Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp
I help tech employees use their finances to create the life of their dreams by helping you take your financial confidence to the next level!Are you a tech employee who wants to learn how to better manage your finances?Working in tech you may experience extreme pay increases, which may allow you the ability to accomplish goals you've only dreamed of. However, if mismanaged, you can also find yourself stressed out and under pressure to increase your income in order to fit your lifestyle.The good news, is through education and a little bit of determination, you have the power to control your future and create your best life.Not only will we cover basic personal finance concepts, but we'll dive deep into tech specific benefits and issues that I regularly help my clients build strategies to maximize. (Examples: working for start ups, restricted stock units, stock options, and layoffs) Also, on a regular basis, I will have special guests that will highlight their stories with unique stories about their tech experiences.
Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp
Felon to Successful Software Engineer with Cory Pease
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
I have a really great guest for today’s episode. His name is Cory Pease and his story proves that second chances really do exist. Cory is a felon who also recently successfully started his software engineer career after attending a bootcamp.
We cover the following:
- Inspiration for his "Daily Do Betters"
- Navigating life with a felony
- Financial literacy
- Transitioning careers
- Galvanize Bootcamp
- Creating your own opportunities
- Benefits of conferences
I apologize for the sound quality. Cory was at Develop Denver and his episode was too awesome to have to rerecord it.
You can find links to Cory's social media profiles:
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Fee-Only Financial Planner Fort Collins, CO
Music: 80s Motivational Chiptune by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
No, it definitely forces you to grow up a little bit faster. I mean, at 15, you're now stuck in a place that's like three square blocks big and don't go anywhere else for four years. So it definitely forces you to kind of throw them up.
SPEAKER_00But one of the things it did for me, and I don't think this is the case for everybody, it allowed me to kind of think this is techie personal finance bootcamp where I help tech professionals in their 20s and 30s. That was a great life too without sacrificing their future possibilities. I'm your host, Lucas Cassert, certified financial planner and founder of local financial planning, where I help educate, coach, and build strategies with my clients to help them take their financial confidence to the next level. Here's an important compliance disclosure. This podcast is for informational purposes only and not to be considered recommendations. It is recommended to consult your financial professional before implementing any information obtained from the Techie Personal Finance Boot Camp. Thank you for joining Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. I have a really great guest for today's episode. His name is Corey Pease, and his story proves that second chances really do exist. Corey is a felon who also recently successfully started his software engineering career after attending a boot camp. Hi, Corey. Thanks for coming on the show today. I'm really excited to have you on. You've been doing something that caught my attention on LinkedIn, which you call them daily do betters, and they're short videos, usually about a minute, I believe. But yeah, they're just super inspirational and trying to lift people up where that's not always the case sometimes with social media. Thank you for coming on the show today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man, no problem. I mean, I think I was telling you before with daily do better, is one of those things I kind of started doing for alternate purpose, and then all of a sudden people give me feedback, and it was like maybe I should keep doing this. Like there's something here people need. So then I kept doing it. And um, yeah, I checked out your podcast as well with the finance, and that's something I'm big on with just self-motivation. Like I started Daily Do Better because it's like you gotta feel good about yourself before you can start thinking about your finances. So, like you're a step two in my process of whatever I'm trying to build. So we're in a really good place.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, and that first, before we dive into that, I'll make sure we circle back to what you're trying to build. But can you just kind of provide a somewhat quick background as far as your story, what you're up to today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so quick, maybe simple, maybe not. So, short, short story. Um, I'm actually the oldest of six. I mean, we were raised by my mom. I made some bad decisions back in the day and I actually ended up as uh in jail for about four years from 15 to 19. So I'm actually a felon. Well um Yeah, so in the state of Colorado until a couple years ago, you could charge a juvenile as an adult if it was the right crime that met their circumstances. Uh that's now illegal, but it wasn't retroactive, so I still have that felony. So I kind of got out in 2010 and I couldn't find a job. I couldn't find a place to stay. I couldn't, you know, even you can't get an apartment if they do background checks on apartments, so you don't have a place to live. So I spent a good year just kind of finding places that would accept me, whether it's friends or family. And I had a year of parole, and when I got off, I went to uh Las Vegas because at 21 years old, what better decision is there than to go to Vegas? But no, that's kind of where I got introduced into technology. It it was just crazy circumstances and then just optimism. So I had an ex-girlfriend that I was actually on good terms with, and I hadn't talked to her in a year. She hit me up in Vegas and said, Hey, there's this call center called Netflix, and they wanna, you know, they're looking for anybody that's a people person. Yeah. Um, so I went in there and I kind of just bugged them. You know, they they never called me back for like two, three weeks. But I called every day, like, did I get the job, get the job? And I think they just got fed up with it. They're just like, you know what, we got a class started, just come in and work for us.
SPEAKER_00If you're gonna work in a call center, I've never actually worked in a call center, but there's been a lot of places I've worked and you had to be able to handle yourself on the phone, and and sometimes those conversations aren't that great. And so I'm sure that your determination, like, we need to find a position for it. Uh, because yeah, there's that that's a rare quality, especially nowadays where people are afraid of their own shadow, that that you're willing to like show up and be willing to accept rejection if they're gonna reject you, but they weren't rejecting you either, they just kind of kept pushing you off, so you just kind of kept checking in there.
SPEAKER_01You know, and that's that's a good catch because it's one of the kind of things I think I'm trying to do with daily do better, is people don't realize there's nothing stopping you until you're actually stopped, you know. So you kind of just gotta go for it. But I mean, fast forward seven years, I'm in call centers, I don't want to do it anymore. It's not really exciting to me. I was just kind of there because I had to be. Yeah. Um and you know, I was trying to do community college, and I say trying because I I don't really like college for myself, it's not for me. Um professor said, Hey man, you're kind of you know, you're kind of smart and you have these people skills. You should really get into software because the culture now wants people people. And I was like, all right, and so I mean, fast forward probably two years after that before I actually got into it, and I I learned about galvanize this coding boot camp six months, yeah. Kind of the rest is history. I've been a software engineer since uh November, and within a year I'm already interviewing for a senior physician. And um, I mean, it's all kind of just the original question was how'd I end up here? And it's just like not stopping. You know, if you watch the daily do better, it's like failure is a lifelong thing, and success is that momentary thing. And I think a lot of people do it in reverse, right? So they think they're successful until they have that failure moment and then they're like, oh, everything's horrible. But it's like until you until you succeed, it's all failure. So it just kind of keeps me optimistic. But roundabout way, yeah, that's kind of how I ended up here was jail and then a series of fortunate events that kind of you know helped me to where I am now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's crazy. So you were 16? I was 15. 15. Yeah, holy holy. I I was a totally different person at 15. Like, I I tried to act like I was an adult, but like so far from it. Yeah. So yeah, that's an insane kind of start to uh did do you feel like that sped up your adulthood? Like they were treating you like an adult, basically, is what happened. Did you speed up anything, or you think you just kind of went through the same process that you would have had to, even if you were like had a normal 15 on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So no, it definitely forces you to grow up uh a little bit faster. I mean, at 15, you're now stuck in this place that's like three square blocks big and you don't go anywhere else for four years. Uh so it definitely forces you to kind of mature the mind. But one of the things it did for me, and I don't think this is the case for everybody, is it it allowed me time to think. You know, I've always been kind of curious of your wisdom, and so kind of decide how I wanted to go about my life. So I don't regret it, but I would say it definitely made me wiser. Like had I been 28 today without jail, I might be more prosperous, I might be more established in my career, but I definitely would be less the wiser of how extreme the other side of life could be, you know, and that's actually worked to my advantage a lot, which is kind of surprising.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's what a lot of people don't realize. They're they get stuck in those kind of time periods where like this sucks, like, or something's not going well, and they think it's like a forever thing, but like tomorrow's a new day, and and like a lot of this stuff, I'm telling you, man, I got it from from you, or just kind of reinforces some of these things. Like, tomorrow's a new day. Like, I've had so many being a business owner in the last two years where the worst day that I ever could have had, like, professionally, happened on the the same day that was the best day for me, like at that time period. And so, like, you just have to keep trucking along and moving in the direction that you're kind of hoping to grow and just kind of achieve, and and yeah, things start to happen for you when you don't allow circumstance or or what other people think or what's supposed to be the normal thing. I I don't think you know much about my business, but like my business is not traditional at all from a financial planning standpoint. And I had so many people tell me no, like this is like the dumbest thing you could do. Like, you had a great job, and like why why do you want to work with people that don't have any money? And it's hard to change people with their their financial aspects and stuff like that. So, like, how how many times do you think you've heard no? And I I know you said you had a hard time that first year, even just finding places to live and and finding a job. How many times, if you had to sum it up that you've heard no, I would easily say, like, and I I'm not exaggerating, I've heard no probably 99 times for every one time I heard yes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I mean, this is this is not just little things like places to live. This is like when I told my family I was moving out to Vegas, they were like, What are you doing? You're crazy. When I told my job I was quitting call centers to get in software after a six-month uh, they're like, dude, this is where you're at, you're really good at it. So, I mean, the no's are everywhere, which is why it kind of makes them irrelevant, you know? Like, there's so many of them, they're not valuable anymore. You know, like give me the rare response of a yes. That's what I'm on the search for.
SPEAKER_00That that is a cool way of thinking about it, man. Again, one of the reasons why I invited you on the show. So say that again. You said that no's are so abundant, they're not valuable, right?
SPEAKER_01Right. Anything that comes in mass surplus has no value to the people around it. Yet we focus on them as if they were, so we gotta look for that rare item that yes, you know, is what has to drive us because that's where all the value is. But you know, I I get it though. We live in a world where you know it's failure is kind of the hot topic. But getting out of that is kind of the key to life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, and and that's basic economics too, is what you're describing, supply and demand. If there's an oversupply, then the price is gonna have to be like significantly lower value. But when there's a low supply, that's when stuff is valuable. So that's that's crazy that that applies in that mindset of thinking about all the noise you get. And yeah, I I probably haven't even experienced half of what you have, but I've seen a lot of those things where like the coolest things I've ever done were when people were like either scared for me or thinking that I was dumb um and and that I shouldn't be taking a certain path just because it's the path less traveled.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and those were the most satisfying things, right? Yeah. Like, yeah, I did it anyway. Like, I I committed to my my mental vision. And then it's like, oh, it was real, and it's like the best part of any day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's cool, man. So I'm actually super familiar with galvanize. I have a client that graduated from there, and then just a lot of people that those are a lot of my potential clients because they're in your age range, like 20 to 30 years old, really focused on like taking control of their financial life. And and the reason why a lot of people make this transition, and hopefully this isn't the only reason, but because that salary potential is pretty dramatic when you compare it to even some of the college education options. Once you graduate from a traditional college and and you said it wasn't for you, I think it's not for a lot of people, but people just do it because that's what we're told to do. That's that's the process to being an adult and being successful. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And with college specifically, it's one of those things where, you know, and I don't mean to overphilosophize, but it's like you grow up, you know, taught as a kid, depending on how you were parented, you know, but you grow up waiting for permission to do things. You know, and and so then you hit 18 and they're like, okay, now you're an adult. And you're like, okay, and everybody's question is what now? And it's such an odd question because it's like as an adult, you should be inspired to do anything now, you know? And so you fall into this pattern of looking for permission to do the next thing, looking for permission to quit your job, looking for permission to go on an adventure or something like that. And so once you stop asking for permission, you you understand that nothing is really given, you know, everything's kind of taken, which is an aggressive way to think about it. But on the on the mental sense, you know, like you just gotta go grab it. So yeah, I mean, a lot of the people, so I think it's what you're good, what you're doing is good because one of the things I notice inside and outside of galvanizers, people my age and under and even a little bit above, and I mean, even people twice my age, are not excited about finance in in the right way. They're excited about making money and spending money, but it's like there has to be some in-between, like you're on opposite ends of the spectrum. So I I'm interested to hear how that conversation usually goes with people my when trying to talk about finances. I usually get glazed faces that are like, no, that's not for me.
SPEAKER_00No, that that's just yeah, that that's interesting. You're turning the table and asking me questions. I would say that for what I offer, it's it's so unique that I would think there's a lot more value to it, and more people would be like, oh, this exists, which which my clients that do work with me, that's their expression, but it's it's definitely a smaller number than I was expecting. It wasn't like people were knocking on my doors. I have to share it with them, and then it they have to kind of be in the right frame of mind. Like something is going on in their life that makes them feel like, yeah, I need to start doing the right things. And some of my clients, they decide this in their 40s, some of them in their 30s. My youngest clients uh started with me last year and they were 22, 23, and uh they they just got married, they're talking about buying houses, and so there's all these different ranges where people can kind of have that light bulb moment, like, all right, this is important. And I've seen, and a lot of times they have like friends and family members who are like, yeah, I don't want to be like them or make these same mistakes. And so a lot of times that's the the supporting reason why they're like, I don't know what you do or how you're gonna be able to help me, but like I want to do the right thing, and so that's kind of what those conversations look like. If I go to like random people and I'm like, hey, this I'm I'm a financial planner, like they think I'm a vampire and they like hold up the cross. But but essentially, like yeah, it's just not it's it's a painful thing. So people run away from it. They're they're afraid because they don't have confidence in it. And my tagline is take your financial confidence to the next level. And that's that's what it's about for me, is like, where are you at? Let's let's meet there, let's educate you, build you up, have you build confidence. And so, yeah, a lot of people are just kind of putting their head down and saying because they're they're afraid of it, uh, they think it's gonna take too much time, they think that they hate it, don't enjoy it. But what I have found is once people start talking about it and starting to get a little bit more confidence, it's just like anything. Like I was horrible at riding bikes when I was little, but once I kind of got the hang of that, I'm like, oh, I love riding bikes. And it's just because you have to go through that process sometimes. And once you know what to expect and how to do things, then you can actually enjoy some aspects of it. No one's gonna love it as much as me, probably, just because I I beek out all over those things. So let's let's turn it around to your kind of what you're trying to build uh from that. I think you shared with me, you're like a financial activist, is kind of how you view yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh as I said, I'm the oldest of six, um, single mom. And I mean, we and honestly, we we grew up on food stamps for most of our lives. My mom just stopped receiving food stamps maybe two years ago um because she was finally able to make enough money. And I'm not gonna go on a long rant, but the short version is for people that don't know, with food stamps, the the maximum you can make is thousands of dollars away from what it takes to live. So when when some people are on food stamps, depending on your circumstances, if you can't find a job that's willing to pay you $10, $15 more, you can't afford to make $5 more because now you've lost a couple hundred on food stamps to feed your family, whatever the case may be. So, anyway, I guess what and now I just spaced. What was where was I going with that? What was the question?
SPEAKER_00I'll let you think about that um real quick because I think that does bring up a good point that I don't think a lot of people recognize is like a lot of these systems are flawed in that aspect. And so, yeah, you get penalized sometimes by building up and starting to achieve more just by like a small amount you achieve a little bit more, and then you get penalized with like the hammer. Right happens too for the the new kind of health plans that have rolled out over the last few years. Like you get these subsidies once your income crosses like a dollar past this yeah one threshold, it disappears. All of a sudden you're paying sixteen thousand dollars more a year, and that's just for the premiums. That doesn't include like the max pro pays or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, the system there's the systems are busted, and that's why supposedly Congress and everyone's always trying to fight to make stuff better, but it that doesn't necessarily seem like they have the smart enough people to all agree on how to make something a little bit more sense because it really what it should be is just a transition. They have phase outs for so many parts of the government kind of things like in your tax system and and stuff like that. How come these things don't phase out instead of just disappearing on people?
SPEAKER_01The system's built to say you're either poor or you're stable, and it's like there's a whole middle ground in between there. But um, to come, I remember what I was gonna say. So to come back to your point of uh being a financial activist, it it really came from that mindset. Like once I figured that out, once I figured out that yes, there is a system to help you, but there's not necessarily a system to grow you or build you. It was like, okay, well then we gotta figure this out ourselves. And so, I mean, even when I was even when I just got out of jail and I was getting a job, my whole goal was, and I actually made the goal in jail. I didn't want to have to work by the time I was 25, and I got out of jail when I was 20. And so my goal was in five years I could make enough passive income to where work would be optional. Well, now I'm 28 and that's not the case. Mainly because I decided to move to Vegas and it's not the place to try and save money. But but uh no, on a serious note, it it came because when I had this idea, I would tell people, you know, I got out of jail and I said, Man, I'm gonna retire by 25. And people would just give me this total look of disbelief like that's not even possible, it's not an option, there's nothing out there. And I'm like, and anything where people tell me no encourages me, you know, because now I'm like, mmm, no, if I had the idea, I see something there, and I don't really trust other people to see the same things I see. Sure. Um, so it encourages me, you know. And so as I talk to my mom and I talk to friends and family, and I see how much they don't know about finances. I have I have a cousin who's you know who's a little bit older and he hasn't filed his taxes for years. You know, he has somebody that handles his taxes for him. So when I talk about, you know, how many deductions are you taking or how much do you get? Like he doesn't know any of these answers. He's like, I hand my papers to this person and they give them back to me, and then I just deal with whatever comes from it. And it blew my mind. It blew my mind. I'm like, dude, that's like your money. You have to know what's going on. And without going down the rabbit hole, I have another buddy who's a software engineer, and you know, he he I imagine he makes good money and he doesn't have a very complicated life. And I asked him, I said, Hey man, do you own a house? You know, or do you rent? And he said, Oh, you know, I rent. And I said, Well, have you ever owned? And he said, No. And I said, Why not? And he said, Well, you know, I've always had more than enough money, like for what, then I can move wherever. And it's those kind of questions, I'm like, dude, you're missing out on like maximizing the potential of your pocket, you know, like so. The more I heard about these gaps, the more I realized is that they usually came from people who had nobody else to teach them the finances. So if you look a level above them, it's somebody who maybe went paid or check to check or didn't make enough money to think about what they could do with extra because there wasn't any. Um and so what that what that led me to is like I gotta get this information out here, but before I could do that, I had to be the example. Um so one of the first things I did is I did buy some property out of condo. Um and I currently rent it out right now. I've rented it out for uh the past two years, and I'm gonna have to move back into it because I am refinancing it. And then when you refinance, you have to live in it for a certain period of time, which is okay though, because it's gonna save me about $150 a month.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The amazing thing here though is the mortgage on my condo, which is right next to the light rail station and right behind a safeway, my mortgage is only $1,034 a month. Right? That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00And this is in Denver, right?
SPEAKER_01I I'm in Aurora and I'm close enough to where that's enormous. Because I worked at an apartment complex two blocks away from where I bought my condo, and their lowest rent is like $1,100. So it doesn't, you know, the math doesn't make sense, but even when you tell people the math, like you said, it's a competent thing. They don't think they can do that same thing. And it's like the list of people that have is endless. Why can't you be on that list? You know, and but they live that they live that they're scared of that moment of failure because they don't realize the moment when they do it will be that success, you know. And so yeah, financial activists because not enough people know, not enough people that need to know know. Most of the people that know finances are people that are well off and won't have a problem with finances, more or less. Yeah, but the people that need to know the most don't. And I was like, well, that's kind of my people. So I gotta go back and give them the knowledge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, and and that's what I've noticed too. So before I started my company, I could only help people if they were rich 50 and 60 year olds and like had $500,000 and more, and already did a lot of the right things. And so that's why I think the financial planning or financial advising system is broken too from that aspect, because there's a huge gap. You you've probably heard about like the 1% and stuff like that. There's all these crazy ratios of the haves and have nots. But even like a lot of like even a lot of engineers and and kind of like uh your friend, maybe he Is not uh too worse off, but people that make a lot of money still make horrible financial decisions, and it actually puts them in a worse situation because they're used to that type of income compared to someone else that's making 40,000. They they learn to live paycheck to paycheck, but they're not going backwards and they're not going forwards. Someone making five times that could be in a way worse position than them financially, just because there's a huge gap in that financial knowledge, and for who knows how many reasons that it is that kind of infrastructure. You don't get taught it in school. A lot of people like grandparents and parents don't typically talk about these things, and if they do, they don't have confidence or share incorrect informations or myths and things like that. So, what do you envision that looking like? How many people are you impacting? What is it that you're doing?
SPEAKER_01Man, the vision, that's a tough question. I mean, really the vision is, man, that I I just really hope that my vision, my my true vision and the selfish one is that people will see me as coming across as genuine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, like to be honest, like more than helping them, more than you know, getting a million views or you know, a million likes or anything like that. I I want people to know that I'm genuinely coming from a good place, not a place that I've done it better or anything like that, but in a sense of if I can, there's no reason you can't. You know, um, so I guess that's the long, that's the really long term. And then in terms of just what I see as far as what I'm trying to offer people, I would really like to see people then take that knowledge and pass it to somebody else. You know, with and even more so without giving me credit, you know, like I don't need credit. If the information's out there and it's valuable, the recognition will find its way back to me. But I don't need somebody to say, you know, I heard Corey Pease say this on Daily Do Better. I need them to sit down with their, you know, brother, sister, mom, daughter, and just have a conversation and say, hey, how do you file your taxes and why? You know what I mean? Like I want to be, I want people to hear me and think it's their own idea. Because that's when they're sold. You know, it's it's like the movie Inception. When it comes from themselves, all of a sudden it's this magical idea. Whereas I know when I say it for the people that really need it, it's not gonna come across the way they need it. So that's how I vision it's people like taking it as genuine and also taking it as like their own idea at some point and not just passing me along to the next person.
SPEAKER_00No, and I think you kind of have that talent, so I can see this working really well just from the daily do betters. I don't know if I've crossed any financial ones yet, but uh, you should start kind of spinning those in there every now and then because yeah, that's the only way for people to know about it is for you to put it out there just like the the other uh kind of wisdom and inspiration that you're sharing. But kind of what the that's the way I have to approach with my clients. Because if I told someone like, hey, you had to do this, like and and did it more as like an authoritative type thing, that's not gonna work. They're not gonna want to listen to that. Like, we have to collaborate and kind of come to that decision together. And a lot of times the most powerful ones are when we're just talking, and then they come up with the idea because of that how that conversation kind of inspired them to think further. So it's not just what we talked about, it's not just what you're gonna be talking about, it's gonna be what that triggers in their mind and what they relate it to that really empowers them to take it to that next level and then be confident to be able to share it with other people too and and want to share it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure, for sure. And is one of the things is like when the reason to tackle on what you were saying, the reason I want people to take it as their idea is because, and the other reason I haven't tied in financial stuff is because there has to be this level in self-confidence and self-belief, because otherwise, if I tell them, hey, this is a better way to do it, for a lot of people that are in the situation that need the help, all they're gonna hear is they're doing it wrong now. Yeah, you know, not I can improve or I can progress or anything, but it's what I'm doing right now is wrong. Yeah, you know, and so that's like you said, some of the times the best thing is just sitting down there having a conversation with kind of out the intention. You're just randomly sharing knowledge, and then they come across and they say they kick one and they say that's the one I can do. And then from there it's kind of just the snowball effect of the more things they want to do right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, and that's with any type of progress and and how people can keep moving forward is by having those successes, and so it takes that one thing that they actually want to work towards and achieve. Once they achieve it, then they're like, I can be successful. Like, I if if I was successful with this, that gives me more encouragement and it doesn't have to be financially related. There's so many other aspects of your life that we are all capable of improving, but uh we always make those excuses that we can't probably. Always the excuses, but never a good reason. Tell me about that decision a little bit more to transition from call center to take this crazy leap into the galvanized program and dedicate six months because those those boot camps are pretty intensive, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the boot camps they're um they're 40-hour weeks, so five days a week, eight hours a day. So they tell you you cannot work and finish the program. So you have to have this window of six months where you don't need an income. Yeah, because you you know you're going back to school. And so the way it kind of played out for me is I had just uh I'd had my condo for about a year, and so I could afford to move out, which means I could, I would be able to rent it out, so now I wouldn't have to worry about 1035 or a mortgage a month. You know, um on top of that, I was in a place at my job where I just really wasn't happy and then I'd finally come to that realization that it just wasn't something that I wanted to continue to do. And not even specific to the company, but to the industry as a whole. You know, call centers are one of those things where if you're in it and you get pretty high up, you don't have the option to go many places other than call centers. Because anybody else is gonna see your experience and be like, ah, well, this isn't a call center. And it's like, but you have people that work here, and that's what I know, you know.
SPEAKER_00Um that's why I was good at what I did.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. But so I realized that if I wanted to get out and I wanted to transition easy, easily, I needed to do it sooner rather than later. Um, so it came down to a decision of uh I had a conversation with my grandpa who had an extra room in his house, and I said, Grandpa, I want to quit my and it was funny because the job I had had was actually the best job I have had I had had. Um, in terms of they were paying me the most money, I had the most freedom and ability and stuff like that, but it was still call centers. And so I'm telling him, hey grandpa, remember that job I was really excited about that's paying me more than anybody else? I want to quit. And I want to and I want to enter this industry where everybody thinks you need, you know, eight, ten, six, four years of schooling uh to do it. And he was he was supportive. I think it's because you know he could see that I was determined. Um maybe just because he knows me and I I try to follow through on most things I do. So he supported me and uh he allowed me to move in. And it was one of those things where as soon as I kind of walked in and kind of just opened some code, I was like, yes, this is this is where I live. Like this is this is my pleasure in life. It was because I had no idea what I was looking at. That was the pure motivation, is that I was in a world where I knew absolutely nothing and I couldn't be more excited to like fail and then succeed and figure it out and then tell people the story. So yeah, that's kind of how it went, is that I just didn't know anything and it was like, yeah, okay, that's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like to me, what that makes me think of is like if I don't know if you've ever gone on vacation and rented out like a house or like your family rented out a house, but basically you go and like open up like all the doors just because it's a new place and you just want to see, oh, what's behind that door, what's behind that door, or like Christmas stage, probably and just opening up presents like like there there's presents wrapped up. Like, I don't know what's it's so cool. Let's let's just flink stuff open and see how we can make all this stuff work. That's cool. So but like saw code until you committed to galvanize, or right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01So I was familiar with computers in the sense that I worked on call centers and we did dashboard, we had certain programs we worked with. So it wasn't like I was you know a waiter my whole life and never really touched the computer. No sense any waiters out there, obviously. But um what it what it was is uh I've always kind of had a love for computers, but I never had a resource to getting to the programming side. Sure. Um, you know, I never had anybody sit down there and be like, hey, did you know you can do this, you know, and then go with that or point me in the right direction. Because one of the things about software is there's a million places you can start. There is no standard step one. And so I didn't have any of that. And so what I guess the real moment of commitment is uh Galvanize also had a program called Learn to Code that was free. And basically you could go in, I think it was two or three days a week, and they would teach you the basic beginner boilerplate of what they taught in their school. And it was good, it was a good marketing tactic because it's like, yeah, come in, feel confident, and then enroll in school. Um definitely worked on me. Because what it was is they had when during the Learn to Code, they kept preaching just the need to have more junior software developers for more people that were willing to get into the field that don't come from computer science backgrounds and stuff like that, that have those people skills. And um, I had a I had an instructor literally tell me, you know, you have a good energy about you, you'll do well. And it was kind of one of those things where I never thought like being a people person meant anything for a software engineer, you know, and so I started looking at it, and uh, and you know, you read articles on what the industry needs or what people are trying to fix about their culture, and you know, it's kind of just exciting. It was like, why do because so at the same time I said I knew nothing about code, right? I knew everything about what the industry seemed to need, which was people, which was conversation, motivation, comfortability, whatever the case may be. And so that was the flip side, is like, okay, I don't know the thing that I actually need, but I know the thing everybody wants.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And so it was kind of just that sit-down moment of if ever there was something I was gonna do, this would be it.
SPEAKER_00Um I I know one of the reasons that a lot of people kind of love that is just the constant growth. There are so many paths that you can take. There's so many new technologies and different things that you have to learn to kind of stay on top of your game. And so I know that's a part of that. You are actually at the Develop Denver conference today, right? So, how how often do you go and do these types of things to kind of make sure that you're you're simulating yourself, getting some outside like what what drove you to this particular conference?
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I've been at Develop Denver before, and kind of my two go-to are Develop Denver and then Denver Startup Week. Um, and not necessarily because of what what the conference's goal is, but more so because it's a wealth of people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, from you know, you get product people, design people, software people, and then you also get the mixture of just people who are curious. And that's more or less why I want to go because so, like I said, I've I've had a felony since since I was 15 years old. I've never gotten a job or gotten a leg up without knowing someone. Um, so I kind of learned that networking skill by by force. It wasn't just like, yeah, I'm good with people and I'm gonna go meet people that give me chances. It was like, this is kind of the only choice I have is to meet somebody, make them like me first, realize I'm and then say, hey, maybe we can bring value to each other.
SPEAKER_02You know.
SPEAKER_01So since I started doing that, uh, I just kind of continue to do it. And then I mean, the other thing with software is the more, the more exposure, the more awareness people have about you is the better you do in software. Because the more that people can speak to your involvement or motivation, the more excited employers are about hiring you on. You know, you're not just looking for a nine-to-five creative paycheck and you type a couple lines out of code. You're passionate about bringing the product up, you're passionate about building something that's gonna last over time. And so that's kind of my motivation is you know, I want to increase in this field. I also want to share, you know, along with the personal motivation and the finance, I would love to share software with people because it's the easiest thing you can do to make massive, massive amounts of money with the littlest amount of preparation. Yeah, if that makes sense. You know, like once you learn software, you literally have access to any industry in the world because I don't know one that doesn't run off of you know software.
SPEAKER_00Nope, yeah, I'm a huge fan of galvanize, a lot of the boot camps. Galvanize is the one I'm most familiar with just because that's where like a lot of my networking connections have come from. I actually saw the CEO speak the other day at a networking event, but networking is valuable regardless of whether you have a felony or not. And so, like, how long did it take you after you graduated from that uh boot camp at Galvanize to land in that first position?
SPEAKER_01So that's the exciting story. And so remember, right? I learned this idea that I my best chance of getting something is to meet somebody that has the ability to help me get whatever I want, right? Yeah. So it was like week two in uh Galvanize and uh career services come in, it's a real cool guy named Chris Haig and he says, Hey, and I don't remember the numbers exactly, but it was something like for every hundred applications, paper applications you put in, you might get one callback.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01For every 10 people you meet, you might get one interview, something along those lines. And so me, it just made perfect sense. There was no argument. So, like that day I'm on LinkedIn and I'm just looking for anybody with a title, manager, director, anything software, you know, of the position that has the position of power. And so it was funny because I came across um a lady named Nancy Felix who worked at David and I said, Hey, you know, new software engineer would love a chance to kind of talk to you and you know help me prep for the the industry. And she replies right back. Mind you, I I did message maybe 70, 75 people, yeah, and maybe five got back. Uh she was the only one to show interest. And she responds right back and she says, Yeah, for sure, send me your resume. And in that moment, I'm like, I wasn't ready to send a resume. I was just kind of looking to connect with people. So I go ahead and I send her my resume, which is all customer service. Yeah, I don't hear back from her for four months, like nothing. And in my head, I'm like, I knew it. I knew my resume sucked, and I knew, you know, that moment of failure. You know, in that moment I failed it, I'm like, you know, I shouldn't have sent it to her. So fast forward four months, I have a month left in Galvanize, and she reaches out to me and she says, Hey, I'm no longer at DeVita. I didn't have any junior positions that you could even apply for, but I'm at this new company and they are hiring juniors. And she said, So look at this role. If it's something you think you can do, you should apply. She was like, and but she was straight, she said, This is the most I can do for you, is tell you about this position. Kind of the rest is up to you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And long story short, I kind of went in and I mean there's this thing in software called imposter syndrome where you just don't feel adequate to the job. I mean, it's probably in the world, not in the software.
SPEAKER_02It's everything.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, you get that feeling of just not being worthy of sitting in front of these people who've been doing code for 20 years, and then they ask you these questions that you've learned in five months at my point. But no, they uh I I guess I did really well, and they they extended me an offer. And so I actually had a job a month before I was done with galvanize. So in my specific story, it was a five-month boot camp. Um that took me a job. And you know, I tell I tell people because a lot of people that are in the software industry trying to get jobs, they get discouraged by that story because it seems like such an extravagant success, right? Yeah, and what I have to tell people is okay, yes, did I get a job on my first interview five months into the boot camp before I was even done? Absolutely. Was that is that a rare chance? Absolutely. But what put me in the position to have that look and that chance was five months ago when I sent out 75 messages and only got six responses back. Yeah, and the one response I did get didn't talk to me again for four months. So there's a slew and a of failure in there, but people only see that success in the moment. That's what I was talking about, is they only see they only see themselves as failing in that moment. Well, if I tried that one job, I wouldn't get it. Yeah, it's like, yeah, yeah, for sure. But in the bigger picture, you're gonna get a job. And chances are it's because you failed and you really sucked out of interviews at what you needed to do better for the next one. So it's it's a really exciting story for me, but I all I oftentimes have to give that speech to other people because I'm like, it's not that moment that got me the job. It was five months ago, and five months of me saying, I don't know what I'm when I got the job, when I got my first paycheck from the company I'm at, which is called Magbar. When I got my first paycheck, I literally had $30 in the bank. All my credit cards were maxed out. I had already taken loans from friends and family to hold me over until I might get a job. Wow. So it's not, it's not like I was skating Easy Street and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna have a job and you know, before I even quit school. It's like I'm pulling out the hair I don't have, wondering who I'm gonna borrow money from next. You know, and then this thing that I invested in five months ago shows returns and says, Hey, remember that thing you did? Well, here's some dividends back from it, you know, and is so yeah, man. It's just preparation and just optimism, I guess, that kind of helps it all along.
SPEAKER_00That's crazy. Like, what do you think it was that made you stay top of mind? Because I imagine there's a lot of people that could potentially be doing the same thing you were, reaching out to her. Like, was there anything you said? Was were you were you doing daily do betters back then or being active on LinkedIn?
SPEAKER_01Like, uh, I wasn't I wasn't doing anything. Um, from what I've heard from the couple of people that did respond to my message, it was, and I I mean, this is no exaggeration, it was the optimism. You know, they said they because I asked Nancy, I said, what is it about my message? And you know, she said there's something about somebody who will just leave their job behind to try something new. Yeah, you know, because that's basically what my message is said is I just quit my job, I'm in this boot camp, and I'm trying to do something new. And she said there's something about a person that is willing to change and try and fail and be unsure that makes them valuable in the future, you know, because you don't know what that person's gonna be. And it, I mean, I was catched if it really resonated for me, because on my side, I'm winging it and I'm just trying to get to a better dream that I have of. But on her side, she sees a completely different image. She sees a person that's after it and stuff like that. And so, you know, not to go on a rant, but I guess that's the other type people have to understand is the vision we see of ourselves oftentimes isn't the vision other people see of us. Yeah, you know, and so sometimes even if we're not confident in the vision we have of ourselves, like I wasn't sure I could do the job. We have to be confident in the vision other people have of us. You know, she did give me the chance, so there must be something to me that makes me worth the consideration. And so I think something in my message, I guess, to her resonated that. And so I think that's what maybe helped me stay on top of mind for you know those four or five months to when she ended up at her new job.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, dude, that's insane. Because yeah, I know a lot of people go through that, and it just making it through their program is like pretty successful, but then you had to do the real hard part, which is finding the job, which which there's a lot of people, like you said, like that's not common. Your process wasn't common. One of my clients went through another boot camp in with I think he was like a week or two out from graduation and got an offer, and again, it it's just not common, but he he was doing other stuff similar to you. Like he's was reaching out on LinkedIn, trying to go to networking events, and like there's so many different ways you can try to make that future possibility happen. But yeah, sometimes you're not gonna know until some of these old dividends pay pay off, and you're kind of like it's kind of like that fisherman who has like five different fishing pools out there, right? And it's like, I don't know, I don't know if it's even gonna happen today, but right. These are the five lines, like I might get a nibble, I might get a bite. That's gonna need to come back. And and what you did and what you mentioned is like you held on to something that was her, what what you felt was what she saw in you to motivate you to be better than what you felt like you were. Um, so you kind of took anything that you could to kind of give yourself that fuel to make that next step. And I just recorded it, what wasn't too relevant at all to this, other than just talking about growth and potential and how like people can sometimes see stuff in you, and just because you're not there yet, like there's no reason why you can't grow and and be the awesome at that role, be awesome at that job, be awesome at learning some particular type of code. But what happens is like that's that's just a part on the process, that's not the end goal, and there's more to it, there's gonna be more growth, and you're gonna kind of shed this skin and move on to the next thing and and kind of constantly be evolving. That's at least that's who I enjoy working with. And then also the people who honestly I see the most happy with their life is when they're not just doing the same thing day after day and just kind of being stagnant and and and stuff like that. We're coming up to the end of the show, but so one thing I that was an hour. That was a that was a quick hour. No, yeah. What I'm gonna ask you to do, and and you may have already recorded one today, but share like a quick daily do better, like something that you would do through your LinkedIn profile and Share that with with people. Just kind of share a daily do better with us because like people could be listening to this the day it's released or months from now, a year from now, six years from now. That's one of the things I love about the podcast that I'm starting to notice is like when I was producing that content is very stale, it'd like go out and then it would disappear in the feed. Right. My my old podcast just keep getting additional listeners. So it's cool to see that. And so this daily do better is gonna live on past whatever day it is here for a state, but then also anyone that listens to it. So go ahead and share a daily do better for the audience.
SPEAKER_01All right, all right. We're we're I'm gonna I'm gonna repeat the message I gave last time, uh, or I gave earlier in this in this podcast. So a lot of people tend to go through life waiting for that moment of success. You know, they they want that moment where they know they've done something good and they've done something great. The fact that you woke up every day is something good and something great. You live a life of success. Those moments when you have that failure is just a moment, you know, because once that moment passed, you live the rest of your life fine. So understand that failure is just a checkpoint in success. It's just letting you know that you're progressing somewhere further, and that no matter how many failures you have, you're simply building up your arsenal to help you get there faster. You know, one of the the to refer back to the last daily do better. Failure is the path to success.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01And on top of that, failure feels life altering, and that's because it is. It's altering you from who you are to who you will be. So that's the daily do better. It's just acknowledge what your failures are and that they're in the moment, and understand that your life is a success. So you don't need a moment to give you that feeling.
SPEAKER_00Yep, that's awesome, man. I really appreciate it. So if people wanted to uh connect with you, is the best way through LinkedIn?
SPEAKER_01Uh LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. As far as I know, I'm the only Corey P's. But if you go to any of those platforms, hashtag daily do better. Um, I should be the only one you find. And if you find somebody else, let me know and I'll talk to them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and uh what I'll do is I'll grab the link. I know I have your LinkedIn one, but I'll find that those other ones, make sure it's you, and then I'll ensure that, include that in the show notes to make sure everyone has that.
SPEAKER_01Much appreciated, man. I appreciate this time as well. This was is this is the first time I've officially been able to kind of talk to talk to the public about my ideas on somebody else's platform. Um so I appreciate the opportunity, man. It was awesome.
SPEAKER_00No, it's super valuable. I really appreciate you being on, and yeah, I look forward to seeing the the future daily do betters, and then also word that the financial activist kind of starts to uh get turned on and then uh see the all these different messages having their different impacts. Absolutely coming soon to an internet near you. Thank you for listening to Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp. Remember, if you like what you've been hearing to subscribe, review, and share with your friends and colleagues. I'm also still taking suggestions for future episode topics and guests. If you want to take your connection to the show to the next level, you can find me on LinkedIn or on Facebook. Hit you next time on Techie Personal Finance Bootcamp.