[MUSIC PLAYING] TODD DERNBERGER: We are in Point Judith, Rhode Island at the commercial fishing docks. I have a brother that’s seven years older than me. And he came out here probably seven years prior to me, looking for some adventure. I went for it.
My name is Todd Dernberger. I’m the senior vice president of field operations at ADT. And prior to that, I was a commercial lobster fisherman.
Usually, I get a question. Is it like Deadliest Catch? Ironically, it was the first exposure to a commissioned position, because when you go out on a fishing boat or any commercial fishery, you get paid based on what you catch. So it really was a good introduction to what I was going to do at ADT, which is a commissioned position.
So back in 2007, my wife, or my fiancée at the time, was recruited by a company down in Greenville, South Carolina. We were at the time of my life as, I don’t really want to do the fishing role anymore. As fate would have it, a couple of doors down there was the ADT branch in Greenville, South Carolina. And they were hiring.
So I had to learn what I was doing first, and took everything that I learned, the work ethic, the ability to grind from being a lobster fisherman, and just applied it to that, and endless, endless walking around neighborhoods, putting door hangers out on people’s doors, knocking on doors, and really just talking to people as much as possible about what I did and about the company that I work for. It took a while to figure it out, but after I did, it’s, hey, hard work equals success.
I consistently was picking up something new. And it just kept me interested, kept me on my feet, and fortunate enough to get different positions and live in different places in the Southeast. And it was just exciting. And to this day, I’m still excited about doing it.
Well, this is my wife Katie. And we have two daughters, 13 and 11, Hadley and Delaney. We were on the road for 13 years. We looked at each other during COVID and decided it was time to come back.
KATIE DERNBERGER: That was really important to me, to come back. As they got older, once they were getting to middle school age, it was just important for me to have a place that I knew we were going to stay. Maybe it’s just because I grew up here, but my grandmother is 93 and still lives a town over. And so it was important for me for them to have a relationship with her and my parents as well.
TODD DERNBERGER: We go out on the boat quite a bit during the summertime. They just started hitting the slopes. One of them skis. One of them snowboards. So exposing them to a lot of different things has been pretty exciting for us.
I’m a pretty competitive person. So I like to see my kids with a little competitive flair.
KATIE DERNBERGER: He is quickly molding our 13-year-old into a champion as well.
TODD DERNBERGER: ADT has given me everything. The first thing is just opportunity, and absolutely blessed and fortunate to have all the opportunity that I’ve had to build a really good life for my family.
I remember my first interview when I was interviewing for the sales position. I really didn’t have an idea of what I was getting into or if I could do it, but I did go in with confidence. And the typical cliche question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”, I answered it, “Hey, I see myself in your chair.” I meant that one, but then I followed it up with, I want to run this company one day. And I really didn’t mean that one, but, hey, I think I made it pretty far.
I miss being able to pitch and tell the ADT story, because I am passionate about it. But now I do a lot of work behind the scenes, a lot of planning, a lot of conversations with people around the organization to figure out what we can do better, and how we can take care of our customers more.
Things that you learn about yourself out on a boat is really what your tolerances are. You feel like you can do something. But until you go out on a boat like this and actually have to put in the work and have people depending on you– you can push yourself a lot farther than you think.
So the captain of a boat is very important to the crew, just because whatever the captain does dictates what the crew gets to take home to their families and in their paycheck. So that person, you’re depending on that person to make the right decisions to keep you safe, and to ultimately make you some money.
So having that right person in that role is very important. And I’ve always taken that with me is, am I being a good captain? Am I being a good captain to the people that are under me or the people that work for me? Am I being a good teammate? Do they trust me at the wheel? So all of those things are lessons that really keep with me every day.
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