felt like we were, like, new kids in the scene, new kids at school 

[01:03:10] Marc Gonyea: Well,

[01:03:10] I remember when we sold the deal too, and I was like, “Dude, if we can make this work, won’t blow it for us.” ‘Cause even the manager, he was a great guy, but it was just a different cultural experience ’cause they had primarily lived off the name recognition on the inbound with Malwarebytes. If we can, like, we’re bookers, no one wants to do the outbound work.

[01:03:29] It’s not those people’s fault who worked there because you gotta, like, put people on notice, you have to reorient the whole office. So, you, you guys go in there, their minds were probably blown 

[01:03:39] ’cause they’re probably, like, “Who the fuck are these guys?

[01:03:42] Chris Corcoran: And they are like, “They’re leaving voicemails?”

[01:03:43] Marc Gonyea: Yeah.

[01:03:44] Right, exactly, 

[01:03:47] on the voicemails, ’cause they don’t understand the voicemail is, like, practice for the conversation, some people might get it and they feel a little guilty, so 

[01:03:53] when you do get on the phone, they’ll be able to give you a little more time.