 All right. Welcome back to the channel. I'm really excited today. I've got a great interview for you guys. So basically, I'm bringing Rin on to the channel and she was able to land a job in technology in two weeks. So she went from walking dogs for a living to landing a job in technology in literally two weeks. So I'm super excited to have you on the channel, Rin, to have you tell your story. So thank you so much for coming on. Shane, thank you so much for having me. This is a big deal. I appreciate it. All good. All good. Well, let's go ahead and just jump into your story. Maybe let's go all the way back to the beginning before you even knew about all this opportunity in the technology world. So, you know, you were walking dogs for a living, which is an awesome job. I mean, it's cool to be able to get paid to do that. But you kind of wanted maybe something a little more, something with a little more upward mobility. So could you kind of take me back there and just tell me like what your life was like and what your mindset was like and how you discovered tech sales? For sure. So just a little bit of backstory. I lived in Atlanta for a while and I moved back to the Washington, D.C. area in August. So I'm a musician. I'm a singer, songwriter, and my songwriting team and I, we've written for a lot of people in the industry. And for me, music is my passion. But I found it hard to invest in my dream as a dog walker and my previous experience working in customer service. So I had enough money to live and pay my bills, but I didn't exactly have enough money to, you know, pay for my dreams and my passions. And so I was like, something's got to give. You know, I've got to make a change. Like there needs to be some kind of a shift. And my I turned 34 in September. And I remember when I turned 34, I was just like, look, universe, like I'm setting my intentions. I need some kind of something, honestly. And about a month later, I was on YouTube and came across the Anthony O'Neill and Cyrus Harbin's interview. And Anthony had mentioned course careers. And I was like, hmm, okay, you know, what's that about? So I decided to, you know, kind of go down the rabbit hole and looked at it, you know, looked it up for myself. Everything tech sales. I took up the introductory course that Troy has. I came to YouTube, I found you on YouTube. And yeah, that was October 25th. And that's that's officially when I, well, that's officially when I started. And that's that's the journey for me. That's been the start of the journey. Awesome. And so, okay, you discovered course careers, you decided to enroll approximately October 25th or so. And how was the curriculum and course careers? Could you kind of just describe that and kind of just go over how helpful it was and your experience with that? Yeah, so I've said it before, and I'll say it again, shout out to Troy. Troy is absolutely amazing. He's the founder and CEO of course careers. And Troy does the entire course, right? He's your instructor throughout the entire course. And I've told him before, I said, Troy, you explained everything in such a way that whether you are a beginner to tech sales or you've been in tech sales, and I don't know, maybe you're coming back to it for whatever reason, Troy has a way of meeting you where you are. And that's what I love the most about it. Because me, someone who comes from a customer service background was walking dogs. I knew nothing, like when I say nothing, I mean, absolutely nothing about what tech sales was. And so I loved how he started us from the very beginning, you know, from the very beginning, he started us off and, you know, just slowly but surely kind of opened us up to more of the terminology and more of the different dynamics and aspects of what tech sales is. Got it, got it. And how was kind of the community inside of the course? Did you find the community and the networking aspect to be valuable? Absolutely. So truth be told, I never was in the Discord group. But I did go on like immediately and I got a LinkedIn, I got my LinkedIn started. And that's been a game changer for me, Shane. Like if I can say anything to anybody, get your LinkedIn together. That's been a game changer for me. I've had such an amazing community, not just within course careers, but other people that are in tech sales, that have been in tech sales for a lot longer. Maybe they worked at Oracle or, you know, some other company. And, you know, it's just been amazing because everyone's been so willing to share their advice, share their input. Actually, that's how I met my mentors as well just by reaching out and like, hey, you know, I'm just breaking into this space. Do you have any insight that you can kind of give to me? And now, you know, my mentors are like, hey, let's, let's partner up on some things. You know, so it opened up a whole new door for me that I didn't even know was really possible, truthfully. So the community has been amazing from anyone that's, you know, even if you're just starting course careers, there's such a community to where we just embrace everybody. We're like, oh, you're new. Welcome. Do you need anything? You need any help? Like reach out anytime. And then if you graduate and get the certification, we're all just sending you messages and DMs like, hey, like, we're so proud of you. So it's been one of the most supportive communities I've ever been a part of. How long exactly did it take you from enrolling in course careers to landing that first job offer? I'm not going to lie to you, Shane. I'm pretty proud about this. You know, this is, this is one of my finer moments. Two weeks took me two weeks. And I tell people all the time, you know, your race is your own, right? You know, run your own race. It might take you two months. And that's perfectly fine, you know, as long as you find yourself in a company that works for you, right? And so, but yeah, I started course careers. It was like a Monday or Tuesday. And then by that Saturday, I started applying for jobs. And then by that Tuesday, I received the call from zoom info for an interview. And then the next Tuesday, I was offered the position. So it was literally like two weeks. That is incredible. Going from like zero experience in technology, no knowledge of tech sales to landing a job in two weeks. That that is absolutely incredible. That's awesome. I do want to ask you a question about the salary because I know everybody always wonders about that. So what was the salary like? What was the salary offer in that first job? It came in at 80k. It came in at 80,000 yearly salary. And that's way more than what I was making as a dog walker, way more than what I was making in customer service and working in nonprofits. How about, is it a fully, is it a remote position? Are you doing it remotely? So we're actually, we're remote until January. As of January 17th, we go into the office one day a week. So I'll be working from home the other four, and then going into the office only one day a week. I went into the office last week, just to kind of like be in the atmosphere and just get to know my fellow colleagues. Okay, gotcha. So how much time does that save you working remote? Does it does it save you quite a bit of time in terms of like the commute in the morning and that sort of thing? Absolutely. I've lived in pretty major cities, you know, all my life. Like I said, I just came from Atlanta, which is a traffic central place. And then DC is one of the same. So when I went to the office last week, Shane, it took me an hour and 25 minutes to get there, to get to the office. So the fact that I'm literally coming downstairs every single day, and just, you know, sitting at my desk or, you know, sitting, sitting outside on the patio, or you know, what have you, that's saving me so much gas. And it's like my mornings are my mornings. 80k job right off the bat, semi remote. What about benefits? Does the company offer like really good benefits? Could you talk on that a little bit? For sure. So yeah, we've got the, you know, unlimited PTO that you hear about. We've got, you know, great healthcare. And that was something that was really, really important to me. Because in my role as a dog walker, I didn't have access to that. So having healthcare was really, really important. And then just like, this is not like a necessarily a benefit that they talk about per se. But I think the benefit of just working in this space and working for the company that I do has been the support coming into this as a first time. Or I'm like, what the hell am I doing? You know, like I don't know what to do. This is, this is crazy. I'm 34. And I'm just like deciding to make this career change. And, you know, that the support has been absolutely amazing. I've never received support like this from any other position. So that's one of the major benefits. And even I had a day where I have a, you know, I have a LinkedIn presence, a pretty big platform and, you know, doing all of these kinds of things. I have a podcast, all of these things that I'm getting in the works. And I was feeling like really overwhelmed one day. And I just remember just reaching out to my manager and I was like, Hey, like, I'm just really overwhelmed. And you know, I'm just, I just got a lot going on. She was like, okay, see you on Monday. You know, and it was just like no questions as she was just like, listen, I'll see you on Monday. Take care of yourself. Your mental health comes first. That is priority. And I love how they have, what's the word I'm looking for? They've prioritized us. You know, we're not just another number. We're humans, you know, with emotions and we need a break. And so, yeah, I've never, I've never had that. And she was just like, yeah, take a mental health day. I'll see you later. Gotcha. Gotcha. And I wanted to kind of go into your passion as well a little bit because that's something I love talking about on my channel. Because I just think most of the advice out there for how to follow your passion is just pretty bad overall. And I have kind of an alternative advice that I give people for that. So the advice that I typically give people for how to follow their passion is, obviously, I love following passion like I've always wanted to be a YouTuber. And now, now I'm doing the YouTube thing. And it's, it's great. It's awesome. But typically, I will tell people to find some sort of steady, stable income that they can rely on. And then do your passion on the side. Because almost all the time it's going to take years to build it up to the point where it can sustain itself, especially with like artistic endeavors. And so that's the advice that I almost always give people is find some sort of steady, stable income, and then follow your passion on the side. And if you do that, you know, three, you know, three years, two years, three years down the line, there's a good chance that you will be able to build it up to the point where you can quit your job and you know, do it full time. But for building your passion, it's going to take a lot of time. And in many cases, it's also going to take some money, like you're going to have to invest some money in it as well. And so would you would you agree with that overall for kind of advice on following your passions and your dreams on the side? Shane, I'm so glad you asked me this now, because if it were a year ago, I wouldn't, I actually wouldn't agree. Because I was of the, you know, I have the mindset of, oh, you know, I, you know, I'm, I'm going to my passion is going to get me here. My passion is going to get me there. And, you know, but I was struggling financially. The things it just wasn't clicking for me, like, you know, I'm here, I am telling myself, oh, my passion is going to take off and it's going to be big and it's going to be great. It's going to pay for everything. And what I wasn't realizing was I need money to do this, honestly. I need money to do this. And as a creative, as a, as a songwriter, one of the things that I saw, you know, with my team of musicians, everybody was super was and is super, super incredibly talented. No one had the money seriously to back themselves up as an artist. They've got the talent. They've even got, you know, support from, you know, a couple thousand followers on Instagram. But you've got to have the money to put into marketing. You've got to have the money to put into branding. You've got, you know, all of those things. And so I remember just looking around and saying, I think we're doing it wrong. I remember talking to my best friend Rob one day and I said, Hey dude, I think we're doing this wrong. I don't, I don't think we're doing this right. And I've always been one of those people like, I don't, I don't need to work for anybody. I don't want to work for anybody. I don't, you know, I'm going to go out here. I will door dash and Uber eats my way to, you know, money. But honestly, living like that was, was more stressful than anything. And so if you get into these roles, you don't have to stay in it forever. And I think my mindset was like, if I get in the job, I'm just going to be stuck. And no, not if you have a plan. If you have a plan and you work your plan, you could end up being at that position for six months for a year, whatever that timeframe is for you to get done, what you need to get done outside of that job. That's, that needs to be your why that needs to be one of your wise, at least, you know, because that's going to carry you on the days that you're like, man, screw this place. I don't, I don't want to do this. I don't have to be here. And that, that I would definitely, definitely agree with you. Find something, especially if you have a passion or dream and a vision outside of that position, find something, something that you're going to make good money with that, you know, you're, you're not going to stress yourself out about, you're going to have that good work, life balance and dedicate yourself to that and just take that money and poured into, poured into the vision. So what would you say to somebody who is maybe thinking about going into tech sales, maybe thinking about using course careers, which is the company you used to get the training to go into tech sales. And by the way, course careers, they do have a free training, which I will put down in the description as well as the pinned comment below. The free training will go through what tech sales is, if you're confused about that, why it's such a good career, sort of what your options are going into tech sales. And then if you choose to do the more advanced training, I have a $50 off coupon. I believe the coupon code is Shane 50. I'll put that down in the description in the pinned comment as well. But what would you say to somebody who's kind of on the fence about that? So like Shane just mentioned, definitely try out the free, the free course. That's what I did. I did that first before I even signed up. So that's a great starting point. And anybody that's on the fence, I'm going to say this because every time I share my story, I always share this because I feel like there's someone out there that it will resonate with. I have a learning disability and I have ADHD. And here I am. I took a chance on myself. And I think that's ultimately what you want to do. I think so many people, and I've even had it, I've had people that say, no way, that can't be real. And I'm like, I'm living proof. Like you can come to my house and watch me work if you want. You know, I'm actually doing this on a day-to-day basis. So if you are on the fence, you really and truly have to ask yourself, what do I want for myself within the next five years? It might be some big grand dream. It might just be, you know, I want to buy a house and just live comfortably with my family. And then you have to ask yourself, if where you are now, is that going to help you get there? And be really honest with yourself. Is that going to help you get there? And yeah, it might help you get there, you know, 10 years from now with the promotion. But if you want to kind of fast track your way to getting there, get off the fence. Like this is the perfect place to be. I'm an introvert and people think because I know how to hold a conversation that I'm an extrovert, I'm not. I prefer to be alone all the time. And if I don't have to talk to people, I won't, you know. And so I want people to know that if you're an introvert, if you suffer from anxiety, if you, you know, whatever, please know that this is still very much so possible for you. If you're on the fence because of age, my mom is 69 years old and is taking course careers. Like right, you know, like it's just whether you, you know, if you believe you can, you can, if you believe you can't, you won't. Yeah. Well, hey, it was awesome talking with you. Let's definitely stay in touch. And thank you so much for coming on the channel, Ren. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. And thank you guys for watching out there. If you need to find me, Ren, R-E-N, Hawthorne, H-A-W-T-H-O-R-N-E on LinkedIn, you can message me anytime. And I totally be glad to help.