 So today, I have an amazing one for you, okay? We are gonna be interviewing Della today. And Della basically was a stay at home mom who was attending college. She was trying to get into cybersecurity and she found tech sales. And she decided that tech sales was gonna be a better fit for her because she really enjoys talking to other people and interacting. And so she decided to go into tech sales and within a month and a half, she got a job offer from her dream company for over $100,000 a year, okay? So Della is an absolute rockstar. This is not typical. Most people will get job offers for maybe like 65, 70,000 something along those lines, but Della is just awesome. She got a job offer from a company. She actually skipped the entry level job and went to a job that typically you have to work for a couple of years before you get into. But yeah, don't wanna ruin the whole video for you. You definitely wanna watch this one until the very end. So go ahead, gently tap that like button and let's jump into it. What's happening guys? Welcome back to the channel. And today I am very excited to bring on a very special guest, Della. Thank you so much for coming on the channel, Della. Hi Shane, I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. So Della is probably one of the most interesting guests I'm gonna have on the channel. She has a super, super cool story and we're gonna get into it, but she was basically able to go from no experience to landing a job in tech sales in about one month or so. I forgot the exact time period. I'll ask her on that. And she was able to make over six figures in one month. So we're gonna get into this, but before we get into that, Della, if you could just give me a little bit of a background and kind of just a brief introduction about yourself. Hi, okay. So I'm Della and I started out going to college. I graduated from high school and went straight into college and things didn't work out. I just had some family things going on and I really struggled for years of figuring out how to pay for college and stay focused and pay for normal everyday life needs. So I bounced around a few colleges and I wound up in the military. And after the military, I wound up back at college, got my associates in business administration. And then I started going to school for cybersecurity. While in school, I realized that that long troll of college was, it was good and it was something I could benefit from, but I felt like there were better options out there and I stumbled upon forced careers and I was able to pivot into a tech sales career. So I was able to combine some earlier experience in sales with some of the knowledge that I gained while in school for cybersecurity and merge those two worlds and find the beautiful career of tech sales. Got it. So I kind of wanted to talk a little bit more about the college thing. You mentioned this before the interview as well. So you actually went to four different colleges before you kind of stumbled upon tech sales. And when you found tech sales, you were in the process of going to college. I believe you told me you were going to get your cybersecurity degree. And then you basically realized like this is the career for me. You're kind of a type of person where you like remote jobs. That's what you told me. But at the same time, you also liked talking to other people. So it was almost like a combination of introvert extrovert sort of thing there. So you like talking to other people but at the same time, you like remote jobs where you get to work from home. And that's exactly what tech sales provides, right? So can you kind of speak on that a little bit? Yeah. So as far as the college goes, I did go to four different colleges, including my current college. You know, I was that student that constantly changed their major and I didn't really know exactly what they wanted to do. I grew up in a household where I didn't necessarily have two parents living with me. I didn't have a lot of the advantages. So I didn't just come from that background where, you know, I just didn't know what I want to do. I didn't really know what options were actually out there. Wasn't really exposed to a lot of professions growing up. So, you know, we were very big on education. I was raised by my great-grandmother who was born in the 30s. And so she valued education. She didn't necessarily have the same opportunity that I had. So she was very adamant about the importance of education. And I do agree that education is very important. There are also some other factors that go into that like personality and, you know, what your life looks like at that moment. So I bounced around a lot of different majors, a lot of different colleges. And once I was older and I had children, I realized, you know, I do enjoy being around people, but I really needed that flexibility to be able to work from home to, you know, have those days where I can still do my job if I don't go into the office. But I still needed to talk to people. I went to, well, at Drexel, I was doing online studies. So I was there, you know, I noticed, you know, it was during COVID, everyone was at home, everyone was remote. So I realized, you know, while it's good to be home, I still need to be able to talk to people. So I was able to find, you know, the best of both worlds. And I'm really happy about that. Absolutely. And you know what? I totally agree with you and your grandma on the statement that education is important. I think it might be one of the most important things for a country. Education is incredibly important. Where I tend to disagree with a lot of opinions out there is where education is synonymous with university. Where like some people think that education and university are the same thing. And so university has a monopoly on education. That's kind of what's happened here in the US. And of course, when you have a monopoly, what's going to happen? The prices are going to go up, up, up, up, up. And that's exactly what's happened here in the US. A lot of other countries don't have this issue. And in many cases, especially in the modern age with modern technology, and especially after COVID happened and everything went remote, there's just a ton of better ways of getting into careers. And so this is kind of something that you stumbled upon which was course careers. And let me know kind of how you found it. Once I had this epiphany that, hey, you know what? Maybe I should look and see if this thing that I'm thinking of is real. I started looking around because I wanted to merge tech and sales. So I didn't even know if it was an actual career at the time. I started looking on everywhere, YouTube, TikTok, wherever I could look. And then I just realized that I found the term SDR. So then I typed that into Indeed to see if, hey, maybe I can just apply and see if my skills transfer over. And I actually found an ad for course careers on Indeed. And the thing that stood out to me was the connections that Troy gave you, the fact that he walked with you through your interview process, he was going to stay and have weekly meetings with you. And that was something that was unique to course careers. I, to my knowledge, don't know of any other online course or even just apprenticeship where they literally help you every step of the way. And they don't let go. And I still communicate with Troy regularly. So it's something that you get a long-term relationship with someone who has been in the field for years and was a great account executive. And that's what really stood out with course careers. Upon reflection, though, I think that now looking back, the best thing about course careers is that you're not learning to ride a bike at a seminar. If you're familiar with the book, you actually get role-play experience. You actually get to hear the types of questions that you could ask on a discovery call, the type of demo questions, and you really get experience versus just theory. That's interesting that you mentioned that because I was just doing a bunch of research on different tech sales boot camps and stuff. And Troy sort of told me about tech sales boot camps, but I hadn't really paid too much attention to them. But there are boot camps that literally charge you $30,000. And they're the very common ones. These are ones that thousands and thousands of people use every year, and they charge you $30,000. And I believe it takes three to four months before you even finish the boot camp and start to apply to get a job. So course careers is getting... I'll just spoil it for everybody. It's $450 if you use the $50 off coupon, which I'll link down in the description in the pinned comment below. And it's getting people jobs, but a lot of people one month, two months, somewhere around there. Sometimes like three months, if you're doing it part-time, it's getting people jobs very fast. And you contrast that course careers, how hands-on it is, how it's getting people jobs fast. It's teaching you the information really quickly. It's $450 versus a $30,000 boot camp, right? And maybe they aren't even getting people as good of results because they probably do a bunch of other boot camps like software development and digital marketing and all this other stuff. And so they probably don't even have like a central focus on tech sales like course careers has right now. So yeah, Troy just does a phenomenal job. That's the reason why I partnered with him because I saw the results he's getting people and it's just like out of this world, it's better than anybody else in the industry by a mile. So one thing I'll say is a lot of people recommend course careers for those trying to pivot into a new industry, but I would like to go on the record and also say that course careers is also for that SDR that for some reason, you're making your dials, you might be just hitting average or you might be just barely making quota. Course careers can help you elevate your skills because you're not just learning the role, you're really learning how to enhance yourself skills, really learning those soft skills of listening, discovery, negotiating, really getting to those pain points. So anyone who is already in an SDR role or you're already in tech sales and you wanna just get better, course careers is also for you. All right, so you took the course, you went through course careers, how long exactly did it take you to go through all the curriculum? So it was about a week and a half, I dedicated. What? Week and a half, you are something else, you're amazing. Wow. So what I'll say is I like to preface it with this, I used to be that person that couldn't finish anything. Like I said, I would bounce around majors, I couldn't finish college and at the start of 2022 this year, I read Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and I got the convinced version and I would read it every single day. And it really taught me how to build up that muscle and strengthening my will and really like see the thing that you want and don't stop until you get it, you know? That's awesome. You got through it in about a week and a half and then you started getting interviews. So from the time you started course careers to the time you got your first job offer, how long was that approximately? I believe it was a month and a half, just because there was the company I work for now or the organization I work for now, I really, really wanted to work for it. It was like, I'd have panic attacks just thinking about it. Like, oh God, I was so excited because they were in that cybersecurity field. You know, and one of the things that I wanted to do was be a security consultant. So now I get to kind of wet my feet with the security consultant and still be able to consult on cybersecurity, different solutions and products that will help. So it took me about a month and a half. I spaced my interview out and I would make sure to meet with Troy prior to going into the next step of the interview and he would help coach me and say, hey, here's what you need to say. This is how you need to present yourself and really give me those things that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. Got you. And I think I remember, because I watched your interview with Troy, I think I remember they actually reached out to you. Is that correct? So your dream company, when they found out that you were going through course careers, because they're partnered with course careers, they, the, was it the vice president of sales actually reached out to you? Yeah, it was the VP of SMB sales. He reached out and then even prior to that, the internship manager reached out. So I definitely, yeah. Wow. But I will say it was, it was one of those situations where I knew that that was a company I worked for. And one thing that Troy definitely encourages is heavy LinkedIn presence. So I said, hey, it only makes sense that if I'm going to have a heavy LinkedIn presence, I want to be in their face. So I was adding as many people as I could. I was commenting on, anything that was related to that organization. I would comment on it. I would like it. I would really put myself out there and make myself known. So that definitely helped. Got it. And did they find you through the certificate? Like did you put that you were going through course careers? Is that how they found you? So I put that I was going to course careers, but I also was just adding, hey, I'm really interested in becoming, working for your organization. Just a little quick message. And I would send a LinkedIn request. And I know sometimes we grow up with the mindset of, don't talk to strangers or people are out to get you. We kind of teach children to be wary of strangers. But I will say this, I've never met a successful person that is not willing to help someone that wants to help themselves. So if you really like reach out for help and you really show that, you are willing to help yourself, people will help you. Absolutely. I totally agree with that as well. So you landed the role after about a month and a half or so of starting course careers, which is that in and of itself is amazing. How much did they offer you? Or how much typically did they tend to offer people in a role like that? Okay. So yeah, we can talk a little bit about salary. So for the role that I'm in, I actually was able to land a full sale cycle role. I initially thought I was going to get a SDR role, but they actually interviewed me and really liked my skills and really liked all the information and the ability that I had with sales based off of what Troy taught me and the things that I learned in course careers. And they offered me an account manager role, which is full sale cycle from prospecting all the way to closing. And in that role, it is very easy and very common to make over six figures. It's really up to you because it's sales. So there's also some commission incorporated in that salary. But there's people who can make six figures and even a couple of hundreds. If you really, really work hard, I'll say that. That is awesome. Also really curious your thoughts on personality and what types of personalities would do well in tech sales? Yeah, that's actually a really great question. I think it's a common assumption to think that extroverts are best at sales and they're the only ones that can do sales. But what I found through listening to different podcasts and meeting a lot of people in tech sales, introverts actually do really well. As long as you work on when it's time for you to speak, you can do really well. There's a lot of listening skills in tech sales. You're not gonna be that used car salesman that's shoving products, feature, feature, feature, benefit, benefit in their face. What the role really entails of is really listening and hearing those pain points of the other person which introverts are typically very good at. And then building that relationship and then from there, you're able to make recommendations based off of what your prospect or your client says. So I think that it's good for any personality. Don't think that because you're more introverted, you're not gonna be able to do it. Don't think that because you're extroverted, you're gonna be absolutely great at it because it's a skill and anyone can develop a skill. And if I can do it, you can do it, anyone can do it. Got it. What would you say to somebody who is kind of thinking about going into tech sales, but they're on the fence, they're not sure if they should go into it. They're also not sure if they should use course careers to get into it. What would you say to that person? I would say try it. There's no harm in trying. Course careers is a great way to test out the role and see if it is for you because you get that hands-on experience. You're not just like learning theory. You're not just reading and taking tests. You're actually getting a chance to really get on the bike with the training wheels and try it out. And you also have opportunities to take the training wheels off and actually do the role. And it gives you some practical experience to throw on your resume. So the best advice I can say is, there's no harm in trying. You might lose out on $500 or 450, but think of all the other places that you wasted at. Taco Bell for a year, McDonald's for a year. I'm sure it's cool that, you know. Absolutely. One last thing I'd like to add that helped me. I think gone are the days where you worked one job and you stayed there until you retired. Now that works for some people and it's great. It's still a great option. But in this more modern world, I don't like to look at the current role that I'm in as my career. I like to look at the whole experience that I've had my work experience, all of that is my career. So what I like to, the way I like to view it is every different role increases my skills in different, this skill, that skill, you know, but as I continue to grow and evolve as a woman, as a person, I'm able to feel different roles. I'm able to add to my tool belt and I'm able to, you know, work in different fields. And to me, it gives me a more full career versus just one role and one, you know, just doing one thing. I don't know, I'm just, I have to, I like some novelty. I like switching it up, I like adding things. And one thing I like to add is, you know, when you approach it from that standpoint of, hey, you have to pick one thing and that's the only thing you can do forever. It makes the decision really big and really large. And maybe you're not gonna be in tech sales forever, you know, but in this moment, while it works for your situation and while it works for you, you know, go for it and plunge and take the deep dive and get the full experience. And then maybe later on something else might come up, a better opportunity or something that might fit you later on down the road and you can try that too. And then another thing I always like to mention is I actually heard this from Tim Ferriss and I just thought it was brilliant. And that is learn skills where you win, even if you lose, right? And so what does that mean exactly? That means there are certain skills out there that are so valuable that they're gonna come in handy pretty much no matter what direction you go in life. Sales is definitely one of those skills. Marketing is another one, operations, customer service is actually great too. Content creation is another one, very scalable. And you know, there's these certain types of skills where if you learned it and you got into it and then for whatever reason it didn't work out, that's great, you lost, but you won because you learned these skills and they're gonna just be super useful no matter what direction you go in your life. So would you say, Della, that tech sales is one of those skills? Absolutely, I think it is one of those skills that will benefit you, whether you stay in tech sales, whether you go into anything. I mean, you can even look at it from a standpoint of, when you go to the doctor, you don't walk in and he just says, oh, I think you have arthritis or something actually, you know, no, they sit and they listen and they do discovery. They wanna hear what's going on, they need to see what's going on with you before they can make a diagnosis. So just having those soft skills, those are transferable to any, just about any career. I don't think that you'll ever run into problems learning how to listen, understand and hear the pain and then make recommendations. So I definitely think that, you know, there is no loose situation in this scenario. Awesome. Well, hey, thank you so much again for coming on. I think you probably have the coolest story out of anybody I've ever interviewed so far. So I really appreciate you coming on the channel. I know you were super busy because you were starting the role, but yeah, thanks for coming on. I think you're gonna help a ton of people who listen to this. I think a lot of people are gonna be inspired by this and it's gonna make a big difference. Thank you so much, Shane, for having me. I'm really, really honored to be a part of your show.