Welcome to the latest edition of Generation Si! This newsletter focuses on Carlos Perez, the CEO and founder of Perez Technology Group, and how he used solid communication to get his message across and get results. In Part One, I focused on how he was able to start his business, despite not being great in school. Today, in Part Two, you’ll learn the following:
🌴The specific list of questions to ask a mentor to help you start a business.
🌴How speaking up helped Perez get a second chance at a baseball dream.
🌴A variation of the John Madden quote, “Winning’s the great deodorant,” and how to use that to fight age discrimination.
🌴Here’s entrepreneur, Carlos Perez, of the Perez Technology Group...
Carlos speaking at the FloridaMakes conference as a cybersecurity expert
ASK YOURSELF THE HARD QUESTIONS - AND ANSWER THEM
“I was working for the New York Yankees of technology… That’s what Microsoft is in the technology world. And I was walking away from that.”
Carlos Perez remembers how he arrived at the decision to leave Avanade, a company that was a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture.
Specifically, it was the moment his mentor, Wilson Camelo, asked him, “Is this where you want to be?"
Perez remembers thinking to himself, "No. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to own my own company. I want to be independent. I want to fulfill that dream.”
REMIND YOURSELF OF THE SKILLS YOU'VE LEARNED
As grateful as Perez was for the job, he says he knew his experience with technology, cybersecurity, the cloud and giant IT infrastructure meant he had the skills to go after the dream of small business ownership.
“I can do this on my own. I know I can. And, so, I decided to really start exploring that.”
What became clear to him is that communicating what he wanted would be the key.
THE LIST: CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO ASK A MENTOR
Even when he approached his mentor, he knew what he needed to ask:
“How did you do that?”
“How do you form a business?”
“How do you register your business?”
“How do you sell?”
“How do you find your customers?”
“How do you keep your customers?”
“How do you structure this?”
“How do you invoice someone?"
“I mean, how do you do any of these things that – that make a business function?"
“And how do you grow it?”
Perez learned to communicate what he wanted, even in college.
IF YOU DON'T ASK, YOU DON'T GET - PLAIN AND SIMPLE
“I tore a ligament in my left knee in my senior year in high school. So, when I went to UConn, I went to the coach’s office. I knocked on the door and I said, 'I know you were looking at me… in high school. You stopped because I got hurt.' And I said, 'Well, I’m recovered. And I want to try out, and I want to walk on…'”
So what did he do?
“I tried out, and I made the team…”
He asked for the chance, and he got it. He got to play ball!
A proud moment: Carlos plays for the UConn baseball team
TECH SKILLS AREN'T ENOUGH: WORK ON YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
In business, Perez realized early on that tech skills, alone, weren’t enough.
“I always knew technology very well and business very well… Both of those came very naturally to me… But [to] also have the ability to speak and have interpersonal skills and be able to build relationships.. [it] is what’s needed as an entrepreneur…”
TECH SKILLS + COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS = WINNING COMBO
Perez says, when he was able to combine these skills, that’s when he knew he could excel as an entrepreneur.
That didn’t minimize how much work he’d have to put in. Perez says he didn’t get his first client for six months. But he knew, once he communicated and truly connected with a customer, he’d be able to keep them for a lot longer and build his base.
“Our sales cycles are significantly longer, but our retention rates are way higher than the great majority of industries…”
REVIEW PREVIOUS DISAPPOINTMENTS OR FAILURES
Perez says that, looking back, that was the missing link as to why it took a while for him to be able to get his client base going.
“All the rejections came from really not being able to communicate the message that I wanted to communicate to these businesses and really bring them on board…”
THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT AGEISM
And he believes this works not just for young entrepreneurs, but also older people who may be trying to overcome age discrimination.
He resorts to the saying from his baseball coach at UConn who would tell him, “The best deodorant is winning.”
In other words, “’You may or may not like someone or may or may not like or appreciate their philosophies. If they’re winning, they’re winning.’”
What does he say to these folks?
“Prove that your value to the marketplace really will… translate to direct results… results of victory. And they can’t deny you the door… It’s very black and white. It’s not subjective. You can say, ‘I’ve built successful businesses. I’ve done this.' So, it’s really about being able to communicate that.”
DON'T FORGET TO "DO GOOD" WITH YOUR COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
Knowing how to use effective communication is not just for getting clients as an entrepreneur. Perez used it to do good.
He interned at a small investment firm during his first year in college. When the company decided to get rid of 15 to 20 computers for new ones, he came up with an idea.
Perez wrote it in a bulletin for the company’s CEO that he wanted to take the computers and give them to young kids at the school in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico that he attended as a child.
He wrote in his proposal to the boss, “I’ll wipe all the data off of them because… we need to remove the data. And I’ll personally do that work myself, free of charge, as long as you’re willing to give me the computers when I take them.”
Perez arranged for his fraternity to pay for shipping the computers to Puerto Rico.
SEND THE ELEVATOR DOWN TO HELP SOMEONE ELSE
“For some of these kids, it was the first time they’d ever seen a computer. And I said, the mind of a five, six [or] seven-year-old staring at a computer for the first time is like opening them up to an entire world of information.”
Carlos secures donation of 15+ computers for his former elementary school in Puerto Rico
Perez was able to go from marveling at the wonder that computers opened for him at the age of five to being able to share that kind of magic with other kids and, eventually, opening his own IT services company by effectively communicating his goals.
INSPIRATION FOR THIS ISSUE:
How are your communications skills? No, really.
Communication doesn’t seem to get a lot of attention and, yet, it is so important.
With COVID, social media and the ease of texting, it feels like many of us are a little rusty with our communications skills. Specifically, we could all benefit from brushing up on our “professional” communications skills.
Whether it’s writing for professional purposes or communicating our ideas in person vs. virtually, it’s a skill.
It’s a skill that pays off in so many ways (sales, building relationships, establishing credibility, etc.) But it’s a skill that requires practice.
Even professional writers, like me, edit, edit, and then edit some more. And I always have someone take a second look at my work.
Having a second pair of eyes to check what you write with a fresh perspective is invaluable.
Feeling comfortable speaking in public or, at this point, just communicating with co-workers like we did, pre-COVID, is going to take some adjustments, time and practice.
But because Carlos talked about the disconnect of having tech skills, but not necessarily knowing how best to sharpen his interpersonal skills, it reminded me of how critical communications skills are, no matter your industry.
His admission that he probably lost out on several early sales opportunities because he did not communicate his message well shows a level of maturity and self-awareness.
Asking for what he wanted and learning to communicate it clearly in different circumstances can be the difference between knowing what you want and actually getting it. #theskyisNOTthelimit
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🌴Make your dreams come true! And thank you for your continued loyal support. 😺
Pure joy: Carlos with his family at the Yankees' World Series Ticker Tape Parade (1996)