136. IT Fires Are Everywhere: Suit Up Your Solutions and Save Your Mental Health with Colin Keys

Colin Keys

is an amalgamation of paradoxes with an exceptional ability to rise above uncertainty and instability to solve complex and ever changing problems. He holds a professional background in IT Operations & Management, project management for technology, residential and heavy civil construction, information security, and software deployment and Implementation. And while he came to the technology field later in life, it has been the most rewarding career field.

IT Fires Are Everywhere: Suit Up Your Solutions and Save Your Mental Health with Colin Keys

In IT, you’ll get used to putting out emerging fires. On this episode of the Dissecting Popular IT Nerds Podcast, discover a better way to manage this stress by asking the right questions before bringing a solution to management. Guest Colin Keys, high-level IT director, shows how to suit up your solutions–whether you’re an outsider just entering IT or a veteran of tech. Tune in with host Phil Howard and determine how to discern trustworthy vendors, drop the stigma around mental health at work, and as a bonus: talk about new, 3D-printed goggles.

IT is like the offensive line of a football team; if you screw up, everyone’s going to notice.

3 Key Takeaways

Listen To The Full Episode Below

Dissecting Popular IT Nerds

136. IT Fires Are Everywhere: Suit Up Your Solutions and Save Your Mental Health with Colin Keys

00:00 / 00:54:42

Episode Show Notes

[0:00] Phil Encourages you to look Colin up to see his great beard

Getting your beard caught in buttons and zippers
Phil wants to be a bearded ninja

[4:10] On the topic of business IT leadership

Colin is an “amalgamation of paradoxes with exceptional ability to rise above uncertainty”
HIs ability to solve complex problems
- Putting the fires out that are around you first

[5:50] The dream is the mirage

“IT is like the offensive line of a football team. If you do your job, nobody knows you, but if you screw up, everyone’s going to notice.” -Colin Keys
- Colin’s ability to connect with people in management

[8:00] What made Colin get into IT when he used to be “computer stupid”

His various past sales jobs
“Maybe it’s not the job”
- Staying away from computers because he thought he had to know math
“I don’t like my results to be dependent on other people. I like my work to speak for itself.” -Colin Keys

[12:54] Sales is also about picking the right opportunity/job

Some people are given better opportunities than others
- Zoom versus Lacrosse salespeople

[14:40] Selling your plan to upper management: Colin’s advice

The ability to read people helps
Identify the problem but also what the goal is
- An example of when Colin managed a failed infrastructure
Align yourself with the company goals
Colin’s reference to ski goggles

[17:50] Does Colin oversee customer experience/marketing?

They have their own ecommerce section and customer experience team
It’s a teamwork-based space
Working with customers who are a part of the internal organization

[22:20] Helpful information for “outsiders” who are personality looking into IT

1) Accept that you’re never going to understand everything

2) If you don’t know the answer, don’t pretend that you do

- Not having an update is the status update

[26:20] How do you find trustworthy vendors/products?

Colin asks a community that he trusts
- “It’s important to make those connections because you never know who’s going to have information about a product that you might need.” -Colin Keys
- This is why Phil only interviews high-level IT directors
  - Trust people who know what not to do

[29:28] If you have weird questions/problems, ask the community of IT vendors

[30:28] The new show segment: the biggest fire Colin had to put out

When Colin started at Smith
- The support team had left, and Colin was flying back and forth from work
- Having to shut down production if he couldn’t figure out how to fix the system
Trying one last thing and miraculously bringing it back
The struggle of needing people who will work on site

[38:30] The craziness that is custom-made, 3D goggles

Phil’s idea for winter goggles

[41:30] Mental health in IT

Why Colin has it on his profile
Colin’s experience with depression, anxiety, and ADD
- It’s not something that you can get over!
- Having it out there is the only way it will improve
Sad versus sick
- Get rid of the stigma and take care of yourself!
- The benefit of taking mental health days

[46:00] What has helped the most?

Therapy and antidepressants
Talk to your doctor
- Address it; you can’t hid from it
Hormone level checking
Phil shares about his personal experience with severe anxiety and getting through it
- “Anxiety is merely a conspiracy theory against yourself”

Colin Keys

IT Fires Are Everywhere: Suit Up Your Solutions and Save Your Mental Health with Colin Keys

3 Key Takeaways

Listen To The Full Episode Below

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