From Zoology Major to Tech Sales Executive with Rodney Detrick

Episode Information

Show NotesHe has spent 30 years in tech sales. He has almost never gone through a formal interview.
Every major opportunity in Rodney Detrick’s career came from a relationship he had already built. Not a resume. Not an online application. Someone who knew him, trusted him, and opened a door. This episode is about how that happens – and what else Rodney has learned in three decades of selling, leading, and teaching others to do both.
Rodney is the Executive VP of Growth at ConnectOn, a cybersecurity company with 40 years in the space. He has been a trainer with the Dale Carnegie organization for nearly 20 years. He started his career as a zoology major, found his voice competing on a college forensics team, and stumbled into tech sales through a family connection in the early 1990s. He has never looked back.
WHAT RODNEY DETRICK DOES NOW:Rodney leads growth at ConnectOn, a Tampa-based cybersecurity company specializing in ransomware remediation, data governance, and compliance. He also actively trains professionals through the Dale Carnegie Nevada team, working with companies on human communication, leadership, and presentation skills.
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS CONVERSATION:
Your network is your career infrastructureIn 30 years, Rodney has almost never gone through a formal interview. Every major opportunity came through a relationship he had already built.
Giving people the leash is how they growIf someone is struggling, jumping in and doing it for them doesn’t develop them creating the conditions for them to figure it out does.
Dale Carnegie works because it starts with people, not processMost training starts with tactics. Dale Carnegie starts with human communication, and after nearly 20 years as a trainer, Rodney keeps seeing the same thing: the principles stay in people’s heads long after the program ends.
Common sense is not common practiceKnowing Dale Carnegie’s principles and actually applying them every day in how you interact with your staff, co-workers, and clients are two very different things.
Scripting is about structure, not readingA professional magician taught Rodney this lesson. Performers who wing it often sound like they are, and the same goes for sales calls and presentations.
TOPICS COVERED:• Going from zoology major to competitive speaker to tech sales• The family connection that opened his first tech door• Working at a rhino sanctuary in South Africa with his daughter• What his first mentor told him six months into the job• Walking past your predecessor on day one carrying their boxes• Moving from inside sales to management without the traditional path• Why giving people autonomy beats delegation• How to have difficult coaching conversations when you’ve already built the relationship• Dale Carnegie, why it’s different from other training programs• The “incident, action, benefit” formula and how to use it off the cuff• What amateur magic taught him about professional preparation• Why mentors matter at every stage – including year 60• How to approach professional networking without an agenda
WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR:• Early-career professionals trying to understand why relationships matter more than applications• Sales professionals who want to sharpen their communication and preparation• Tech leaders who were great individual contributors but are still figuring out the leadership part• Anyone who has heard of Dale Carnegie but never understood what makes it different• Professionals at any stage who want to think differently about building a network
CONNECT WITH RODNEY DETRICK:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodneydetrick/
ABOUT CAREER DOWNLOADS:Career Downloads explores technology careers through conversations with professionals who share their journeys, lessons learned, and practical advice. Hosted by Manuel Martinez, each episode exposes listeners to different technology roles and helps them manage their own careers more successfully. New episodes release every Tuesday.
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TranscriptManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone. My name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads Where each episode I basically hit the refresh button bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences To help you uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career So for today’s episode I have with me Rodney Dietrich him and I connected over LinkedIn and We got talking about technology and Dale Carnegie and Toast masters, which we’ll get into in the conversation but again there was just a lot of Great conversation that came out of that a lot of tie-ins into just dealing with your careers So I thought he would be a great person to come in. So with that, I’ll go ahead and introduce Rodney

Rodney Detrick: Thanks, Manuel. Appreciate you having me today looking forward to it

Manuel Martinez: Yeah, it’s gonna be a great conversation Especially just based on the ones that you and I have had in the past

Manuel Martinez: Yes, they seem to come very naturally. We had lots to talk about right out of the gate. I love that.

Manuel Martinez: Exactly. So if you can just, so that people get a sense of who you are If you can tell us a little bit about what your current role is and some of the responsibilities In that role.

Rodney Detrick: Sure my current role is Executive Vice President for Growth With a company called ConnectOn we’re cybersecurity company long practice with ransomware remediation, but we also have practices around data governance and compliance Pretty old company been around for about 40 years and based out of Tampa, Florida But I’m here Local in Nevada recent transplant from Southern California

Manuel Martinez: And you know I remember that was kind of one of the things that we kind of bonded over is just meeting people in the local community Which was fantastic.

Rodney Detrick: Yeah, absolutely and and this is you know, 30 years plus of being in the tech world and And all of that my entire Life has been in Southern California I’ve never lived anywhere but San Diego and Orange County and finally I Lifted the anchor and my wife and I decided to make a move and and moved to Nevada so been here since last April and Been and found the the area very welcoming and and folks like you or like, yeah, let’s get together Let’s have coffee and get to know each other. So it’s a great new place to be and to reestablish fresh network here.

Manuel Martinez: So now if you can tell us a little bit more about you know, you already mentioned you’re from Southern California But just a little bit about like where you grew up and then eventually, you know kind of what? Maybe what you thought you were gonna do as a child and then you know, eventually what got your career started.

Rodney Detrick: That’s a loaded question Yeah, as you can imagine so and some of this I don’t know that I’ve even ever shared with you before but I grew up in San Diego born in Orange County, but grew up for the most part in San Diego and Between those two areas You know grow up all the way through high school that ended up in Orange County and then started my college career also in the in the local area and So and then you know after that got married Had all the kids all three kids or all, you know adults now also in that same area But growing up and going into college and my initial Start was I was a zoology major Yeah, I had every intention of You know being a veterinarian or you know being the first Steve Irwin or something something like that working with animals. I pictured myself doing something like that. My dad was a Biology teacher and professor for many years early in his career. And so, you know growing up we had a lot of vacations that were very very outdoorsy and You know focused on wildlife and biology and so I just grew up loving those types of things Yeah, so it was between zoologists and I was thinking about maybe Really focusing in on herpetology,

Manuel Martinez: which is what?

Rodney Detrick: the study of reptiles and amphibians always been a big reptile person So yeah, so that was the initial thought so I did about my first year of college was as a zoology major and then that shifted to speech communication and that’s because I got involved in forensics program Forensics in the college world is competitive speech. So it’s debate other more kind of artsy or Almost like artistic type Like prose and persuasive speaking and other types of competitive speaking events. So my next couple of years in college I spent on a forensics team and traveling all over the country and competing in in speaking events Not debate. I wasn’t much of a debate person But I did a lot of the other events and that really really had a big impact on me and where I thought