the power of just getting started w/ torrance evans

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auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

o put in perspective I subscribe to torrance's email newsletter I don't even live in Atlanta right so like but but you know I get his updates all the time so it's gonna be a great conversations today especially uh if you're more Junior in your career torren has a great story um and and so we're definitely going to talk um we're definitely going to talk about it uh this morning um no it's good to see you yes yes uh listen uh this one uh I love it kith obviously does those limited drops they had an awesome kind of like computer shirt but it sold out before

I could get it so uh this is like the second closest thing I could get uh but no it's good to see you again please comment say hey we' love to hear from you again the reason why I tell people to do this is uh this is a networking platform right I mean you know in Toren gonna talk about networking the power networking how he got his job at JP Morgan and listen uh while my guests are important do not get me wrong uh this live show is act making sure everything is good before we uh start yapping good morning everybody if you are tuning

in good morning it's great to see you let's see here say hey we' love to hear from you making sure that we are live before we get rolling this morning all right just got the YouTube notification we're good see here all righty we are on LinkedIn sweet what's going everybody good morning happy Tuesday excited to hang out with my guy torren this morning um uh torren uh he and I finally connected down at render ATL black men Tech event um and uh it's good to see you again down there um but excited excited for this episode I you know I've I've admired Torrance for a

while um and kind of what he's building you know it's it's really difficult to get started which is what we're going to talk about today and it's really difficult to put yourself out there and and I were chitchatting backstage about being consistent with social media and how hard it is and so it's very very difficult and you know t ning in from um second off I'm trying to think this is my second live back from baby break so I'm still trying to catch up on things um what else oh shout out gunio of course as always for hiring me listen if you need people staff

up your team let me know um and then yeah I think that's I think that's it I think that's it so Torrance let's go ahead and dive in man um first off quick introduction who are you what do you do and we'll go from there okay well I'm Torrence Evans uh I'm a software engineer um at JP Morgan um I'm the chapter leader of black boys cod in Atlanta um and uh yeah I'm just just helping out here trying to help people absolutely yeah yeah 100% so man there's so many places to start this morning right I want to talk I want to talk about

how you landed in Tech right so let's let's let's let's kind of start that first and then if if if we kind of get into your email newsletter and stuff we can as well for those of you who want to get um on torrance's email newsletter um ually more for the people who tune in and comment right because what I've realized in torren can attest to this networking's awkward man networking's awkward especially you you go to that black men and Tech event down Atlanta and you are bad at networking and talking to people you would have been a little overwhelmed um and so uh but

so what this is this allows you to tune in your pajamas or a t-shirt um uh and and be able to hang out uh and message people um and again this is a catalyst to do so again Tik Tok for those you tune in welcome good morning I am live over on LinkedIn there's not a really good way to stream on things so I got do Tik Tok normally so if you want to connect with me I LinkedIn would love to have you we got some people tuning in John it's good to see you T it's good to see you Chris it's good to see

you as well um I got the Nashville crew in here this morning um but again if you are watching please say hey we love to hear from you also let us know where you're tu to start a dads and Tech Meetup a virtual Meetup for dads or aspiring dads like you know if you just want to hang out with dads yeah uh and like I was like I was I'm gonna tweet about it and like five people like I'm gonna get five and I was like you know what I was fine with that I me like it's five five people gonna sign up I'm fine

with it 128 people signed up yeah just from one tweet yeah right and so uh you know usually uh uh for people who are tuning in if you have an idea and you're like I want to do it for like five to 10 people it may actually go over really well yeah yeah I didn't think it was I didn't think I was going to keep doing it this long yeah I was just like how how many people got the news how many people you got on the newsletter now um it's about 800 now crazy dude crazy and and and all you did is just you

were just like hey I'm just gonna try to keep up with like like I guess I don't mean this in a mean way but like it wasn't like an original idea all you're doin here it is right here torren you want to talk about this real quick if people want to join yeah sure so um um I'm going to start hosting my own events but right now I just send out networking events in Atlanta for people trying to get in Tech and people who are already in Tech um I I really just started cuz I was just going to everything and people was just asking

me um how do you find these events so I really just did it for like 10 people and then it kind of It kind of just grew into a was growing into a really you know big thing so G to start doing my own events but yeah if anybody's you know looking to get to more networking events which I find is a lot of people are they just can't really find them so I send out events just helping them free of charge you know so I love that so I you know I I find torren that like the people who start something like just for

10 people it usually blows up yeah yeah like like for me so I posted uh last last week during fraternity break that I want m I was entrepreneur I'm still entrepreneur but mainly just entrepreneur I did car rentals and Airbnb I was uh doing some real estate um uh so I was sold on entrepreneurship I was I'm never getting a job again um I was free um but I had you know I had uh friends of mine who had jobs and they had you know businesses and I was like I mean they got they got a lot more money to to put in their business

and and their business isn't taking care of them so I was like okay maybe I should get a job so I can grow my businesses yeah and then but I I really just couldn't get any job you know after just being you know living how I want to live and things like that so I said okay I'm going to try to do something that I respect try to do something cool something I thought I couldn't do because I'm already doing things I couldn't do on my own in Atlanta sure so I said let me try to keep pushing so I said oh I'm G get

in the tech I'm G try to do something in Tech and then I was like what in Tech and th g is just like yeah informing people of what's going on yeah yeah I was just like hey I mean you got because I really was getting annoyed like cuz like I didn't have I didn't have a real answer for because people kept ask me why how do you find these events and I was going to so much events that I didn't really like people send me stuff I'll find it on LinkedIn I run come across something so I really couldn't give him one answer so

I was just like here I'm G just start this so y'all can you know and then every like let me know when the next one is I'm like it's a lot I can't let you know like like I'm not gonna be texting 800 people sign my news that's awesome I love that I love that t out here amazing and Eric it's good to see you this morning I'm glad you're here man it means a lot um so uh all right so so let's talk about you um uh journey into Tech um what were you doing previously how did you get your first job as a

software engineer okay so uh started I moved to Atlanta in 2020 u h that's how it started so then I just started self teing I started like getting like C getting on course Academy and uh free Cod Camp uh sololearn doio things like that to just really try to learn a language um and then I just started going to this one Meetup um called Tex of color and then that's how I started just getting getting my footing and just kept meeting people I didn't even really know it was so many you know people of color in Tech until I like really just got from in

front of my co mputer and so um that was kind of amazing to me so that's how it started um then I I got into a boot camp uh um sponsored by ship so I didn't have to pay anything at to man ship's pretty down in Atlanta too right yeah and then so I I tested in and then I got in they only picked about 20 people and so it was a three Monon boot camp eight hours a day um and so yeah that was pretty hectic because I was you know trying to stay afloat so uh so um yeah I did that then I

I just started networking from there just networking networking what did what did networking look like for you there right CU people say I I was networking I was networking like what did that look like for you um well at first it just looked like me just showing up to events not talking to anybody um okay hold on hold on hold I want to talk about this for a second it's funny you talking about you show up and not talking to anybody yeah ner nerves was that a strategy you just want to get in the room and listen like a little bi en right I started

doing uh you know going down the rabbit hole and things like that then I said okay software engineer I looked at how much they make I said okay that's pretty cool and then um I just kept going down the rabit hole and then that's when I found you and Danny Thomson's master class on the LinkedIn my LinkedIn was like bare it was dry so I was like okay I need to start here and that's how I got the whole idea about networking it's because that's what you stressed um and so I just u t keep going it doesn't matter don't worry about talking to anybody

just keep going going one of one of the first things one of the things I did back in the day when I was like Hands-On Hands-On recruiting is my mentor at the time told me he was like he was like go to meetups shut your mouth and just learn yeah and I did that when I was in Raleigh for the first six months people thought I was a developer yeah because I just I just was taking notes and just listening and you know I had someone co me up to me like you know what do you do so again I think I think and correct

me if I'm wrong I feel like a lot of people put the pressures on themselves have this elev pitch and like yeah yeah all this stuff when in actuality man just kind of showing up and just hanging out I think is enough yeah for sure yeah that's I mean that's that's kind of how I learned um I really I really was just trying to learn I really was trying to learn because I'm trying to be an engineer I'm trying to just meet s omebody who maybe can help me because I didn't know what I was doing where I was go with it and so I

just kept going and then eventually I picked up things that were useful let me let me ask you this uh Jordan comes in here and goes I'm definitely going to my first inperson tech event in September the nerves are definitely real do you have any advice for folks like Jordan who are going to the first one outside of just maybe just hanging out and not talking too much do you have any other things t t of both um well at first I know if I was just I was just in the vicinity that I would pick up something um so I just kept doing that

um and then every time I CU I I didn't know so I knew so little that every time I went I learned something you know so so um so I just kept doing that and then eventually it just got easier to just be more outspoken keep talking um keep and then eventually I was kind of the guy who was you know the butterfly in the room eventually um so that's why I tell just jus to or who you should be pointing to um because a lot of people ask me but they really don't know what they want to do and I was like well there's

so much in Tech that you can do so that's probably the first step you need to know so you can kind of shorten your because it's it's already hard and probably a long process if you do know what you want to do so um I think just just honing in on what you exactly where you want to go and you don't have to stick to it but in the beginning when you're ne w you don't want to be all over the place because there's people out there who are you know experts who can't find a so so um I was so so so so do

you think you were a little too broad when you started or just didn't know enough I just I just didn't I just didn't know enough I didn't know enough um and and I was when you could be easily swayed if you go to a networking event because everybody's you know all for what they do so you can you can be like oh somebody can walk up so you get into the d ata engineering or you should get in softw sales or project management you should do that it's way easier so if you don't know anything you be like whoa whoa whoa that's smart that's smart

100% um yeah I know it comes in here striking of the simplest combos is a great way to start treat people like people um uh uh torren I want to ask you kind of going back to Jordan's thing with conferences um is there anything from a um so outside of like just knowing what you want to do I think Jordan from a hat you wish you knew earlier in your networking kind of career uh yeah I think things I wish I would have knew earlier is that um you definitely need to to know the direction you want to go okay yeah beginning because um well

it help well it helps to really you know get some insight from people who who are doing it yeah because that that kind of you know shortens the time span if you know where you want to go so that means you know who you need to talk to or like someone closer you need to talk was just talk to everybody uh so I really just and how I follow up is I just make sure I add you on LinkedIn yeah followup yeah that's kind of what I was getting to yeah okay so you're just like hey great chatting with you let's connect on LinkedIn with

everybody yeah like cuz if you go to LinkedIn you can see who you added in a row like go to invitations you can see who you add and who's waiting so I would just make sure that's like that was like basically how I kept track of everybody just add my LinkedIn I probably wouldn't even talk to you for 10 five minutes like hey what you do that's what I do cool okay let me get your LinkedIn you know that's love so again for those of you just want I want this was really good by torren so I want to reiterate it so again LinkedIn when

you connect with somebody you can go into it's it's the it's the following following right or like friends or something like that and like it's chronological from the people who you just most recently connect with and so um you know uh so let me ask you this then what did what did the follow-up conversation look like all right so so you got home the next day I mean are you dming these people and I guess what are you saying because again a lot of people have problems with this right it's like so what do I say afterwards what does the follow-up look like I'm just

keeping it I'm just keeping it simple I'm say hey great talking to you um uh I'm just repeating something that we talked about nine times out of conference perspective you seen a lot of my content I would you know plan strategize pick the people who you want to meet pick pick the talks you want to go to so you don't miss out torren is there anything else just from a tactical networking side of things maybe followup maybe things that you've tried to work on over the last year or two that maybe were weak at from like a networking side of things when you started um

I mean not really I mean my strategy now is much the strategy I always been kedIn that I would just add them and they my something of mine would pop up so uh I really didn't really need to keep following up because my my feed was always in their feed so like so talk talk about that that's huge right talk about what you just kind expound on that again for for the people who are watching right now uh so basically like um I was I was so active on like any any event I went to you I post make video pictures um and I was

you know always liking things that I wanted to show up on my feed you know so they would remember me from that conversation because soon as they got on LinkedIn or they added me something in mine would pop up and I know I don't really I know this because every time I came up to somebody and say every time I get on LinkedIn I see you you know what I'm saying so um and so I knew now I don't really got to necessarily worry about following up because my their feed is is following up for me you know so yeah absolutely I love that and

again like I love th at torren brought this up not many people bring this up right the the the LinkedIn like if you want to go in on con not not even content right I I hate the word content because everybody uses it yeah posting to the internet on what you're doing from a professional perspective goes a very long way right so what torren just said is torren out here posting Clips videos of all these events he's going to it got to a point where he doesn't even have to do the followup because it gets wrapped up in peo 10 if I talked to you

it was about me finding a job as an engineer so I'm just you know bringing it bringing that up hope to stay connected things like that uh I really didn't overthink it I think the best thing is just getting get me in front of them again really doesn't too much matter what you say as long as you reiterate what you talked about so they remember you but um and then yeah just keep going from there but another thing that helped me was after a while I really I was so active on Lin m a a connect you don't have to DM them just send them

a connect right the way the LinkedIn algorithm works I'm so glad torren brought this up is that if they accept your connection the the way the LinkedIn algorithm works is that the people who you connect with recently their content shoots to the top of your for you page or or your feed right so torrent is out here taking pictures taking videos of these events connecting with people and then as soon as he gets home the next day those people wh o accept his invite they're seeing Torrance all over the feed right and so then that's the power of like putting stuff out there and again

Lawrence is in here again Lawrence is epic if you do not follow Lawrence he's fantastic follow on on Tik Tok and Linkedin and Twitter but like like that that's that's why getting in kind of this machine really really helps you torren I didn't know if you had any more thoughts on that um no no I mean I really just say keep it if you really want to do that just keep it basic and things will Anything Grows if you keep doing it so you don't have to worry about you don't have to worry about oh I see Taylor's videos all the time they're so put

together and nice and he's so consistent I mean just start just start start just start yeah again like like like like Lawrence right I mean like torren he just was like Hey I'm gonna start this newsletter for like five people to update events right and that's what I'm saying like I think a lot of people and Tor sure ple's algorithm so also a little tidbit too for folks who are watching um if especially if you're a junior developer is I would connect if you're a junior developer and and I'm gonna shout out Noah here just because I know him and he's putting out videos he's

documenting his time with nationville software school yeah so what I would do Noah if I were you is is I would connect with as many hiring managers as you can that LinkedIn allows you to connect with right and just send them a just send the organ okay crazy story so you know I was going to all these events and I was in uh interviews left and right so um uh I had I was like man afrotech this is when it was like a little Tri before I didn't have any interviews afrotech was coming up so I was like man I gotta figure out where to

get to afrotech um and I was doing Uber every day but I was like I gotta figure out a way I mean I really didn't have like much money to relatively expensive too yeah so I mean I had went to so many events tha t I knew people was like Affiliated or in any way so someone sent me this like link for to get on the Staffing Company you know so so I applied um somehow they accepted me even though they were full so I got on the staffing company at afrotech and so now I can go to afrotech for free because I'm on the

Staffing Company you know so I'm just you know registering people and things like that so now I need to find a flight um I had a friend who you know know I met networking who is who works for Delt a so she got me like a quick quick like it was like a $100 flight the flights was like 600 bucks $700 so um the flight was $100 for me yeah got got a nice round trip um my mom she was in in she's in Texas so she she like she does on the side sie like drives Uber in Texas so she was in Houston she

uh got me a nice little hotel so I went to afrotech did a bunch of networking I was working I was so tired so I was working and I was working so you were I just want to clarify you applied to get on sta to hear your thoughts on this a lot of people just try to try to recreate the whe here they try to get like overly complicated right they're like I need to create this kind of this new thing yeah whatever and again all torren did was just like I'm just gonna literally keep everybody in touch with all the events I go to

yeah like you don't got to restart you don't have to obviously kind of re you know recreate the wheel torren I want to go back to to uh to to to H how did you get the job at JP M us out man yeah for sure for sure I love that I love that what what what would be your biggest piece of advice I guess if you were to summarize that for for maybe another Junior developer or just even anybody looking right now what what would be kind of your summarized piece of advice uh really from that story uh all from my story yeah like

like like like really like what would you tell people because I mean obviously a lot of folks don't have their moms hooking them up right and Like Making Con nections but I still think there's a bigger picture here I think well I mean really the thing is just don't leave any stone unturned you know I love that cuz I really like I really like stressed myself to get to afro I really I was like man I got to do all this like and then I I left feeling like I really didn't get much but really I did you know so um I really just just

think just no don't leave any stone unturn which is also how I approach Network and talk to anybody doesn't matter what they l ook like how they come in what they're dressed like you never know what somebody will be or who they are right now so just just she any opportunity I mean you really got anything to lose because you're already where you are right now so know you're already at zero any new connections a net new right so like you're literally you know there's there's nothing to be afraid of no I love that also too I mean I want to applaud you man I

mean you knew that you needed to get to afrotech right and and and ff at afrotech right like like like to just help the conference out okay cool yeah and so yeah I went to afrotech um got connected my mom actually connected me with um um I think she was a vice president at um JP MO again and um you know we just we talked she kind of gave me the uh just you know helped me you know with the process of interviewing at JP Morgan and uh I went interviewed and I I got hired through the Etsy program and so uh that's kind of

go mom yeah go mom our mom's always helping re's a lot of like um I I guess I could say influencers but like a lot of conferences give out tickets to creators and influencers to like you know obviously promotion stuff like I I gave away 25 tickets to render myself yeah right like so there there are always people giving away tickets to events you just have to be proactive and like torren did and torren man I applaud you tremendously you leave no stone unturned which is huge and then the flights right you leveraged your network right who do I know right yeah I mean again

I mean that's awesome dude and then and then of course you got the job through your mom you did it's so funny right you did all that work to essentially get a job from your mom which is great which is great I I I feel like that was a good Lord being like hey you did the work so I'll make it easy on you for for the last part so um uh and then obviously Lawrence do uh in here shout out to afrotech huge conference 100% um it's definitely on my list to go to uh Eric j ust start is such a solid advice 100%

and John you are too kind Noah comes in here I've been posting once a week documenting my journey I've gotten so much support from my network I've also gain so many new connections from content it works it really really does and again you you don't have to recreate create something right all torren is doing he's just out here he's he's just out here posting videos and pictures of events he goes to he's not you know writing this super long blog post right I a I'm assuming you you knew you needed to get there for the opportunities right and and I think not many people hustle

like you right you you again no stone unturned you you know apply to to the conference I think that's a great idea I do not want for y'all who watch this now in the future I do not want you all to to miss that apply to conferences for help yeah like like if you really want to go if you really want to go to a conference you can get a free ticket yeah you can either help out or the think um I would say um I know there's a lot of people who like you know well I come across a lot of people who want

to make Transitions and um but they feel like you know it's just very difficult or hard or or or anything like that and I I would say I mean you can do it it's just just just take it and just be prepared for it to be tough if you can deal with it being tough um if you if you could get that in your head that this is going to be difficult um but it's just gonna be difficult right no w um then then you could really do it I mean all it takes is just effort effort I mean effort and just putting in the

work to learn I think I think something that helped me was that I just knew that if I just didn't quit and I kept going the only outcome is for me to get to where I'm going you know so I think I think I think a lot of people just think like that instead of worrying about how long it'll take or uh what you have to do to do it um I think uh it'll be more possible for people to real ly break through that wall yeah I love that man I love that let me let me let me not push back a little bit

be's advoc here what what would you tell people that are and then Lawrence out here too too busy filming cute donkeys yeah dude yeah man Dudley my God deadly um what would you tell people like well torren I'm Hustle Man just nothing's falling like like you nothing's hid what would you what would you tell him how can I put this um putting you on the spot here sorry that's cool like I think in't got time to write blog post so I just pictures and post it um and then right here I got my first job in Tech through my hey look moms we we love

moms we love moms um torren is we kind of start wrapping up here again time flies when we're having fun with friends um I do have a little rapid fire question round but I want to leave it to you man is there anything that haven't talked about that that that you kind of want to impart on on the audience uh today and kind of who's watching uh yeah I t so when I was like at the lowest or the darkest I felt that that's where I was supposed to be you know I felt that I felt that this is what was supposed to happen get

to where I'm going but if you don't really have any concept of that yeah it's very tough it's very tough for me to to get that to you but I was just I was just always like man what's what's common between all these great successful people they went through things uh they fought things they got through things so I love that I love that man that's awesome that's awesome um all right last uh last rapid fire questions again uh for everybody who's tuned in thank you so much go connect with torren um I'm going to take your banner off so people can see your name

so they can go connect with you go connect with torren on LinkedIn go sign up for his newsletter uh but torren as we wrap up here and again if there's any questions please ask them now as we kind of wrap up here next few minutes um first off uh if you couldn't now I kn ow you just got a job in Tech so this is gonna be kind of a funny question but if if if you woke up tomorrow and I said Toren you can't be in Tech anymore man tech industry is gone uh but I will pay you what you're making and more but

you got to go find something outside of tech what would you do what would I do do that's tough I could do anything I wanted to do yeah yeah I'll probably go play basketball then I love it would I be in the US you you can go wherever wherever okay I probably maybe I I think with anything you gotta you got to believe it you know you got to believe it with anything so that I me it starts with that believing at first um and you I think for me what helped me was I was just a student of successful people so like if you

if you never seen anything it would be hard for you to Fathom but I'm a student of successful people and the thing that really resonated with everybody was that they kept going they kept trying when things really didn't look good for them they kep yeah I got a old soul I love it I love it man that's awesome um third question uh uh any anything fun you're working on Tech wise any like side projects you're working on or I tell you what or any upcoming events you want to plug oh yeah yeah um well bitcon 2024 I'm on the board of uh blackon technology in

Atlanta so we're we're hosting a conference uh in September so um definitely look at my last two posts I think I'm doing two giving away two free VIP tickets um um and I there's a discount cod e too um but yeah definitely uh look look forward to bitcon 2024 in Atlanta um and I'm working on doing my own events really soon coming up because I'm putting a lot of people in the rooms that I'm in so I might as well try to be there yeah for sure for sure so try to be there but yeah that's it big con and I'm gonna do my own

events real soon so I love it I love it awesome a lot of comments about how great the episode was Final question torren so we wrap up here and again thank You' all for tun ing in torren thank you my friend for hanging out with me this morning um so Show's called guidance counsel 2.0 for a reasoning we had guidance counsels in middle school high school and college but now as adults we don't necessarily have a guidance counselor to turn to and just ask for General career advice so that being said what would be your biggest piece of career advice to young torren like if

you can go back in time 10 years five years what would you tell torren I would say um looking to T go play basketball or or I'd be like um uh uh hge fund manager there you go there you go I like it I like it um second thing what do you what do you like to do outside of going to events what do you like to do outside of work for fun man like like I me I like to go to the gym I'm a Hooper I like to hoop um I I skate a little bit I like to skate um what else do

I do I go to a lot of concerts I like live music nice what what what what's the best concert you been to recently Anita Baker nice cool k boys code I had no idea I love that man that's awesome that's awesome well y'all thank you again for tuning in this morning we appreciate it um torren thank you again again go sign up for torrence's email newsletter uh I'm a part of it and I'm not even in Atlanta so um uh just just ju ju let's let's just get Tor Subs up right even if you're not land just just go sign up um but again

thank you my friends SE on so I can say bye to you backstage but again for those of you tuned in thank you again that have commented go connect with people today um tomorrow morning it'll be a good one we have the head of devil at aight Tessa Mero coming on the show it's gonna be a great conversation yall have a great Tuesday see yall ech uh because I just get started sooner yeah because I really I really just learned about tech like two two and a half three years ago you know yeah yeah so I didn't have I didn't know all the opportunities I

didn't know um all the money you could make I didn't know the life you could have uh I didn't know anything about I didn't know I could do it I didn't think that was for you know my culture and things like that so yeah um I would just say really look into Tech this big reason why I do blac