An Interview With Sara Connell
For the first 10–15 minutes of each day, I pretend I don’t have a cell phone. I get straight into exercising — whether it’s doing push-ups or running in place. After that, I like to journal and write out my to-do list for the day. Finally, I take a hot shower, eat and get ready to get down to work.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kendrick Trotter.
At just 27 years old, Kendrick Trotter is the award-winning founder and CEO of the global tech staffing company Us in Technology (UIT), a virtual community, job placement, mentoring, and training platform aimed at bridging the gap between hiring companies and qualified underrepresented talent.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I grew up mostly in low-income areas including Richmond, Vallejo, Oakland, and Stockton, California, the son of a single mother who busted her butt to provide for my older brother, sister, and me. When I was 3 years old the people in the houses on both sides of ours were the victims of a drive-by shooting. I still remember tracing the bullet holes in their cars with my fingers. Since I grew up not having much I have worked extremely hard, with my family’s help, for everything I have, including and especially my college education. Understanding just how blessed I am for all my family has been through has inspired me to continually be a blessing to others.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
I stumbled across my career path, believe it or not. I was a recent college graduate and former NCAA Division 1 football player moonlighting as an Uber driver while interviewing for full-time jobs. One day I picked up a Silicon Valley executive named Josh Berezin in Pleasanton, California. I was telling him that I had just graduated from college and was trying to decide between a position in the wine industry or the automotive industry, and he told me I should go into tech. (Josh is currently an Amazon Web Services VP of Sales.) I was like,’ I don’t know anything about tech,’ even though I had grown up, at some points, literally 10 miles away from Silicon Valley. He said, ‘If you can study a football playbook that changes every week, you can study product knowledge.’ And with that, this total stranger said he’d help me land a six-figure job. And I was ready — I just happened to have my resume in the trunk!”
Josh, who is now a mentor and friend, walked me through how to create a LinkedIn profile, which helped me secure a position with memoryBlue, a top inside sales consulting firm, in just two weeks. I may not have had a tech background but what I did have was hustle, drive, and the discipline to see any job through, thanks to my many years playing team sports. In this industry, I’ve learned that certain skills and characteristics successfully transfer anywhere.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
Most definitely Berezin. If it weren’t for him I would have never even considered a career in the most lucrative field on earth, let alone had the courage to launch a business that introduces others to it.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or takeaway did you learn from that?
I once made a big gaffe while running a sales campaign. As part of the campaign, I had to mail handwritten cards to sales prospects’ homes. Unfortunately, I sent one prospect a personalized letter … but wrote the wrong company. Well, he took a photo of my letter and shared it on Twitter with his thousands of followers. He called me AND my company out, and was like, ‘Hey, if you’re going to reach out to me, at least get my company right.’ When I saw that, I contacted him on Twitter and apologized. After that, we got to talking about my company’s offer and the interaction actually led to a closed deal.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Coachability, drive, and intelligence. For me, one of my biggest assets is that I’m willing to be coached and I’m willing to implement the feedback that I’ve received, even in situations that make me feel awkward or uncomfortable. I’m also very observant of my leaders and so I’m able to learn from everyone even if they’re not technically teaching me directly. The second thing would be my drive. If the job takes 4 hours to get done or it takes 14, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get the outcome that I want. I refuse to be outworked and I enjoy and pride myself on separating myself from the tougher times versus easier times. The last thing is my intelligence. I think the best measurement of intelligence is problem solving and creativity, and in my experience so far — mostly because of how I was raised — I’m a very good problem solver because I know how to collaborate with others. On the other end, as a creator, I know how to put things into action.
One example of my drive is that in my first tech job I was commuting over an hour and a half every morning to get to work and it took me three hours to get home. I would actually leave work at about 430 am every morning, drive to my office, sleep in my car for about 45 minutes before the start of the workday and at the end of the workday, I would again take a nap for another 45 minutes so that I could miss traffic on the way home.
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
This may be a somewhat popular response but the book that most inspired me as a person, which eventually led to me not only becoming a leader but an entrepreneur, was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. The reason it had such an influence on me is because it was one of the first books I ever read that discussed financial literacy in a way that I understood. Robert was also the first one to inspire me to be an entrepreneur and establish ownership. Also, he inspired me to develop a growth mindset versus a consumer mindset. Now, having read that book, I view everything as either an asset or a liability, regardless of the situation, regardless of whether it’s business or personal. So that was a huge book for me.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
In our first year of business, helping underrepresented people get hired at tech companies, we were able to assist 115 people in landing jobs in the tech industry. Many of them had never worked in the industry or even had a college degree. Now that we’ve grown those numbers and secured some great investors I am looking to expand these job opportunities to anyone with a cell phone. Later this year we are set to launch an app that is half “Monster” and half “Facebook” in terms of combining traditional job boards with social media-based communities. This will make it easier for us to meet the demand of our clients and communities and put us in a position to potentially place hundreds of people a day as well as provide training, educational seminars, and other tools to help them be successful.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain to our readers why it is important to have a consistent morning routine?
I had a mentor who told me that there are 4 common habits of the 1 percent-ers in the world, and one of them is having a morning routine. Having a morning routine helps with discipline, focus, and accountability. It helps with discipline because it’s important even when things aren’t convenient and they’re not comfortable, that you have the discipline to see things through. This helps with accountability because in writing your goals down at the beginning of the day, for instance, it helps you to hold yourself accountable at the end of the day. It’s also a huge asset when it comes to time management. One thing that we all have in common with the most successful person on earth is the amount of time we get each and every day. As they say, it’s not about how much time you get, it’s how you use it.
Can you please share your optimal morning routine that can create a positive trajectory for a successful, effective, productive, and efficient day. If you can, please share some stories or examples.
For the first 10–15 minutes of each day, I pretend I don’t have a cell phone. I get straight into exercising — whether it’s doing push-ups or running in place. After that, I like to journal and write out my to-do list for the day. Finally, I take a hot shower, eat and get ready to get down to work.
Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?
Some of the best ways to develop good habits are by first writing out what you want to achieve, and how you know you’ve been successful at it (personal KPIs of sorts), so those habits can become measurable. On the flip side, it’s very hard to resolve a habit when you’re not actually tracking the activities for that habit. So my advice to anyone trying to break or develop a habit is to write your intention for that habit/goal down at the beginning of every day, and at the conclusion of each day, revisit what you wrote and rate yourself on a scale of 1–10 in terms of how you did in staying focused. Also, it should be mentioned that breaking bad habits often has to do with your environment, so I would say if you need to relocate to a different environment to have a different outcome/response to some of the negative habits don’t be afraid to do that.
Doing something consistently “day in and day out” can be hard. Where did you get your motivation from? What do you use to motivate you now?
A lot of my motivation comes from my childhood and memories of not really having much and just knowing what I don’t want to go back to. I’ve lived a majority of my life not having much versus now having a lot more, and so after experiencing both I refuse to go back to how it used to be. This makes it very easy for me to stay humble and hungry for success. The other thing that motivates me is that I’m doing something that’s meant to better the world and has a purpose. In terms of being a young, Black tech CEO I feel the better I do the more people like me get invited into sacred executive spaces. So this puts pressure on me to do well.
What other resources would you suggest to our readers?
For those who don’t have access to a college education or expensive certification programs but wish to break into the tech industry, Youtube and the Internet overall is your friend. So many things can be learned — from what kinds of positions exist to what kinds of transferable skill sets can be used to secure a job — just by taking the time to research the topic. So don’t count yourself out! And if you need mentorship or other help to secure a position the services we offer at Us in Technology are free.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would lead a movement to help people from low-income communities and circumstances like mine overcome imposter syndrome. To know that where we come from doesn’t define where we can go and that our success isn’t limited to being a ballplayer, an entertainer, or a hustler. My movement would provide free ongoing therapy, professional education, and related resources for the people who need it most. Through my movement, we’d teach as many people as possible to become owners and entrepreneurs versus just consumers. I think if you really want to make a difference in the world that’s where it starts — a healthy outlook, education, and limitless employment opportunities.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
Daymond John, because it’s very rare to see people who look like him and myself in positions I aspire to be in. I would be curious to learn more about how a person who grew up in an environment similar to mine learned to succeed in environments just the opposite of ours. I’d also want to know how he achieves any sort of work-life balance in regards to all the responsibilities that come with the assets he’s acquired. I’d also love any tips he has on successfully scaling a SAAS business if he were in my position.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
These are my company’s website and my LinkedIn account.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendrick-trotter-326a9062/
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
Kendrick Trotter of Us in Technology On The Morning Routines and Habits Of Highly Successful People was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.