April 24, 2025 • 17 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast with Thomas Helfrich
Sales engineer and podcast host KJ Fenton joins Thomas for a fun, honest conversation about balancing a thriving W-2 career with building a passion project, and how cutting ties with "safe" thinking can open bigger doors than you ever expected. From coding macros at EY to launching KJ's Corner, KJ shares how small risks turn into massive growth.
About KJ Fenton:
KJ Fenton is a principal solutions engineer at Salesforce specializing in Intelligent Automation. He's also the host of KJ's Corner, a podcast where he interviews professionals across sales, marketing, and tech to unpack the real inflection points behind their success stories. KJ brings a rare blend of technical skills, sales acumen, and authenticity to everything he does.
In this episode, Thomas and KJ discuss:
- Cutting the Tie to "Stay in Your Lane"
KJ shares how questioning inefficient systems at EY led to backlash—and why speaking up was the first move that shifted his career trajectory. - Launching a Podcast While Working Full-Time
He breaks down how he started KJ's Corner not to "monetize fast," but to build a long-term platform for future opportunities. - Family First, Always
KJ reflects on how balancing entrepreneurship with being a husband and father grounds his decision-making—even when the hustle gets chaotic. - Treating Your Side Hustle Like a Real Business
Thomas challenges KJ (and listeners) to treat their side projects seriously today—because the job you think is secure may not last forever.
Key Takeaways:
- You Can Build Both
You don't have to burn your W-2 bridges. Use them to fund your dreams—and take action now. - Start Before You're Ready
KJ didn't have the perfect "hook" or formula—he just started having meaningful conversations and learned as he went. - Automation is Your Secret Weapon
Use tools like Streamyard, Opus.pro, and automation platforms to save time and amplify your content. - Listen to What Trusted People Say About You
If everyone says you're great at something—pay attention. There’s truth in that feedback.
"The biggest thing you can build is confidence in your own story—even if you’re still writing it."
— KJ Fenton
CONNECT WITH KJ FENTON:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylejohnfenton
CONNECT WITH THOMAS:
X (Twitter): https://x.com/CutTheTieX
Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/CutTheTie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cutthetiecommunity/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cutthetie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cutthetie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/
CutTheTie.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm Thomas Helfrich, your host.
We're on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success.
I want you to become the bestversion of yourself, the best
entrepreneur within you.
Today, we're joined by KJFenton.
Kj, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I have a toddler and a newborn If any of you have
been through that phase before alittle bit of the bags in the
eyes right there, but I'm stillgood Nonetheless.
It's the most rewardingexperience ever.
I don't recommend it to peoplein the short term because it's
emotionally exhausting andphysically exhausting.
(00:37):
However, I can't envision mylife without children Once
they're here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
They're here.
I feel bad, saying I wish wedidn't have this thing, but you
know it is well, it's, it'sfunny, literally like today, you
know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Of course, our toddler doesn't want to put his
underwear back on after going tothe bathroom and we're just
like, can we, can we give himback?
Can we just can we put him back?
Like what, what's going on?
I don't need to shove thisthing back in there.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
By the way, he doesn just want to wear underwear one
day.
Okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
When your wiener gets ripped off.
We already did it.
That's already what it was.
Yeah, we're potty training, sowe're like you know what Full
commando Do it.
It's fine.
I mean, hey, Walk around naked.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You only get to do that once or twice in your year.
I mean, are you going to sayyou've never done that before?
To be fair, right now I don'tactually have underwear on.
I have Lululemon shorts on.
You have shorts on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That's literally me too.
I'm glad that we're on the samewavelength, Right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I mean, they're so comfortable and they got liners,
so why would I put on underwear?
Yeah, I am basically yourtoddler.
This will probably not make thecut floor, but if it does, okay
, jay, why don't you just do,and your company and what it
does?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Awesome, Cool.
So my name's KJ Fenton, asThomas had alluded to here.
I'm a small town kid originallyfrom upstate, New York, but I
live in Charlotte, NorthCarolina, Right now.
In terms of what I do, I callmyself more entrepreneurial in
spirit.
My business is technically thepodcast that I have called KJ's
Corner, where I pretty muchformalize conversations, much
like you do, Thomas, in hopesthat people can learn from those
(02:03):
.
But I say entrepreneurial inspirit is that I've been very
entrepreneurial in terms ofmoving up the ranks in my career
.
So, as of now, my full-time jobis I am a solutions engineer at
Salesforce, specifically withinintelligent automation, which I
know is your background as well, so I'm sure we'll probably
have a conversation on thatHelping pretty much Salesforce
customers and anyone within thatnetwork at this point because
(02:24):
Salesforce owns like 8 millioncompanies at this point to
understand how automation canhelp their business.
It's a relevant skill and I'vebeen able to use that ride the
wave in a selling capacity as asales engineer.
So that's what I do right now.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, and one of the reasons I like and we have all
types of entrepreneurs on hereOne thing I love about your
story is you're in a spot whereyou have such a good W-2 job and
you have a side hustle ofsomething.
That's truly a passion and Ithink that's the so anybody
listening here right, this isthe point.
You can have a W-2 job.
I make fun of it in this andthat on TikTok, but the truth is
, if you could have a W-2 jobthat pays awesome, covers all
(02:58):
the basis and then some, yourside hustle becomes a hell of a
lot more fun because you don'thave.
You can spend time buildingwhat you want and the
positioning it for somethinglong-term and you don't have to
have the stress of oh my God, Igot to feed my kids off of this,
correct, and I love thatbecause I want people to get
that lesson.
That's a great way to go intoentrepreneurship with it.
So in your podcast, I want tofocus on that a little bit too,
(03:19):
because that's the passion.
And so you know, when peopleare looking back at you 10 years
from now, they're probablygoing to remember your podcast
more than you were at Salesforce.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
They do now you know what I mean.
Like I don't care about that.
But what's the podcast about?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, that's exactly right, so I'm.
So I always ask people kind ofwhat's the power statement?
Why should someone listen?
You know, tell me what yourpodcast is, but tell me you.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So this is also really good coaching, because I
don't really have a good hookfor the podcast because I'm just
starting out.
We talked about that, butreally it was back in 2022.
I was.
I started the LinkedIn game alittle bit more.
I was like, all right, I've gota charming personality, let me
just not let it be in the W2 job, let me start showing that, so
on and so forth, startcommenting on posts, doing the
(03:59):
typical LinkedIn thing.
But I was never chasing vanity.
Right To your point, I got agood W2 job.
I'm not hustling right.
That led.
One thing led to another.
A woman, aaliyah Olds, reachedout to me.
She was building a techcommunity and said hey, I need a
podcast to supplement thecommunity content.
I think you'd be great at it.
And I just hit it.
So what was happening?
I was having good conversationswith individuals like yourself
and I said people should justlisten to this.
(04:20):
I don't even need a format asmuch.
I was just asking people theirstory, asking them the
inflection point in their career.
It's really similar to this.
And then just packaging that upand I just ran with it.
I ran with a monthly cadencejust interview a guest, put the
episode out the next month.
I'm a little behind now becauseI've had kids, but you get the
idea, but that's really all itis.
I just try to find people insales marketing, product
(04:43):
marketing, anything adjacent.
I've even talked to people innot-for-profits to just
extrapolate what worked for themin hopes that people can follow
a similar mindset.
That's all.
The podcast is, though, reallyreally simple.
There's nothing else to it, andI'm starting that and I'm
probably beating you to thepunch here in hopes that, if I
do end up working for myselfdown the line, I've got this
long, for I've got this longlist of content that I can start
(05:05):
pulling from, extrapolating,building my network and going
from there.
Um, and that's really why I'mI'm doing it.
That's my ulterior motive, but,upfront, it's just me chatting
with people for 30 to 45 minutes.
If you like it, great.
If you don't, I'm also okaywith that, you know.
So that's that's really hard.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Go ahead, I'll challenge your tie to cut,
because I always ask you whattie you need to cut.
Yeah, well, I don't have apretty clue.
What tie do you think you needto cut in your career?
Or what have you done alongyour career?
Yeah, that you had to overcome?
I think that's probably thebest.
Let's start with that one.
Then I have an idea for youwhat, along your career, what's
(05:44):
the biggest tie you've had tocut to advance, for success?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, so I think it's kind of where I'm taking it now
on the podcast thing, but Ihave to go back to I think it
was twenty seventeen.
So we're looking at oh God,eight years, jesus man Time
flies.
Holy crap, yeah it's.
I mean I don't know.
I remember ten years ago I wasin college.
You know what I mean.
So it was eight years ago.
I'm at Ernst Young, reallyfortunate.
(06:08):
Get the consulting job.
They give you analyst type work.
If you've worked in the bigfour consulting game, you know
it.
If you worked at any consultantfirm, you know the shtick I
found myself on anti-moneylaundering projects, which is
very arduous and boring work.
It's very, if then else, logicbased.
And I started teaching myselfand this is a good segue into
(06:29):
how I ended up where I'm at inmy career.
Um, I started like buildingmacros, started just like making
my job a little bit easier,because it was literally just
check something, put it in aspreadsheet, run the pivot table
, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like there's got to bea way that I can just drop data
in here and click a button andguess what?
What there is.
It's called freaking VisualBasic, right.
So I start teaching myself thatand then applying that.
Yeah, macros, right.
Exactly, here's my dog as itcomes in.
(06:50):
So, yeah, bright macros, right.
So that's a good basis point ofcutting the tie.
So I start applying this toprojects and eventually people
start pulling me on the AMLprojects to be like, hey, can
you look at different ways tomake it efficient?
And blah, blah, blah and I goton this project.
We're working for a bank up inNew York.
Mind you, I don't know whyyou're flying 50 kids up to
Secaucus, new Jersey, to do work, not at a client site, but
(07:12):
whatever I digress, that's thewhole big four shtick.
But we're there and I wasreviewing these high-risk
accounts.
Pretty simple Big transactionhits out of the client profile.
Go review it.
That's what happens across theboard.
Companies have systems to do it, people do it, whatever.
You know the game and I foundwith our accounts, one out of
(07:32):
every three was a person diedand it was the life insurance
check clearing.
So I'm like why are wereviewing this?
I'm like there's data thatproves the person's 80 years old
.
They got one check for like 500grand.
You know that's a damn mistake,like you know what I mean.
Like it was nothing crazy.
So we ended up finding out onethird of all the clients that we
had and I ended up writing amacro to go through all of the
spreadsheets that we have,determined the amount of uh
(07:55):
customers that had onetransaction and one transaction
out.
And I just said like, hey, whydon't we just use some
data-driven insights here andsave the customer a ton of money
?
To which then my partner saidto me if we do that, kj, there's
no reason for us to be here.
To which I responded isn't thatthe point of us being the
consulting firm to build abetter working world?
(08:16):
So I uh threw a hissy fitbecause I was 24 years old and I
thought I knew everything, um,and got kicked off the project,
uh, and then waff for a littlebit and that's when I started
beefing up my resume and that'swhen I cut the tie with EY.
A couple months later, a companycalled Information Services
Group picked me up and said hey,I think you could be a low-code
developer because of thatexperience, and I made sure that
(08:38):
was highlighted right out ofthe gate.
So when you looked at me, yousaid that's what that kid does.
And then I rode that waveimplementation and I can talk
about that later.
But that was really the timemoment where I had competence.
I knew what the answer was andthe powers that be didn't accept
it because of another ulteriormotive, and I said I need to
change.
So that was really it.
(08:58):
That was kind of the start ofmy career progression and, man,
it was such a great decision.
It's such a great decision.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, and so you remember the moment you covered
the aha moment of like, oh myGod, this is like it.
Um, since then, tell me aboutthe impact since it.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah.
So like literally what happenedwas took a bet on myself, got
paid way more, right, I wentfrom.
I got that six figure salary at25.
I was like man, I did it.
That's awesome, I love it,right.
Um, but the impact was I startedto really understand a little
bit more.
On, if you're going to be aconsultant, you probably should
have some projects or product orservice knowledge specifically
around the implementation.
I didn't have any of that.
(09:33):
I was a kid out of college.
I didn't know anything.
So in this low-code field, I wasactually implementing the
low-code projects and I'm smartenough to pay attention like,
why are you building thesethings?
And what I realized was Iwasn't necessarily I'm technical
, but I really enjoyed a lotmore of the educating people,
enabling people, helping themunderstand what the technology
(09:54):
would do, giving them an ounceof what it would look like and
then helping them through theprofessional services motion in
a software context.
And I didn't really realizethat until I was about a year
into that ISG job and I'm like Ihate this development thing.
This really sucks.
Like I just didn't care to docode reviews.
I didn't care to, you know,have error handled code.
I was also, you know, trying toget married at the time, so a
lot of different life thingswere happening, but I wasn't
(10:15):
feeling fulfilled.
And then UiPath gracious asregardless, and then we can talk
about how I got fired fromthere.
But they reached out to me andsaid, hey, we need some sales
engineers.
This is what UiPath I think itwas like 2017, 2018, series C.
I knew their product.
I didn't get the certification,but I had gone through their
advanced coursework, I wasbuilding solutions in it, and
(10:36):
then they hired me to be an SEand I just took all my
implementation experience andran with it and I learned what
being a sales engineer was.
And now I consider myself one ofthe better sales engineers
because I have a true technicalcompetence that I can rely on,
while also working on the salesimpact, the business impact, the
customer impact, and really bea holistic seller in the
software space as an SE, which Ithink is something that's
(10:58):
harder to do, I think, forpeople in my role.
The ones who do it end upkilling it and, just like you
said, that's why my W-2 ispretty great, because I'm a
principal level guy at 30, whichis a great accolade.
I definitely benefit from somerole.
Inflation, sure, but I earnedit, so that's really been.
The impact is just followingthe wave and what's been
(11:19):
presented to you and then justtaking advantage of those
moments and waiting and bidingyour time.
That's really been how I'veended up here, yeah, it's, uh,
it's anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So I was at isg as well.
I led their intelligentautomation solutioning for a
while.
Um, so I won their stanleyblack and decker and illy lily
wow with the aa projects.
Holy crap, that's crazy.
I won all those.
I mean I led those.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Were you like just sending like little feelers out,
like in the field, so to speak?
Am I just following you Likeyou didn't even know it?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well you were there a little after I left, because I
left that to become a chiefinnovation officer of a services
company.
So I mean yeah, of course of aservices company.
So I mean yeah, of course, likethat.
No, so I was working like youknow crazy in my team.
So what one of the biggest tiesI cut was I was absolutely
killing it like you know, likeleading the project solo, doing
it like huge, you know justunbelievable amount of travel
(12:07):
and stuff, and then my managerwas like you're not focused and
I'm like I was like you knowwhat are you?
talking about.
I'm like we just like I soldthe deal.
I mean, like you know, anywayit's.
At that point I was like thisguy's a maniac, like I don't
know what's going on, he's nice,but I was like man, I am not
you, you work for him yeah, wasit.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh, can we say names like probably?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
not yeah, I mean, it was manos right I mean, it's
like no, james manos, uh, and Iwere, like you know, peers for
what we were doing.
So Manos reported to Mark.
Oh, above him, oh, got it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Okay, I know you're talking about Scott or whatever.
In any case, yeah, I think no,no, no, well, that's.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Scott.
Yeah, scott was part of ISG soI was part of the Chip Wagner
side, so you're talking about,but they had a floor.
By the way, we're just catchingup.
Um, I understand that spacereally.
Like that was ISG.
I came from KPMG into that Umand so doing their automation
(13:05):
stuff and they didn't have anyinterest in it because it was
like this is not advisory and itjust didn't have a play.
Um difficult place to workbecause they just work you to
death it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I mean, I remember we scoped the project wrong and I
just I remember I was sittingthere uh, so I worked on it was
john hancock.
They were doing a.
It was actually a really gooduse case.
It was, um, they had justhealth claims, just basic death
claim stuff.
The problem was they scoped areally small project in theory,
but it had 12 different paths.
Well, that's how you won theproject, man, right, I get it
(13:38):
Like, I know, like I, that wasanother moment of like, ah, damn
it, it's the same thing I justdealt with at EY, right, and,
and I was just sitting thereslogging out, you know, 10, 12,
14, sometimes even 16, 18 hourdays, right, and it's, I know, I
went in that crazy range, but,like, my average was 10 to 12,
right, and my wife's like, whatare you doing?
Like this is not what you weredoing at ey, at least you could
(14:01):
go have a beer.
You know like, you're sittinghere at 9 30 crying, right, you
know, and I'm just like I can't.
It was brute and it was becausewe had already sold the bill of
materials, right, we're tryingto hit everything, and then the
project just kept extending,extending, extending, and then
they're getting mad at usgetting eaten.
I was like, well, maybe if youwould have scoped it better in
the beginning.
But that's just me bitchingabout being a robot?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, because they scoped it.
It's horrible.
So you launched a podcast onthe side.
Here's my challenge to you.
Here's a tie I would think youneed to cut.
Treat that podcast like your jobended.
And the reason is and you'renot going to be able to get it
fully there, because untilyou're all in, you're not all in
.
But the reason is your job willend somewhere.
Likely, it's not like it's amean thing or you did something
(14:45):
wrong.
One or two things will happen.
The conditions of the marketwill change.
They won't need you, or you'llslowly phase out because you
just don't want to do it anymoreand you won't want to go work
for anyone else and you shoulddo 30.
So that's going to happen inthe next like six, seven, eight
years.
Yeah, but you got runway.
I would treat it like I wantthis to be my full-time income
to replace what I have.
(15:06):
That starts now.
So the type of that is take thelaissez-faire off of it and
treat it as serious as you canto build it up.
You got to do it now, yeah, andyou won't be fully in until
you're all the way in.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And that's you shouldn't, because it's as I'm
hearing it you're right and asI'm hearing it, it's like I I
understand it in the moment veryhard to execute on right now,
but that is why now it's likeI've even made some subtle
changes, even since our lastconversation.
I plan on finding someonehitting it, getting that shit
out next month and doing four tosix short like really
(15:46):
operationalizing it, cause I'vebeen very, very lackadaisical.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I will give you.
Are you doing solos orinterviews?
I forget I do interviews.
Yeah, all you need anybodylistening here.
Take this advice, so let's makethis to the cut.
If you're going to do a podcastas your side hustle and you
want to build it, use a ton ofautomation technology.
What I would tell you to do isrecord it.
Streamyard's great.
We use that.
We use Buzzsprout for ourpieces.
That's what I'm doing.
Always pick the magic micUpgrade.
(16:14):
It's worth it.
It saves you in audio editorseffectively.
But then I would do is useOpuspro and let it cut up your
stuff for you, and it's goodenough.
It gets your presence.
It's not great, but it's goodenough, and it will be great,
though, as it improves.
The truth is one episode if youuse like a Zapier, you can
pretty much automate the flow aswell.
Yeah, you can, and so, andyou're an automation engineer,
(16:35):
so there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I like literally, yeah, Like I've got, I mean yeah
, my-.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Power automate on desktop.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
You should be able to click through all that stuff on
one little little it's likeyou're maybe spending and I do
everything myself, right, butit's really maybe three hours
max an episode, right, andthat's everything from.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I wouldn't edit it.
I mean I this is getting editedbecause you and I are just
having fun at this point.
It's good, there's a mass at it, but but the truth is just from
you something out.
Oh my god, absolutely all right.
So let me keep it, because I do.
I have a hard stop here inseven, so let me.
Let me give you the nextquestion.
What advice would you give thelistener that that has a w-2 and
is in that journey, or or isyou know?
(17:14):
What advice do you give thelistener?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
uh, two things one, um, actually it's, it's two in
one.
Follow your passion, with thecaveat that if nobody in your
life is actually telling you topursue that passion, flip the
script, because something that Isee happen is I think people
have this idea of Granger thatthey want to be good at
something and they work atsomething, and that's great.
(17:37):
But there are people that haveprobably told you in your life
you'd be good at X, you arereally good at this thing, you
like to do whatever, and ifthey're really trusted people in
your life, they have your bestinterest in mind.
Don't take advice from peoplewho you wouldn't normally listen
to on a regular basis, likesomeone you're not going to
invite out for drinks orwhatever, but just follow what
(17:58):
people are telling you and usethat as a way to fuel what
you're doing.
And I know that soundsconvoluted, but I think the
unfortunate reality is noteveryone's going to make money
on their passion, right?
I think that's just a realityin today's world.
So find a way to do the thingsthat you enjoy in something
that's going to pay the bills,while also taking all of the
information that people havegiven you.
(18:18):
So what does every single humanbeing told me when they met me
and they start talkingprofessional, they're like
you're in sales.
I avoided sales.
I was all implementation.
I said let me just be charmingand blah, blah, blah.
Now guess what?
Probably in the next five toseven years, just like you said,
what am I going to be doing?
I'm probably either going to beselling some software, right,
or I'm potentially working formyself, selling my own business
and selling my brand, right, andit's.
(18:39):
It's one of those things thatlike when I learned it.
Well, I don't like the sleazycar salesman mentality.
My dad was a lifelong insurancesalesman, so I saw how sleazy
he could be sometimes and I wasjust like, eh, I don't want to
do that, but I like helpingpeople.
The best time to help people,especially in today's world, if
you're in a white collarcorporate job, is being involved
in the selling motion.
So you don't let people buyvaporware and bullshit, right?
(19:01):
So take all of those things thatyou enjoy and find a way to
package that up.
You can work for the job youwant and the role that you have.
Oh, virtually always.
You can do that, um, so that's,that's really my advice, and
it's hard because sometimes youhave to find the right mentors.
You have to find the rightfriends.
You have to get burned a littlebit, like I mentioned.
You know, briefly, I did getfired.
Right, I had to figure that out.
I had to figure out without thestroke, without the whatever.
(19:25):
I'm not advocating for anyoneto get fired.
That's really scary when you'rethe sole provider monetarily.
I went through that but I'mglad I went through it.
But find a way to give yourselfa little bit of adversity
that's also going to satisfyyour needs and demands.
How that looks I don't know foreveryone, but I knew I just
wanted to help people.
(19:45):
I knew I wanted to not be abullshitter, um, even though I'm
really good at that Um, and Ijust found a really, really nice
niche in software sales to doso, um.
So that's, that's my advice.
You know long-winded answer,but I think people will
understand where I'm gettingthere.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Um, I think that's, um, I think that's a good way to
do it, especially the thing.
I think we're found as the soleprovider.
Um, I think if you, if yourheart's not in something, you
better get ready to get yourheart into something.
Yeah, because what's going tohappen is and specifically of
adhd, you're going to keepspinning around me.
That's what moves jobs.
(20:21):
The talent is that so rapidfire.
I usually do a bunch of these.
Um, I want to do two with you,though I want to know who
inspires you um, I would say myinspiration.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't have, like anyone that I look at, like I
want to ask who's your rolemodel?
I don't know, um, but I wouldhave to say I have to lean on my
mom and I know it's such acheesy answer, but I but I to me
I don't think I'm in thisposition in terms of the
headspace without my mom.
My mom has dealt with a bunch ofstuff in her entire life and
(20:55):
her objectivity around thingsmight make her more rigid than
I'd like her to be.
I wish she would be a littlemore emotional, uh, but to that
point, help me look at thingsvery, very objectively and, like
learn the meta of stuff and theminutiae and block out the
noise and so on and so forth,and I can always come to my mom
for virtually everything I stilldo right, and she does my taxes
, which is awesome, right.
(21:16):
So she's clearly intelligent,right.
It's just more um, it's she'ssomeone that I can always get a
good candidate like my, my wifeand I always say she's the
parent, like, when you reach outto your parents, she's the
parent you reach out to.
So I would say, uh, my mom iswho I probably look up do you
mess with her?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
you know your uh position is going to get
automated soon right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh yeah, she asked me about automation.
Now she's like I don't need tobe doing this shit anymore.
Like literally she goes.
She's like I at this pointunderstand, like because she's a
village clerk as well, andshe's like I know this is going
to be taken away in like 10, 15years I'll be retired by then
but she's helping me now, likewhen she does her consolidation
for her business taxes.
That she does like all hercustomers, like once they take
all that extrapolating it out,uh, so she knows she's not
ignorant to it at all.
I give her shit more on, justlike the fact that her
(21:56):
generation, uh, you know, messedup any chance of us having, you
know, as a generational societyof, you know, being rich or
whatever.
But I just like doing that fromthe social rhetoric perspective
just to mess with her, justplay on generational stuff
what's your, uh, what's yourfavorite technology or ai tool
right?
now.
Um, it's hard to really giveyou a candid answer on that and
(22:17):
I think you understand why.
It's because I've been involvedin the shit, so like I
understand like different toolshave different purposes and so
on and so forth.
But if, if I say my favorite, Ireally honestly I like ChatGPT
right, and I think that'sbecause I have a different lens
than most.
I don't need a specialized LLMfor something because I work in
it all day right.
Salesforce has their own LLMwith Einstein, so I can figure
(22:39):
out how to customize that and dowhatever.
I use Kuzo AI.
I don't use Opus Clips I liedabout that a little bit earlier
but I use Kuzo AI for the shortclip generation Stuff's really,
really awesome.
But I think you're going to getanything out of AI if you can
just break it down to.
Do you need context or do youjust need something more
agnostic?
I usually need something moreagnostic, so I use ChatGPT as my
(23:00):
nice assistant.
I'll say, like I'm cutting thegrass right, grass right.
Great example we're in spring,it's it.
We're in, you know, northcarolina, it's bermuda grass.
What's the best format to dothat?
Give me the sources so I canvalidate some stuff.
Prompt engineering, basicthings.
I get everything out of thefree version of chat gpt, but
that's because I understand howai works.
If I give it a lot of context,it's going to give me exactly
(23:20):
what I'm looking for.
And I think, if you don't havethat, then I think if you had a
tool that's like oh, I need itfor video generation, oh, I need
it for transcription, orwhatever, there's going to be a
tool for you.
But I just I understand howthat works and in my day to day,
that's that's really what I do.
Yeah, people ask me like you'rean AI guy, shouldn't you be
(23:41):
using a bunch of stuff?
I'm like well, yeah, otherthings, so All right.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
So if there's a question, I should ask you today
what was that question and howdo you answer it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I'm trying to think I think it would be.
You know just how do you, howdo you get in the right
headspace in order to achieveanything Like, I think, a lot of
people you know when they speakabout their experiences and
they speak with such eloquence.
I think we're all coming from aplace of privilege.
So how do you get to a pointwhere you can get that privilege
?
I think you have to have areally strong sense of self.
(24:10):
Emotional intelligence to me, issomething that's really really
big, especially since Jenna'sparents are divorced.
My parents should have beendivorced, so we saw what bad
looked like in a relationshipand I understand that as humans,
we want companionship.
Some people are lone wolves,but for the most part, I think
we all want companionship and Ithink once that's always going
to be in the back of your mindif you're distracted, even if
you're in a relationship, ifit's not fully there, right,
(24:31):
it's going to affect everything.
So finding a way to hit youremotional intelligence and get
that to a high enough level soyou can look at things
objectively, even if it elicitsan emotional response, I think
that helps you achieve thoselevels.
Uh, because there's a lot ofpeople that will be
quote-unquote successful, butthen when shit hits the fan,
they're done because they don'thave that ability to
self-regulate.
Um, whereas I think if you dohave an ability to self-regulate
(24:53):
a little bit more, it helpseverything across the board,
especially having kids.
Oh my god, holy crap, dude.
Like that, like everything waseasy until this.
You know what I mean.
Like the way you, you knowreact, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I think that would be and you don't realize it
until you have them.
You're like oh, Bingo, that'sexactly right, yeah, that would
be it.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You know how do you achieve it?
Emotional intelligence for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
How do people get ahold of you and I got the
search to prove it.
If you're looking to doanything automation, integration
or AI related, reach out to me.
I will give you a candid answer.
I can probably even show youhow you can build something as
well tools that you can go do.
That would be my primary from abusiness perspective.
Otherwise, if you really wantto get to know someone who works
in the corporate world, who isactually the person that you to
hang out with, reach out to me.
(25:44):
I'm primarily only on LinkedIn.
I don't use anything else.
To your point on challenging, Iprobably should build a bigger
presence across the othersocials, but that'll take time.
But LinkedIn, kyle John Fenton,my profile stacked.
It's actually a really good one.
I know it's a good one.
People review it and they say,yeah, it's actually pretty great
, anything like that.
But I'm just the kid whooperates in the corporate world
who just treats work secondary.
(26:05):
My family and friends are allfirst and yeah, just reach out
on LinkedIn, dm me and just sayhey, I'll say hi, and if that's
it, that's it, and if it's moregreat, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Awesome.
Thank you, kj, for jumping inhere with me today.
Thank you for the time, man, Iappreciate it.
Hey, spotify, and if you reallylike the podcast, you know.
If you want to go bonus points,do a five-star review.
If YouTube's your thing, hitthe subscribe.
I appreciate it.
Get out there, go cut a tie tosomething holding you back and
become great, become the bestversion of yourself.
(26:33):
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm Thomas Helfrich, your host.
We're on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success.
I want you to become the bestversion of yourself, the best
entrepreneur within you.
Today, we're joined by KJFenton.
Kj, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I have a toddler and a newborn If any of you have
been through that phase before alittle bit of the bags in the
eyes right there, but I'm stillgood Nonetheless.
It's the most rewardingexperience ever.
I don't recommend it to peoplein the short term because it's
emotionally exhausting andphysically exhausting.
(00:37):
However, I can't envision mylife without children Once
they're here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
They're here.
I feel bad, saying I wish wedidn't have this thing, but you
know it is well, it's, it'sfunny, literally like today, you
know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Of course, our toddler doesn't want to put his
underwear back on after going tothe bathroom and we're just
like, can we, can we give himback?
Can we just can we put him back?
Like what, what's going on?
I don't need to shove thisthing back in there.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
By the way, he doesn just want to wear underwear one
day.
Okay, fine.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
When your wiener gets ripped off.
We already did it.
That's already what it was.
Yeah, we're potty training, sowe're like you know what Full
commando Do it.
It's fine.
I mean, hey, Walk around naked.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You only get to do that once or twice in your year.
I mean, are you going to sayyou've never done that before?
To be fair, right now I don'tactually have underwear on.
I have Lululemon shorts on.
You have shorts on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That's literally me too.
I'm glad that we're on the samewavelength, Right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I mean, they're so comfortable and they got liners,
so why would I put on underwear?
Yeah, I am basically yourtoddler.
This will probably not make thecut floor, but if it does, okay
, jay, why don't you just do,and your company and what it
does?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Awesome, Cool.
So my name's KJ Fenton, asThomas had alluded to here.
I'm a small town kid originallyfrom upstate, New York, but I
live in Charlotte, NorthCarolina, Right now.
In terms of what I do, I callmyself more entrepreneurial in
spirit.
My business is technically thepodcast that I have called KJ's
Corner, where I pretty muchformalize conversations, much
like you do, Thomas, in hopesthat people can learn from those
(02:03):
.
But I say entrepreneurial inspirit is that I've been very
entrepreneurial in terms ofmoving up the ranks in my career
.
So, as of now, my full-time jobis I am a solutions engineer at
Salesforce, specifically withinintelligent automation, which I
know is your background as well, so I'm sure we'll probably
have a conversation on thatHelping pretty much Salesforce
customers and anyone within thatnetwork at this point because
(02:24):
Salesforce owns like 8 millioncompanies at this point to
understand how automation canhelp their business.
It's a relevant skill and I'vebeen able to use that ride the
wave in a selling capacity as asales engineer.
So that's what I do right now.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, and one of the reasons I like and we have all
types of entrepreneurs on hereOne thing I love about your
story is you're in a spot whereyou have such a good W-2 job and
you have a side hustle ofsomething.
That's truly a passion and Ithink that's the so anybody
listening here right, this isthe point.
You can have a W-2 job.
I make fun of it in this andthat on TikTok, but the truth is
, if you could have a W-2 jobthat pays awesome, covers all
(02:58):
the basis and then some, yourside hustle becomes a hell of a
lot more fun because you don'thave.
You can spend time buildingwhat you want and the
positioning it for somethinglong-term and you don't have to
have the stress of oh my God, Igot to feed my kids off of this,
correct, and I love thatbecause I want people to get
that lesson.
That's a great way to go intoentrepreneurship with it.
So in your podcast, I want tofocus on that a little bit too,
(03:19):
because that's the passion.
And so you know, when peopleare looking back at you 10 years
from now, they're probablygoing to remember your podcast
more than you were at Salesforce.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
They do now you know what I mean.
Like I don't care about that.
But what's the podcast about?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, that's exactly right, so I'm.
So I always ask people kind ofwhat's the power statement?
Why should someone listen?
You know, tell me what yourpodcast is, but tell me you.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So this is also really good coaching, because I
don't really have a good hookfor the podcast because I'm just
starting out.
We talked about that, butreally it was back in 2022.
I was.
I started the LinkedIn game alittle bit more.
I was like, all right, I've gota charming personality, let me
just not let it be in the W2 job, let me start showing that, so
on and so forth, startcommenting on posts, doing the
(03:59):
typical LinkedIn thing.
But I was never chasing vanity.
Right To your point, I got agood W2 job.
I'm not hustling right.
That led.
One thing led to another.
A woman, aaliyah Olds, reachedout to me.
She was building a techcommunity and said hey, I need a
podcast to supplement thecommunity content.
I think you'd be great at it.
And I just hit it.
So what was happening?
I was having good conversationswith individuals like yourself
and I said people should justlisten to this.
(04:20):
I don't even need a format asmuch.
I was just asking people theirstory, asking them the
inflection point in their career.
It's really similar to this.
And then just packaging that upand I just ran with it.
I ran with a monthly cadencejust interview a guest, put the
episode out the next month.
I'm a little behind now becauseI've had kids, but you get the
idea, but that's really all itis.
I just try to find people insales marketing, product
(04:43):
marketing, anything adjacent.
I've even talked to people innot-for-profits to just
extrapolate what worked for themin hopes that people can follow
a similar mindset.
That's all.
The podcast is, though, reallyreally simple.
There's nothing else to it, andI'm starting that and I'm
probably beating you to thepunch here in hopes that, if I
do end up working for myselfdown the line, I've got this
long, for I've got this longlist of content that I can start
(05:05):
pulling from, extrapolating,building my network and going
from there.
Um, and that's really why I'mI'm doing it.
That's my ulterior motive, but,upfront, it's just me chatting
with people for 30 to 45 minutes.
If you like it, great.
If you don't, I'm also okaywith that, you know.
So that's that's really hard.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Go ahead, I'll challenge your tie to cut,
because I always ask you whattie you need to cut.
Yeah, well, I don't have apretty clue.
What tie do you think you needto cut in your career?
Or what have you done alongyour career?
Yeah, that you had to overcome?
I think that's probably thebest.
Let's start with that one.
Then I have an idea for youwhat, along your career, what's
(05:44):
the biggest tie you've had tocut to advance, for success?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, so I think it's kind of where I'm taking it now
on the podcast thing, but Ihave to go back to I think it
was twenty seventeen.
So we're looking at oh God,eight years, jesus man Time
flies.
Holy crap, yeah it's.
I mean I don't know.
I remember ten years ago I wasin college.
You know what I mean.
So it was eight years ago.
I'm at Ernst Young, reallyfortunate.
(06:08):
Get the consulting job.
They give you analyst type work.
If you've worked in the bigfour consulting game, you know
it.
If you worked at any consultantfirm, you know the shtick I
found myself on anti-moneylaundering projects, which is
very arduous and boring work.
It's very, if then else, logicbased.
And I started teaching myselfand this is a good segue into
(06:29):
how I ended up where I'm at inmy career.
Um, I started like buildingmacros, started just like making
my job a little bit easier,because it was literally just
check something, put it in aspreadsheet, run the pivot table
, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like there's got to bea way that I can just drop data
in here and click a button andguess what?
What there is.
It's called freaking VisualBasic, right.
So I start teaching myself thatand then applying that.
Yeah, macros, right.
Exactly, here's my dog as itcomes in.
(06:50):
So, yeah, bright macros, right.
So that's a good basis point ofcutting the tie.
So I start applying this toprojects and eventually people
start pulling me on the AMLprojects to be like, hey, can
you look at different ways tomake it efficient?
And blah, blah, blah and I goton this project.
We're working for a bank up inNew York.
Mind you, I don't know whyyou're flying 50 kids up to
Secaucus, new Jersey, to do work, not at a client site, but
(07:12):
whatever I digress, that's thewhole big four shtick.
But we're there and I wasreviewing these high-risk
accounts.
Pretty simple Big transactionhits out of the client profile.
Go review it.
That's what happens across theboard.
Companies have systems to do it, people do it, whatever.
You know the game and I foundwith our accounts, one out of
(07:32):
every three was a person diedand it was the life insurance
check clearing.
So I'm like why are wereviewing this?
I'm like there's data thatproves the person's 80 years old
.
They got one check for like 500grand.
You know that's a damn mistake,like you know what I mean.
Like it was nothing crazy.
So we ended up finding out onethird of all the clients that we
had and I ended up writing amacro to go through all of the
spreadsheets that we have,determined the amount of uh
(07:55):
customers that had onetransaction and one transaction
out.
And I just said like, hey, whydon't we just use some
data-driven insights here andsave the customer a ton of money
?
To which then my partner saidto me if we do that, kj, there's
no reason for us to be here.
To which I responded isn't thatthe point of us being the
consulting firm to build abetter working world?
(08:16):
So I uh threw a hissy fitbecause I was 24 years old and I
thought I knew everything, um,and got kicked off the project,
uh, and then waff for a littlebit and that's when I started
beefing up my resume and that'swhen I cut the tie with EY.
A couple months later, a companycalled Information Services
Group picked me up and said hey,I think you could be a low-code
developer because of thatexperience, and I made sure that
(08:38):
was highlighted right out ofthe gate.
So when you looked at me, yousaid that's what that kid does.
And then I rode that waveimplementation and I can talk
about that later.
But that was really the timemoment where I had competence.
I knew what the answer was andthe powers that be didn't accept
it because of another ulteriormotive, and I said I need to
change.
So that was really it.
(08:58):
That was kind of the start ofmy career progression and, man,
it was such a great decision.
It's such a great decision.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, and so you remember the moment you covered
the aha moment of like, oh myGod, this is like it.
Um, since then, tell me aboutthe impact since it.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah.
So like literally what happenedwas took a bet on myself, got
paid way more, right, I wentfrom.
I got that six figure salary at25.
I was like man, I did it.
That's awesome, I love it,right.
Um, but the impact was I startedto really understand a little
bit more.
On, if you're going to be aconsultant, you probably should
have some projects or product orservice knowledge specifically
around the implementation.
I didn't have any of that.
(09:33):
I was a kid out of college.
I didn't know anything.
So in this low-code field, I wasactually implementing the
low-code projects and I'm smartenough to pay attention like,
why are you building thesethings?
And what I realized was Iwasn't necessarily I'm technical
, but I really enjoyed a lotmore of the educating people,
enabling people, helping themunderstand what the technology
(09:54):
would do, giving them an ounceof what it would look like and
then helping them through theprofessional services motion in
a software context.
And I didn't really realizethat until I was about a year
into that ISG job and I'm like Ihate this development thing.
This really sucks.
Like I just didn't care to docode reviews.
I didn't care to, you know,have error handled code.
I was also, you know, trying toget married at the time, so a
lot of different life thingswere happening, but I wasn't
(10:15):
feeling fulfilled.
And then UiPath gracious asregardless, and then we can talk
about how I got fired fromthere.
But they reached out to me andsaid, hey, we need some sales
engineers.
This is what UiPath I think itwas like 2017, 2018, series C.
I knew their product.
I didn't get the certification,but I had gone through their
advanced coursework, I wasbuilding solutions in it, and
(10:36):
then they hired me to be an SEand I just took all my
implementation experience andran with it and I learned what
being a sales engineer was.
And now I consider myself one ofthe better sales engineers
because I have a true technicalcompetence that I can rely on,
while also working on the salesimpact, the business impact, the
customer impact, and really bea holistic seller in the
software space as an SE, which Ithink is something that's
(10:58):
harder to do, I think, forpeople in my role.
The ones who do it end upkilling it and, just like you
said, that's why my W-2 ispretty great, because I'm a
principal level guy at 30, whichis a great accolade.
I definitely benefit from somerole.
Inflation, sure, but I earnedit, so that's really been.
The impact is just followingthe wave and what's been
(11:19):
presented to you and then justtaking advantage of those
moments and waiting and bidingyour time.
That's really been how I'veended up here, yeah, it's, uh,
it's anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So I was at isg as well.
I led their intelligentautomation solutioning for a
while.
Um, so I won their stanleyblack and decker and illy lily
wow with the aa projects.
Holy crap, that's crazy.
I won all those.
I mean I led those.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Were you like just sending like little feelers out,
like in the field, so to speak?
Am I just following you Likeyou didn't even know it?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well you were there a little after I left, because I
left that to become a chiefinnovation officer of a services
company.
So I mean yeah, of course of aservices company.
So I mean yeah, of course, likethat.
No, so I was working like youknow crazy in my team.
So what one of the biggest tiesI cut was I was absolutely
killing it like you know, likeleading the project solo, doing
it like huge, you know justunbelievable amount of travel
(12:07):
and stuff, and then my managerwas like you're not focused and
I'm like I was like you knowwhat are you?
talking about.
I'm like we just like I soldthe deal.
I mean, like you know, anywayit's.
At that point I was like thisguy's a maniac, like I don't
know what's going on, he's nice,but I was like man, I am not
you, you work for him yeah, wasit.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh, can we say names like probably?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
not yeah, I mean, it was manos right I mean, it's
like no, james manos, uh, and Iwere, like you know, peers for
what we were doing.
So Manos reported to Mark.
Oh, above him, oh, got it.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Okay, I know you're talking about Scott or whatever.
In any case, yeah, I think no,no, no, well, that's.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Scott.
Yeah, scott was part of ISG soI was part of the Chip Wagner
side, so you're talking about,but they had a floor.
By the way, we're just catchingup.
Um, I understand that spacereally.
Like that was ISG.
I came from KPMG into that Umand so doing their automation
(13:05):
stuff and they didn't have anyinterest in it because it was
like this is not advisory and itjust didn't have a play.
Um difficult place to workbecause they just work you to
death it was crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I mean, I remember we scoped the project wrong and I
just I remember I was sittingthere uh, so I worked on it was
john hancock.
They were doing a.
It was actually a really gooduse case.
It was, um, they had justhealth claims, just basic death
claim stuff.
The problem was they scoped areally small project in theory,
but it had 12 different paths.
Well, that's how you won theproject, man, right, I get it
(13:38):
Like, I know, like I, that wasanother moment of like, ah, damn
it, it's the same thing I justdealt with at EY, right, and,
and I was just sitting thereslogging out, you know, 10, 12,
14, sometimes even 16, 18 hourdays, right, and it's, I know, I
went in that crazy range, but,like, my average was 10 to 12,
right, and my wife's like, whatare you doing?
Like this is not what you weredoing at ey, at least you could
(14:01):
go have a beer.
You know like, you're sittinghere at 9 30 crying, right, you
know, and I'm just like I can't.
It was brute and it was becausewe had already sold the bill of
materials, right, we're tryingto hit everything, and then the
project just kept extending,extending, extending, and then
they're getting mad at usgetting eaten.
I was like, well, maybe if youwould have scoped it better in
the beginning.
But that's just me bitchingabout being a robot?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, because they scoped it.
It's horrible.
So you launched a podcast onthe side.
Here's my challenge to you.
Here's a tie I would think youneed to cut.
Treat that podcast like your jobended.
And the reason is and you'renot going to be able to get it
fully there, because untilyou're all in, you're not all in
.
But the reason is your job willend somewhere.
Likely, it's not like it's amean thing or you did something
(14:45):
wrong.
One or two things will happen.
The conditions of the marketwill change.
They won't need you, or you'llslowly phase out because you
just don't want to do it anymoreand you won't want to go work
for anyone else and you shoulddo 30.
So that's going to happen inthe next like six, seven, eight
years.
Yeah, but you got runway.
I would treat it like I wantthis to be my full-time income
to replace what I have.
(15:06):
That starts now.
So the type of that is take thelaissez-faire off of it and
treat it as serious as you canto build it up.
You got to do it now, yeah, andyou won't be fully in until
you're all the way in.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
And that's you shouldn't, because it's as I'm
hearing it you're right and asI'm hearing it, it's like I I
understand it in the moment veryhard to execute on right now,
but that is why now it's likeI've even made some subtle
changes, even since our lastconversation.
I plan on finding someonehitting it, getting that shit
out next month and doing four tosix short like really
(15:46):
operationalizing it, cause I'vebeen very, very lackadaisical.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So I will give you.
Are you doing solos orinterviews?
I forget I do interviews.
Yeah, all you need anybodylistening here.
Take this advice, so let's makethis to the cut.
If you're going to do a podcastas your side hustle and you
want to build it, use a ton ofautomation technology.
What I would tell you to do isrecord it.
Streamyard's great.
We use that.
We use Buzzsprout for ourpieces.
That's what I'm doing.
Always pick the magic micUpgrade.
(16:14):
It's worth it.
It saves you in audio editorseffectively.
But then I would do is useOpuspro and let it cut up your
stuff for you, and it's goodenough.
It gets your presence.
It's not great, but it's goodenough, and it will be great,
though, as it improves.
The truth is one episode if youuse like a Zapier, you can
pretty much automate the flow aswell.
Yeah, you can, and so, andyou're an automation engineer,
(16:35):
so there's no excuse.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
I like literally, yeah, Like I've got, I mean yeah
, my-.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Power automate on desktop.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
You should be able to click through all that stuff on
one little little it's likeyou're maybe spending and I do
everything myself, right, butit's really maybe three hours
max an episode, right, andthat's everything from.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I wouldn't edit it.
I mean I this is getting editedbecause you and I are just
having fun at this point.
It's good, there's a mass at it, but but the truth is just from
you something out.
Oh my god, absolutely all right.
So let me keep it, because I do.
I have a hard stop here inseven, so let me.
Let me give you the nextquestion.
What advice would you give thelistener that that has a w-2 and
is in that journey, or or isyou know?
(17:14):
What advice do you give thelistener?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
uh, two things one, um, actually it's, it's two in
one.
Follow your passion, with thecaveat that if nobody in your
life is actually telling you topursue that passion, flip the
script, because something that Isee happen is I think people
have this idea of Granger thatthey want to be good at
something and they work atsomething, and that's great.
(17:37):
But there are people that haveprobably told you in your life
you'd be good at X, you arereally good at this thing, you
like to do whatever, and ifthey're really trusted people in
your life, they have your bestinterest in mind.
Don't take advice from peoplewho you wouldn't normally listen
to on a regular basis, likesomeone you're not going to
invite out for drinks orwhatever, but just follow what
(17:58):
people are telling you and usethat as a way to fuel what
you're doing.
And I know that soundsconvoluted, but I think the
unfortunate reality is noteveryone's going to make money
on their passion, right?
I think that's just a realityin today's world.
So find a way to do the thingsthat you enjoy in something
that's going to pay the bills,while also taking all of the
information that people havegiven you.
(18:18):
So what does every single humanbeing told me when they met me
and they start talkingprofessional, they're like
you're in sales.
I avoided sales.
I was all implementation.
I said let me just be charmingand blah, blah, blah.
Now guess what?
Probably in the next five toseven years, just like you said,
what am I going to be doing?
I'm probably either going to beselling some software, right,
or I'm potentially working formyself, selling my own business
and selling my brand, right, andit's.
(18:39):
It's one of those things thatlike when I learned it.
Well, I don't like the sleazycar salesman mentality.
My dad was a lifelong insurancesalesman, so I saw how sleazy
he could be sometimes and I wasjust like, eh, I don't want to
do that, but I like helpingpeople.
The best time to help people,especially in today's world, if
you're in a white collarcorporate job, is being involved
in the selling motion.
So you don't let people buyvaporware and bullshit, right?
(19:01):
So take all of those things thatyou enjoy and find a way to
package that up.
You can work for the job youwant and the role that you have.
Oh, virtually always.
You can do that, um, so that's,that's really my advice, and
it's hard because sometimes youhave to find the right mentors.
You have to find the rightfriends.
You have to get burned a littlebit, like I mentioned.
You know, briefly, I did getfired.
Right, I had to figure that out.
I had to figure out without thestroke, without the whatever.
(19:25):
I'm not advocating for anyoneto get fired.
That's really scary when you'rethe sole provider monetarily.
I went through that but I'mglad I went through it.
But find a way to give yourselfa little bit of adversity
that's also going to satisfyyour needs and demands.
How that looks I don't know foreveryone, but I knew I just
wanted to help people.
(19:45):
I knew I wanted to not be abullshitter, um, even though I'm
really good at that Um, and Ijust found a really, really nice
niche in software sales to doso, um.
So that's, that's my advice.
You know long-winded answer,but I think people will
understand where I'm gettingthere.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Um, I think that's, um, I think that's a good way to
do it, especially the thing.
I think we're found as the soleprovider.
Um, I think if you, if yourheart's not in something, you
better get ready to get yourheart into something.
Yeah, because what's going tohappen is and specifically of
adhd, you're going to keepspinning around me.
That's what moves jobs.
(20:21):
The talent is that so rapidfire.
I usually do a bunch of these.
Um, I want to do two with you,though I want to know who
inspires you um, I would say myinspiration.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't have, like anyone that I look at, like I
want to ask who's your rolemodel?
I don't know, um, but I wouldhave to say I have to lean on my
mom and I know it's such acheesy answer, but I but I to me
I don't think I'm in thisposition in terms of the
headspace without my mom.
My mom has dealt with a bunch ofstuff in her entire life and
(20:55):
her objectivity around thingsmight make her more rigid than
I'd like her to be.
I wish she would be a littlemore emotional, uh, but to that
point, help me look at thingsvery, very objectively and, like
learn the meta of stuff and theminutiae and block out the
noise and so on and so forth,and I can always come to my mom
for virtually everything I stilldo right, and she does my taxes
, which is awesome, right.
(21:16):
So she's clearly intelligent,right.
It's just more um, it's she'ssomeone that I can always get a
good candidate like my, my wifeand I always say she's the
parent, like, when you reach outto your parents, she's the
parent you reach out to.
So I would say, uh, my mom iswho I probably look up do you
mess with her?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
you know your uh position is going to get
automated soon right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh yeah, she asked me about automation.
Now she's like I don't need tobe doing this shit anymore.
Like literally she goes.
She's like I at this pointunderstand, like because she's a
village clerk as well, andshe's like I know this is going
to be taken away in like 10, 15years I'll be retired by then
but she's helping me now, likewhen she does her consolidation
for her business taxes.
That she does like all hercustomers, like once they take
all that extrapolating it out,uh, so she knows she's not
ignorant to it at all.
I give her shit more on, justlike the fact that her
(21:56):
generation, uh, you know, messedup any chance of us having, you
know, as a generational societyof, you know, being rich or
whatever.
But I just like doing that fromthe social rhetoric perspective
just to mess with her, justplay on generational stuff
what's your, uh, what's yourfavorite technology or ai tool
right?
now.
Um, it's hard to really giveyou a candid answer on that and
(22:17):
I think you understand why.
It's because I've been involvedin the shit, so like I
understand like different toolshave different purposes and so
on and so forth.
But if, if I say my favorite, Ireally honestly I like ChatGPT
right, and I think that'sbecause I have a different lens
than most.
I don't need a specialized LLMfor something because I work in
it all day right.
Salesforce has their own LLMwith Einstein, so I can figure
(22:39):
out how to customize that and dowhatever.
I use Kuzo AI.
I don't use Opus Clips I liedabout that a little bit earlier
but I use Kuzo AI for the shortclip generation Stuff's really,
really awesome.
But I think you're going to getanything out of AI if you can
just break it down to.
Do you need context or do youjust need something more
agnostic?
I usually need something moreagnostic, so I use ChatGPT as my
(23:00):
nice assistant.
I'll say, like I'm cutting thegrass right, grass right.
Great example we're in spring,it's it.
We're in, you know, northcarolina, it's bermuda grass.
What's the best format to dothat?
Give me the sources so I canvalidate some stuff.
Prompt engineering, basicthings.
I get everything out of thefree version of chat gpt, but
that's because I understand howai works.
If I give it a lot of context,it's going to give me exactly
(23:20):
what I'm looking for.
And I think, if you don't havethat, then I think if you had a
tool that's like oh, I need itfor video generation, oh, I need
it for transcription, orwhatever, there's going to be a
tool for you.
But I just I understand howthat works and in my day to day,
that's that's really what I do.
Yeah, people ask me like you'rean AI guy, shouldn't you be
(23:41):
using a bunch of stuff?
I'm like well, yeah, otherthings, so All right.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
So if there's a question, I should ask you today
what was that question and howdo you answer it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I'm trying to think I think it would be.
You know just how do you, howdo you get in the right
headspace in order to achieveanything Like, I think, a lot of
people you know when they speakabout their experiences and
they speak with such eloquence.
I think we're all coming from aplace of privilege.
So how do you get to a pointwhere you can get that privilege
?
I think you have to have areally strong sense of self.
(24:10):
Emotional intelligence to me, issomething that's really really
big, especially since Jenna'sparents are divorced.
My parents should have beendivorced, so we saw what bad
looked like in a relationshipand I understand that as humans,
we want companionship.
Some people are lone wolves,but for the most part, I think
we all want companionship and Ithink once that's always going
to be in the back of your mindif you're distracted, even if
you're in a relationship, ifit's not fully there, right,
(24:31):
it's going to affect everything.
So finding a way to hit youremotional intelligence and get
that to a high enough level soyou can look at things
objectively, even if it elicitsan emotional response, I think
that helps you achieve thoselevels.
Uh, because there's a lot ofpeople that will be
quote-unquote successful, butthen when shit hits the fan,
they're done because they don'thave that ability to
self-regulate.
Um, whereas I think if you dohave an ability to self-regulate
(24:53):
a little bit more, it helpseverything across the board,
especially having kids.
Oh my god, holy crap, dude.
Like that, like everything waseasy until this.
You know what I mean.
Like the way you, you knowreact, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I think that would be and you don't realize it
until you have them.
You're like oh, Bingo, that'sexactly right, yeah, that would
be it.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
You know how do you achieve it?
Emotional intelligence for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
How do people get ahold of you and I got the
search to prove it.
If you're looking to doanything automation, integration
or AI related, reach out to me.
I will give you a candid answer.
I can probably even show youhow you can build something as
well tools that you can go do.
That would be my primary from abusiness perspective.
Otherwise, if you really wantto get to know someone who works
in the corporate world, who isactually the person that you to
hang out with, reach out to me.
(25:44):
I'm primarily only on LinkedIn.
I don't use anything else.
To your point on challenging, Iprobably should build a bigger
presence across the othersocials, but that'll take time.
But LinkedIn, kyle John Fenton,my profile stacked.
It's actually a really good one.
I know it's a good one.
People review it and they say,yeah, it's actually pretty great
, anything like that.
But I'm just the kid whooperates in the corporate world
who just treats work secondary.
(26:05):
My family and friends are allfirst and yeah, just reach out
on LinkedIn, dm me and just sayhey, I'll say hi, and if that's
it, that's it, and if it's moregreat, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Awesome.
Thank you, kj, for jumping inhere with me today.
Thank you for the time, man, Iappreciate it.
Hey, spotify, and if you reallylike the podcast, you know.
If you want to go bonus points,do a five-star review.
If YouTube's your thing, hitthe subscribe.
I appreciate it.
Get out there, go cut a tie tosomething holding you back and
become great, become the bestversion of yourself.
(26:33):
Thanks for listening.
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