 In today's video, I'm going to be interviewing Kyle McGuire, who was working as a union tradesman at a pretty stable job, but it wasn't a job that had a lot of room for growth. So he was making decent money, but there wasn't that many opportunities to advance. So he started looking online at careers he could get into that don't require a college degree or any experience, and within one year he was making six figures a year in a remote job. So this is going to be his story, and we're going to be sharing all the juicy details, like which career it is, how much he got paid, how long it took him to get into the career, how he got into the career, etc. So if you appreciate videos like this, go ahead and gently tap that like button and also hit the subscribe button. Let's try to get this video to 300 likes. What's happening guys? Welcome back to the channel. Today I have somebody who recently, about a year, a little bit over a year ago, went into tech sales and they originally started off with the kind of like entry level job, SDR, BDR role, and they actually just graduated into another role. So first of all, congratulations for that. And I wanted to get somebody who was about a year, year and a half into it to kind of show your progress if you do decide to go into tech sales. So thank you so much Kyle for coming on the channel. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Hey Shane, thanks so much for having me and thanks for the congratulations. I'm really excited. Awesome. All right. So let's go ahead and kind of start at the beginning. Maybe if you can talk about your background a little bit and kind of like what you did before you got into tech sales and then kind of the story of you discovering tech sales and eventually, you know, getting into that first BDR role. Yeah. Yeah. So I was, I've been blue collar worker my whole life. Union guy grew up in steel mill country in the Midwest. And just that's kind of what I knew started off with Honda ended up working for a big company food manufacturing company called Conagra. And then just when COVID hit, you know, kind of got tired of spending all my hours member of the grocery stores were empty of food in the beginning. Yeah. Well, I was I was working nonstop around the clock to get them filled back up again. And just not a great way to live, you know, not scalable really just one and more out of life. So found course careers and it really set me in the direction of really changing my life. Got it. So you discovered course careers, which just for a little bit of context, course careers is Troy's company, Troy is the CEO of course careers. And he basically teaches people tech sales. He teaches them the basics of it. And then he partners with companies and helps them to get jobs in tech sales. So these are entry level roles. There are people who are getting jobs in less than a month. And I'm not like being hyperbolic when I say that literally people getting jobs in less than a month. So that is kind of what we're talking about in this video. So I forgot to mention this, but if you do want to learn more about tech sales, Troy does have a free class on his website. You can check that out. He's going to tell you like the different roles in tech and kind of other roles that you can move in down the line, as well as the skills that it involves, whether it's a good fit for you or not a good fit for you. I did take the class myself. I thought it was very useful. I will go ahead and put that down in the description below. And if you decide that you want to use Troy's service where he trains you in tech sales, then he gets you interviews with companies, then you can use the coupon code Shane 50. I believe it is. I'll put that down there. I forgot where the coupon goes, but I'll put that down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. You discovered course careers and you started taking the curriculum. And at the time you were actually one of Troy's first students. So it was a little bit less basic than it is now. And he didn't actually have partnerships with companies like he does now. So can you kind of talk about the curriculum about a year or so ago? Yeah. So, you know, you hit the nail on the head. It's a much more robust course now than it was kind of when I went through it. I was virtually the first successful student to go through the class. It was more of a, for me, it was really a worksheet, a Google worksheet on a shared drive. That's kind of what it was for me. But the curriculum was there, right? The meat and the potatoes, the actual stuff that Troy wanted to get across and needed to, needed his students to learn. That was still there. So it just got a much nicer polish on it now. And yeah, there wasn't, he didn't quite have the fleshed out idea of having companies, you know, on board, kind of preemptively ready to accept some of these students and get a more permanent jobs. So I kind of, you know, a little different of a story for me. I kind of graduated the class and really had to take what I learned and applied it to finding a job. So I, you know, had to prospect out decision makers, apply cold outreach and see what I could land. And I landed. I started with eight jobs and I ended up with going through four, four different companies, you know, interview process and I ended up with two job offers the exact same day. Pretty cool going from, you know, blue collar, no college, really, you know, kind of what are you doing in this background, in this area to having two job offers the same day and kind of picking my own destiny. Pretty cool. Yeah, that is really awesome. So just to clarify really quickly, you were doing the course part-time. So you were working full-time while you were going through the course. And I believe you said it took about three months or so to get through the course for you. And then after you got through the course, how long did it take for you to actually get your first job offer? It was less than a month. It was, it was, we're talking weeks. Now it did take, you know, I got the job offer in towards the beginning of, end of February, beginning of March. And I didn't start at the job until April. But I, you know, so there's a little gap, but like, yeah, getting the job offer, it was literally, it was like three, three to four weeks after I graduated the course. Awesome. So basically three and a half, four months or so between you discovering the course and starting it and getting your first job offer, an entry level SDR, was it SDR or a BDR role? To me, those, those terms are completely interchangeable. I don't really see a difference of variation in those. But for all intents and purposes is BDR role. Basically, so it took three and a half, four months or so for you to get that first entry level job. And if you don't mind me asking, what was the pay life for that first one? So I can't lie. So I did take a little bit of a pay cut only because I was very experienced at my previous position. I was in a more of a crew lead capacity type role. And it was a union. So I made pretty decent. But my first, so my first role in the SDR world was around probably around like 50, 50 to 55,000 a year total. That was base plus OTE, not the greatest. And really the market has already changed since then. That has really gone up since then the base level SDR pay has really gone up since that at that point. That was kind of the norm for the my geographical area. But since then it's even become more work from home base less centralized. And because of that basis have gone up across the board. When you look around at SDR jobs and BDR jobs. Yeah, and you know, one thing I will mention really quickly is, you know, you were one of Troy's first students and this was before he actually formed partnerships with companies. So the fact that he was able to get you, I think you said you applied to eight really, you know, pretty decent companies and you actually got four invites to get interviewed. That kind of just shows the ridiculous amount of demand that there is for this position. Because, you know, there's some careers out there where you might apply to 100 different places and you might get maybe two to four interviews. And these are like pretty well known careers. So when you're seeing numbers like that where you're applying to eight places, you're getting four interviews. I mean, that just shows how much demand there is for this position. And that was before Troy even set up the partnership for the companies. Now you pretty much automatically get like eight interviews right after you graduate or something like that, like 10 interviews, he told me. So that's a that's that's pretty amazing. And, you know, I always tell people on this channel the number one most important metric you want to look at is demand because everything else follows demand is kind of like the law of gravity. There's a lot of demand for a certain skill set. You know, the pay is going to go up, they're going to treat you better, you're going to have more opportunity to rise up the ranks is just on and on and on like everything else gets better when there's more demand. So can we maybe talk about your promotion that you just recently got? What position is it for one and if you don't mind, again, if you could maybe tell me what what the salaries like and if you're not comfortable, it's solely fine. You can maybe just talk about generally speaking what the salaries like in a position like that. Yeah, so I'm now I'm with a company called Sonic you. I'm inside sales rep for them full sales cycle. Definitely six figures will say will say we're at you know we're sitting at 100 with. I mean to be honest with you that one of the main reasons I took this role with this company is because they're growing exponentially skies the limit. Really, they have a great product great market fit. They have had a lot of success with inbound and with my background in an aggressive outbound. I believe it's a great fit for me. It's kind of a wide open, no untouched opportunity for me to really just go out there and go after aggressive outreach go after some of these bigger systems that they sell to hospital systems is what they sell to and so it's just it's one thing to say in theory you know my base is good and in theory I should be hitting around 100 to 115 this year, but I want to blow that out of the water to be honest with you. I want to make some big waves and do some big things with this company to really kind of blow out the world is my oyster it's really it's really up to me how much I make at this point. Awesome so basically you are approximately a year and maybe a few months in to working in tech sales and you've already hit that you're probably very, very likely going to hit that six figure level. At this point you're right yes. You're 100% right. And you might blow it out of the water by quite a bit as well which I love it. That's right. I mean, what there's not that many careers out there that you can do that where you, you know you go into the career, you have no experience in the career itself no sales experience, and you're about a year in or so and you're hitting that six figure level. I mean, what other careers that you can you do that very, very few. You're 100% right and then circle back a little bit. So there's two things so there's two takeaways for me one is, you know, you spoke about that demand and about the market needs of the SDR the BDR role. And, you know, if I'm being 100% honest with you, it's because really this this this role is not for everybody. It is, it's a grinder of a job. You have to wake up and something I heard recently as cells is a transfer of emotion. So you kind of have to have that energy you have to bring that passion and that energy into your job and that call that email whatever it is, you have to put your, your, your passion into it, and you're trying to invoke that that you're trying to transfer that passion over to, you know, the prospect. And so it can be a grind, because you hear a lot of no. And when you hear a lot of no, you got to you have to compartmentalize and kind of move past that. And so it's not for everybody. But that's kind of why that demand is there is because they are look, it takes a type of person that is really hungry and just really wants it and have that passion and bring that drive every day. And that's what that's what it takes and so if you if you have a college degree if you don't have a college degree doesn't matter if you have the passion. And I, you know, I truly believe you can be successful as a salesperson, and especially in the tech in the tech vertical, the money and the promotion. The, it's one thing it's one thing to not have a college degree and getting to an entry level job, but a whole nother aspect of it is does not having a college degree does does having or not having that college degree holds you back from seeing avenues for promotions and things like that. And I, you know, from my perspective, I don't see that at all. I really, I really don't. Once you're in the game. It's really about those KPIs those those key performance indicators that's that's really what it's about hitting your metrics, having that hustle, showing up every day and getting those numbers. Everything else doesn't matter nothing. All of it's just talk after that you can like your boss could like you could not like you personally. If you hit those numbers, and you're making the company money, then it doesn't that doesn't even matter. Numbers lie, you know, men lie women lie numbers don't right. I love the way you put that yeah. Is there kind of a certain type of personality that you see doing well in this type of position. And specifically, I'm kind of referring to introvert versus extrovert. Do you think introverts wouldn't be good in this position. I've seen introverts and extroverts excel in this kind of role. I've seen introverts who think that they would are going to struggle in this role, but get in the role and then it almost blossom blossom something inside of them. And that doesn't mean that they're like suddenly an extrovert in life. It just means that sitting at a desk behind a computer with the headset on kicks, you know, flips a switch for them and all of a sudden, they feel a little, especially when you when you really know your product if you even if you're an introvert doesn't matter if you know your product really well, and you know that that product is a need for your market. Then it's really more. The role is really more teaching the market, you know, about that need exploring that need kind of amplifying that need so that they take a more proactive instead of a reactive approach to it. And then, you know, trying to, you know, have your solution fit that need. And so in that essence, you know, I've really seen introverts kind of excel, they rise to that occasion they become that that teacher. They're impassioned by their product. They know that their product works they know that there's a need for it. And so they they they just feel emboldened to go out there and kind of have those conversations. Now in their day to day life are they still an introvert. Yeah, definitely. It didn't change them. You know, in their core being, but it just gave them another avenue that they can kind of do something they wouldn't classically think that they would be able to do speaking of kind of like being too salesy. I kind of just wanted to talk about this role in tech sales, where you're basically solving problems for companies. And then maybe contrast that to what people would typically, because this is one of the biggest objections I see in the section, is people think it's like a little bit too salesy, like you're used car salesman, or maybe you're like a timeshare salesman, that sort of thing. Like you're convincing somebody to get something that isn't necessarily going to help them versus a tech sales role. So can you kind of talk about the difference between those two. You know, when, when you're selling business to business in the tech world. It's not just money on the line that per the person who's purchasing could be their job on the line. You know, so they take the purchase with a lot a lot more serious there's a lot less knee jerk reaction. You know, when you're making a personal buying choice. Sometimes you're, you're looking at features costs and things like that but but you you're you're typically you know the worst thing you're out of is you feel like you did, you made a bad decision, and you're out some money. But when you're purchasing for a company. You, you're now you're now you're putting your job your livelihood how you actually make money on the line with your purchasing choices. So generally, you know, those go a lot more in depth. Drag your feet a lot longer and cross those teas and dot those eyes. More so than if you were making a personal buying decision. And so for the seller. Like, you know, these cheap closing tricks and things like it's just not going to work. It's truly establishing a relationship and trying to convince them of the value of what your your solution is offering. To convince them of the need and trying and then trying to, you know, assure them that you've done this before this is your realm, and that they are in good hands with you. So what would you say to somebody who is thinking about possibly signing up with course careers and becoming a SDR BDR getting into tech sales, but they're kind of on the fence and they're not sure whether they want to do it or not. What would you say just like practical advice to figure out if it's the right choice for them. Yeah, I would say, you know, if, if you think you have the grind and if you think you have the ability to push through a lot of nose and rejection and and hunt for those yeses. If you have that ability, then 100% sign up for course careers. It will change your life. You can really make some of quality living in this in this vertical with quality of life quality of money. You just, it's really hard to beat without a college degree. It's virtually impossible. And I can't think of a better path for somebody who really has their eye on the prize, and then has that drive inside of them. Awesome. I think that's great advice. And, you know, I've kind of interviewed people at just about every level at this point I've interviewed people who just started like a month ago what they were making. I've been, you know, this is an interview with you, you're about a year, a year and a few months in, you're making around six figures or so. I interviewed another person who was about four years in or so they're making around 220 probably even more than that this year. And then I interviewed another person who's five years in, but they also have quite a bit of experience in tech as well as supply chain, and they're probably going to hit 600,000 this year. You know, it's very clear, you know, where you start and if you have that grind if you have the ability to produce results where you can go you know five years into your career you could be making some you know 200 300, maybe even 500 to $600,000 a year. So there's really not that many careers out there where you can do that that have this insane amount of opportunity. That's why I talk about careers like this on the channel this channel is basically like a cheat code for people. Sometimes I talk about careers that require a college degree there's some good ones, but there's a lot of careers out there that do not require a college degree and tech sales is one of them so thank you so much for coming on the channel Kyle and talking about your experience. Maybe we'll get you back in like a year or so you can you can talk about it again give us all an update. That would be awesome but yeah thank you so much for coming on I really appreciate it. Hey thanks for having me Shane. I hope I hope everyone enjoyed the interview and yeah I'd love to round up again maybe another year year and a half, and I can be that you know two $300,000 guy, given the interview, telling my story again be great.