Speaker 0 | 00:00.100
I work until like six o’clock every night and then you know I get up early and I start early in the morning and I’m I feel like I’m behind the eight ball and I’m not catching up.
Speaker 1 | 00:19.173
Welcome everyone back to Dissecting Popular IT Nerds and we have a I don’t want to insult you by saying an oldie but a goodie but that’s just how we have to say it today. Greg Altman back, back from the past on the show again. And I’m having you on because you’ve switched roles and I asked you, so good, better, awesome, stronger. And you said it’s, or no, actually, no, your wife said. which is important because sometimes we bring our work home. Your wife said it’s, what did you say, more work but less stress, something like that?
Speaker 0 | 01:05.855
She said that I have more pressure but less stress.
Speaker 1 | 01:11.438
So that’s a good thing, I think, but explain.
Speaker 0 | 01:15.799
Well, all right, so I’ve been in IT as we explored, and the last time I was talking to you, I’ve been in IT for almost 30 years. Well, a little over 30 years, actually. But, you know, you have those times where you’re under pressure because there’s a big project coming and you’ve got a lot of work. And it’s pressure because there’s a lot riding on it. What we do is important.
Speaker 1 | 01:44.469
Well, let’s go through what pressure means in that situation. Let’s break it down. Deadlines, I’m assuming.
Speaker 0 | 01:49.630
Yes.
Speaker 1 | 01:50.170
Performance.
Speaker 0 | 01:50.810
Deadlines, performance, workload.
Speaker 1 | 01:53.831
Expectations. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All these different things, making a team work together, training end users, all the things we love to do. So there’s pressure. It’s pressure to perform.
Speaker 0 | 02:06.175
Pretty much job performance pressure, right? And, you know, wanting to provide good service for the business, that sort of thing. And then there’s stress, which is where you have pressure, but due to either. Lack of buy-in from executives, lack of budget, lack of ability, whatever, where you’re doomed to fail and you know you’re doomed to fail, or at least partially.
Speaker 1 | 02:39.528
Maybe lack of respect or there’s no IT is pigeonholed into a cost center where people don’t see that literally everything in the company can do better with technology versus without it. I’m assuming that stress can come from where, where does stress evolve from? Let’s just think of some of the most stressful moments without, you know, be, we don’t need to be specific or name names or anything, but let’s just think of some of the most stressful moments that you’ve had.
Speaker 0 | 03:09.730
Well,
Speaker 1 | 03:11.911
and I’m not trying to bring back post-traumatic, I’m not trying to cause post-traumatic stress here. I could, let me share a few with you. Let me, here, I’ll go first. We’ll do, you know, share that.
Speaker 0 | 03:20.854
That’s better.
Speaker 1 | 03:21.955
Stress, stress, share. Okay, one of the most stressful times in my life was working for a retail company that happened to serve coffee. And I happened to be the store manager, regional marketing specialist, and asset and security person as well. So I had to basically say, hey, put all these security practices into place and guarantee you a 3% increase in revenue. And It was so stressful because the upper management at the time was a very, very strict driver. And if you weren’t hitting budgeted dollars and you weren’t in every single category, you were always, nothing was ever good enough, right? And I don’t think it’s ever possible in a very driven, driven kind of retail place, right? Like you’re doing good here, you’re doing good here, you’re doing good here, but this needs to come up. And you don’t really ever, you kind of get like, hey, good job, but you’re never getting paid the amount that you’re really worth. So I would go to bed at night stressing about certain KPIs, like really stressing about it. And then I realized, and the odd thing was, is I almost felt like. You forget that you’re good. You forget that you’re talented. You forget that you’re a qualified human being. And you almost, you go to bed feeling like I’m not good enough or I don’t know if it’s indentured servitude. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s just this is life sucks. I don’t know what the feeling is and I don’t quite know how to describe it. But maybe that feeling is called stress. And I realized it when there might have been a change in the guards and it was like, hey, this is the reality. This is the situation. Here’s how we’re going to attack it and do your best. And it wasn’t like, you know, you’re probably going to get fired if you don’t bring these numbers up. It became more what can we do as a team strategically to bring these numbers up? And you didn’t go home every night feeling like, am I stable? Do I have a stable life? Is this where I want to be? Do I really, I’m not really happy here. That was, that was how I described it. And then when I left and I went to the Cisco startup company, it was scary as heck because I took a 50% salary cut and I went to this like entry level Cisco startup sales organization where it was like crazy hardcore. like boiler room kind of technology sales, go in and qualify people, get past gatekeepers and do all this insanity. Right. And I was in a position where I was like, I have to do this or I, or I won’t, you know, be able to put food on the table if I’m not successful at this. But success there was very clear. It was, if you do this, this and this, and you sell X number of Cisco, I had 2,800 series boxes to AKA small businesses and convert. you know you know analog lines to uh you know voice over ip blah blah blah you will get paid this and be successful and as as difficult and as much pressure i was under to use your words there i did very well and it was measurable and i could see my success and though that may have been from an outsider’s perspective much much harder There was no, there was a sense of accomplishment and no level of stress other than what I put on myself to be successful. I don’t know if that makes any sense. So, um, so yeah. And, oh, and back in the, back in the other high pressure state, there was a lot of, um, kind of pecking up to the hierarchy. It was like someone always wanted to be the favorite. It was like, how come I’m not the favorite today? I want to be the favorite. Do you know what I mean? So everyone, so all your teammates were kind of competing against each other to be the favorite. And then also kind of, but if you weren’t the favorite, then there was inner, there was inner gossip going on, if that makes sense.
Speaker 0 | 07:44.075
Right.
Speaker 1 | 07:45.536
Anyways.
Speaker 0 | 07:46.057
Cult of personality.
Speaker 1 | 07:47.438
There you go. Thank you for being my psych, my psychiatrist or college psychologist for the last five minutes. It turned into the Phil Howard. It turned into the Phil Howard, you know, oh, I feel so much better now. I feel like a relief. Was it anything like that? Now your turn.
Speaker 0 | 08:09.374
Well, the stress I was feeling at my previous job was, and I’m not trying to diss on the company. I worked myself out of a job in essence.
Speaker 1 | 08:23.160
That’s a good thing.
Speaker 0 | 08:24.860
Well, it is, but not when you haven’t realized it yet. I had kept the company. I mean, it was a very small company, 100 million revenue, 125 users. A lot of them, you know, warehouse people and such who don’t have a great deal of technology needs. So we’ve gotten to the point to where things were, there was no appetite for technological improvement. Everything was good. as far as the executive team was considered, it’s good enough. Just keep the lights on, reduce the budget by 20% every year, and, you know, stop making so much noise.
Speaker 1 | 09:13.268
20%? No, really, 20%? Oh,
Speaker 0 | 09:17.269
no, I’m exaggerating. It’s only 10%. It’s only 10%.
Speaker 1 | 09:20.751
Still, though, reduce budget every year from a technology standpoint, I usually think of, it’s amazing because when I look at some bills that people pay, I’m like, oh, man, I can’t believe they pay this bill. right and i’m you know just to run this podcast might be four grand a month right you know what i mean and that’s and when i think about it i’m thinking you know i don’t know it’s a matter of growth right how can i grow and i literally went from i went from like free i went from like this is free i’m recording it on zoom to now I’ll pay some dude on Fiverr to, you know, shine up the audio a little bit. And then it went to, okay, now I’ll officially hire someone at like 50 bucks an episode to do this. And now I’m going full bore this year with like a full entire, like, you know, studio, which is going to be starting. You’ll be like the third episode into it with like, you know, full on blog writing articles. We’ll, we’ll highlight you. We’ll have keywords and stuff like this. And we’ll do all this different thing. And yeah. I think it’s going to cost me like, it’s going to cost like 3,500 bucks a month, 4,000 a month, but I’m not shrinking the budget. I’m, I’m investing in it in hopes that it’s going to, knowing that I’ll be able to like, you know, put some kind of return on investment on it. I don’t know. I’ll get Vonage or someone to pay the, you know, pay the 3,500 a month and put their advertising on it. Or, and I’m not making fun of you Vonage. I’m just saying like, you know, you, or we’ll let’s put everyone else in there too. Ring central, Comcast, AT&T, or I Maybe Microsoft, maybe Microsoft. Anyway, so go ahead. So no appetite for improvement, even though technology is really kind of what, if anything, helps cut labor, helps be more efficient. So no appetite really for technology improvement, kind of cut the technology budget and keep everything going smooth sailing.
Speaker 0 | 11:23.395
Yep. And, you know, you get to the point to where it’s like, why am I here? Um, and I took three different week plus long motorcycle trips in 2021 and did some soul searching.
Speaker 1 | 11:41.908
Nice.
Speaker 0 | 11:43.229
And, uh, it was great. I was able to burn up some vacation time, but I had gotten to the point towards the end of the year where it wasn’t so much that I hated my job. But I would wake up in the morning going, do I really need to go to work today or can I go play in the woodshop or ride my motorcycle or do anything else than deal with the drudgery?
Speaker 1 | 12:14.645
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should have just engineered it to like you had like a robot in your seat, you know, and like. Like the covers over you to make someone think they’re in the pub? You know what I mean?
Speaker 0 | 12:27.721
Well, I was feeling a lot like the guy in Office Space. You know, it’s like, you’ve been missing a lot of work. Why wouldn’t you say I’ve been missing it, Bob? And I’m not trying to dig on my former bosses.
Speaker 1 | 12:41.809
No, no, it’s good.
Speaker 0 | 12:43.690
I mean, it was just the focus of the business moved from being, let’s say, at the forefront of technology to… hey, what we have is really good. We need to focus our money and our efforts on other things.
Speaker 1 | 13:01.200
In defense, and to just be the tough love, let’s ditch out some tough love. In their defense, were you… And maybe, is there an opportunity, when IT guys get stuck in this situation, I’m not saying IT guy, like the IT guy, that’s not what I mean. Like, I mean, like, sorry, IT professional, C-level director, C-level people, when they get in this position, is it, and I’m only throwing this out there to just, in case the thought didn’t cross your mind or whatever. Is there an opportunity to maybe go to other intern? other departments, marketing, is there a way to branch out and maybe learn and see if we can’t apply technology skills in a broader aspect or learn? For example, could you have maybe offered up some sort of technological innovation to the marketing department or sales or whatever the heck it was? Were there other opportunities that maybe we just weren’t woke to?
Speaker 0 | 14:15.807
I’m sure there were some, but, you know, there was also, like, for example, we did do some innovations in marketing. You know, we did the whole text message to pick up your order kind of thing.
Speaker 1 | 14:35.585
Oh, nice. Okay. And did you come up with that?
Speaker 0 | 14:38.829
Actually, I implemented it. The marketing manager or director came to me and said, hey, can we do something along these lines? And so, you know, we worked together and discovered that, well, RingTensor wasn’t the answer for that because their texting is a bolt on kind of afterthought. And so we went with a different company and we rolled it out and promoted it. I mean, that wasn’t, it wasn’t my initiatives, but it was.
Speaker 1 | 15:08.131
But marketing was involved due to communication, due to cross-departmental communication, meaning nothing.
Speaker 0 | 15:15.194
Yeah, and the nice thing at that old place is they weren’t, that company is not siloed at all. Everybody kind of hangs out and talks to each other. But, you know, I’ve been there for a long time. And so, you know, when… When there was a problem and I would go to people and say hey alright, so what what can I do to make your life better? and they’re like well Can we get new handsets for our phones or I mean it was it was always like little things And we covered most of the big stuff.
Speaker 1 | 15:45.847
Can I get a can I get a wireless mouse without a ball on it? You know I just I still I really love the office reference. I usually sneak in the back door about five minutes late, and then I zone out for… Can you say that again? Yeah, zone out. Wait, zone out? Yeah, you know, just stare off. I’m not making any connections here. I’m just saying. I just thought that was so funny. Oh,
Speaker 0 | 16:26.544
but life is better now.
Speaker 1 | 16:28.784
Okay. So, okay. So now let’s, let’s switch then. So I think that was, well, let me ask you this though. Why was that stressful? Was it stressful because life sucked and I’m just like, where am I going?
Speaker 0 | 16:40.208
Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 16:41.128
Okay.
Speaker 0 | 16:42.988
And that,
Speaker 1 | 16:43.308
that pretty much played it off pretty well. So how many people are walking around and I’m talking to them and they seem like really nice, smart it guys, but you know, inside their life sucks and it’s stressful.
Speaker 0 | 16:53.991
And they’re dead.
Speaker 1 | 16:54.672
side a little bit that’s why when you ask people how you doing i’m good you know how they say that like you know it’s kind of one of those things we always like hey man how you doing oh yeah good like what if we started just saying like actually i’m pretty uh pretty down and out today life kind of sucks and it’s boring and i feel uh directionless and um yeah anyways the uh Like, for example, let me tell you how I really feel right now. I had to drink a bunch of coffee before I got on here because I tested positive for COVID on Sunday.
Speaker 0 | 17:25.822
Oh, I’m sorry.
Speaker 1 | 17:26.683
No, I mean, I’m, you know, I’m trying to, I’m looking, they say like, you know, I was looking at all these things like, what’s the like sign curve of this? They’re like, be careful on day five. So I’m on day five right now. And I don’t know if psychologically I just felt worse this morning, but maybe I, you know, cause I woke up and I was just like, you sleep and then you get up and you’re like, whoa, do I really have to move my body? Like growing up, my wife, like coffee. Now I feel great for this and I’ll feel good for like this one hour. I had to time it perfectly so that I was talking to you. I would be at my peak because you have about an hour’s worth of energy and then you just crash and you’re like, oh, I didn’t, I don’t have what I had. So anyways, peak, I guess you peak at day five and then there’s a day 10 too for some people. So we’ll see everyone in my family except for my 11 year old tested. It’s amazing. Like we, like someone was feeling sick. So I went and bought, like, you know, I had to go to CVS. Sorry, sorry, everyone listening. This is a complete COVID sidetrack, but it happens. Okay. Um,
Speaker 0 | 18:28.820
it’s the world we live in now.
Speaker 1 | 18:30.361
Yeah. You know, so I went to CVS for, you know, for like a month. There’s like, we’re out. You, you walk in the store. There’s a big, huge sign. Do not ask for instant COVID tests. We do not have any, do not ask, you know? And then there’ll be like another paper underneath again, handwritten, do not ask. so then they had them all back so we go i’m like okay i need um 11 please they’re 10 bucks each they’re 10 bucks each and they’re like sir there’s a minimum requirement of six i’m standing there i’m like i have eight kids what am i gonna do and they’re kind of like whoa what like they kind of laughed and i was like but my wife’s here and she has a different last name she didn’t change her name her last name so like how about i buy six and she they’re like okay yeah loophole so anyways and went home tested everybody wife positive oldest son positive pregnant daughter who’s who had got married last year positive um every oh i forgot her husband did not test positive and he was like the sickest of them all he must have just had like the regular flu or something they live in like the apartment next they live in the in-laws apartment attached to our house so anywho yeah everyone tested positive except for me and my daughter at that time so then i had because my son-in-law had to uh i don’t know work the next day i had to drive my pregnant daughter to go get the they put her at like the top of the line for the the um what is it what’s wrong with me the thermo coupler like you know the the the anti the anti-viral anti-viral whatever anyways okay yeah uh why am i see my brain’s not working it’s covid brain i’ll blame it on covid i’m anti-viral meds microbial anyways why am i not thinking right so yeah they all tested positive but because i had to spend two days with my daughter of course not social distance distancing or whatever and you know it’s let’s just be realistic people i’ll probably get if anyone listens to this episode i might get hammered by a bunch of people they’re like what’s wrong you’re there masking and anywho uh triple now and uh so I came back home after taking her to the doctors and sitting in the parking lot, of course, and not ever going anywhere. But, uh, yeah. So then I, I was the last one to test positive on, I think it was Sunday. What’s today. Today is Wednesday. Yeah. So I’m like, no, it was Saturday. So I’m like, yeah, four or five days into this thing. But my other daughter, the only one, and other than my son-in-law are still not positive. And we all live in a very close quarters, um, until this addition gets put onto this house. Anywho. Um, yeah. Where the heck were we? Oh, stressful stress. Yes. Um, so we go, we move from, um, um, stressful, which really stress can evolve from why is my life meaningless? Not significantly meaningless, but I don’t feel like I’m, I need to, it’s interesting. Maybe what we’re saying here is that humans and it directors need to have. You can’t just be keeping the systems up and running. Some people might be okay with just keeping the systems up and running, like literally moving the levers. But you specifically, Greg Allman, does not want to just be keeping the blinky lights on.
Speaker 0 | 21:44.980
That’s a pay tag repairman.
Speaker 1 | 21:47.100
Yes. So that’s what brought stress to your life. But what’s not bringing stress to your life is new opportunity and pressure to succeed.
Speaker 0 | 21:59.144
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 | 21:59.824
Interesting. So sometimes when we get out of our comfort zones or push ourselves to new levels or new heights, it might be difficult. We might be under pressure, but somehow we come alive.
Speaker 0 | 22:15.072
Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 22:15.813
It’s really deep. So tell me, talk to me.
Speaker 0 | 22:19.454
My wife told me that, all right, so I’ve been at the new company, January 28th was my month of earth three. One month. Yeah. so i’m just a few days past that and uh my wife and i were having dinner she goes you’ve been happier in the last month than i have seen you in years and i haven’t even said it and i’m like i work until like six o’clock every night and then you know i get up early and i start early in the morning and i feel like i’m behind the eight ball and i’m not catching up and uh and she goes and you’re loving every minute of it.
Speaker 1 | 23:00.787
Amazing. Amazing, see?
Speaker 0 | 23:03.850
I have a great team here. I have a great team here. I have a great boss. We’re all kind of pulling together. We’re all, everybody’s literally on the same team. It feels like we’re all working together for the good of the company, not for self-aggrandizement.
Speaker 1 | 23:23.104
A little bit of self-aggrandizement is okay. No, I’m just, I’m joking. Working together to make a common thing. What’s the, is there like a vision or a mission or something or anything like that? What are we doing?
Speaker 0 | 23:38.471
Right now we’re, we’re, we’re, there’s a lot of things. It’s funny. All right. So sidebar. Okay. You did the COVID sidebar. This is a technology sidebar. My old company, because it was a very small company and we had a very small IT department, we were able to do some things technologically that a larger company has a harder time getting put through.
Speaker 1 | 24:01.647
Yeah, pivot. You’re able to change easier. Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 24:05.149
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 | 24:05.749
Be more nimble. You’re able to be more nimble. You’re able to do things like that. Yes.
Speaker 0 | 24:09.451
Yes. Yes. So like, for example, I mean, I came here and during my interviews. They were saying, are you comfortable with the MyChill phone system? And I looked over and they had short cell phones, IP phones. And I was like, yeah. Oh,
Speaker 1 | 24:23.700
you mean the Xbox?
Speaker 0 | 24:25.662
I ran one of those for like 15 years. So, yeah, okay, cute. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, you know, Exchange is still on-prem here. So, just because it was a huge deal to move 2,000 users to Office 365.
Speaker 1 | 24:41.992
I might have to blip that out so people don’t call you.
Speaker 0 | 24:49.959
I know on-prem matter at tech.
Speaker 1 | 24:51.720
He’s he’s currently on teams and E5 licenses. Everybody he’s done.
Speaker 0 | 25:02.618
But, you know, I mean, it’s cool, though, because there’s some stuff here that I can improve. It’s like, wow, I’ve done this before. I know how to do this.
Speaker 1 | 25:10.564
Boom. Yeah, it’s fun. It’s just an overwhelming pile.
Speaker 0 | 25:15.689
Yeah. And my predecessor left, like, months before I started. So there was a gap. I mean, I’ve got a team of 10 people, and they were, well, rudderless was the word that they used.
Speaker 1 | 25:31.882
Oh, I like it. Rudderless. And so some really good stuff on this. This show really uncovers some great terms sometimes. Rudderless. Nice.
Speaker 0 | 25:44.945
And so where the thing about that,
Speaker 1 | 25:47.306
let’s just visualize that for a second. Visualize a big visualizing. What’s that big sailing competition? Forget the sailing competition. Anyone that’s ever sailed, like if you ever taken a little sunfish out.
Speaker 0 | 25:58.969
America’s Cup.
Speaker 1 | 25:59.909
America’s Cup. Boom, the rudder broke. What happens to that ship?
Speaker 0 | 26:05.858
Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 26:06.779
Just think about a ship sailing sideways and around and capsizing and all kinds of numerous things that could happen.
Speaker 0 | 26:14.887
Drifting about. Yeah. A drift, as it were.
Speaker 1 | 26:18.091
Just sideways. We’re just going sideways. Today, we’re going sideways. Today, we’re fully capsized. today we’re fully capsized got to bail out the ship got to get everyone back on here tomorrow save a few lives say quick throw that guy and throw that guy a life ring or whatever it’s called computer blew up throw him a i don’t know throw him an old compact for him throw him a life ring it’s all you know anyways somebody’s got an atari around here yeah
Speaker 0 | 26:57.723
So, yeah, I mean, the biggest my biggest adjustment, quite honestly, has been going from being the guy who weighs in and does stuff, you know, in a small IT department. You can’t sit back and just be boss. You got to get in there and playing some script around and make stuff happen here. There’s here’s a lot more delegation, you know,
Speaker 1 | 27:23.053
that’s great. Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 27:24.734
teaching and coaching and you know which is the way i it’s funny i was looking at when i was looking to make a change i was trying to decide whether i wanted to go the individual contributor route and like head towards like an architect title or whether i wanted to go lean more into the management and go more for the cio title and uh i told my wife i said here’s what we’re gonna do we’re gonna put my resume out there and we’re gonna see what bites you
Speaker 1 | 27:54.118
Well, I can tell you right now that you’re in the position where I’ve seen many past people that have been on Dissecting Popular IT Nerds, by the way, go from infrastructure manager to IT manager to director to CTO. And it was usually in a company about the size like you’re at right now, maybe anywhere from 500 to 2,000 end users, where they had to go in. And it wasn’t just we had to change the department into more of a visionary department. And I had to stop being IT manager and had to start being IT leader. And I had to start empowering people to not just do it the old way. And we had to have a vision technology roadmap. Let’s use technical terms. Let’s not just use random leadership terms, but actual technology leadership terms. I actually have a technology roadmap that fostered the vision slash mission of the company all and then align the team with the actual values and purpose of the company. So that is an exciting, with a lot of pressure, opportunity.
Speaker 0 | 29:13.716
And that’s where I live. That’s my zone right now.
Speaker 1 | 29:18.460
Yeah. It’s what I find. What I want to congratulate you on is I did not realize that you were at your previous company for 29 years. That’s crazy. To think about making a jump when you’ve been somewhere for at least half your life. Half your life.
Speaker 0 | 29:47.312
Most of my adult life. Yeah. I went to work. I went to work. that company I was 23 years old.
Speaker 1 | 29:55.539
That’s crazy.
Speaker 0 | 29:56.661
And I’m 52.
Speaker 1 | 30:00.705
Greg, that’s amazing. That’s just it’s just unbelievable. And it’s the thing that scares me. And I still have yet to find the answer to this. This thing that scares me is with the fact when you think about it’s it’s fun to talk about, but it’s also and we joke around about about office space. But remember how they put like the the Superman three, you know, virus or we’re going to sift fractions of a penny. How did how did they load that? What’s so funny is that they loaded it with a floppy disk onto a tower.
Speaker 0 | 30:39.625
A workstation.
Speaker 1 | 30:41.226
And that’s a popular movie that we’re quoting. Okay. I know. So what that means is, think of how much technology changed while you were at that company for 30 years. 30 years ago was 1990. I was watching the Bill Gates, you know. us versus microsoft deposition or whatever on on youtube last night just because i it was trending on twitter and that was 1998 and he was and people were asking him questions like you know what does api stand for what does you know and it’s funny to see bill gates sitting there answering these questions like and you know what’s an operating system is this a correct definition of an operating system Is this, you know, is it fair to say, you know, and they’re asking questions like this. And that was 1998. We’re in 2022. It’s not that it’s really not that big of a difference. And here’s the thing that’s scary to me is what’s going to change even further into the future. And what’s what kind of roles are senior technology executives going to take? What’s there is. what’s their exit strategy if there is one or what’s their long-term life strategy i don’t think there is one for it managers unless you work unless you’re planning on just rolling a 401k and i mean if i was you it would be like honey i don’t need much i just need like you know we just need a couple motorcycles and you know an rv you know yeah i mean honestly like to me that’s like like you know my strategy i’m not worried about you know as long as well i’ve got eight kids so i’m hoping like they’ll at least you know pay pay whatever just pass food stamps if i have to like you know if i really crash and burn but um the um what’s the strategy do you have an idea for the future and i’m trying to bring stress to your life because this might bring stress but i’m seriously trying to find the answer i have yet to have someone say oh i’m fully diversified and i’m buying real estate but because most i.t directors don’t have that most of them are kind of like golden handcuff guys we make enough we make good money we’re not uncomfortable but we’re comfortable but we’re not like rich right some are right some are rich but no one’s like you know i’m not the average i.t guy is not making half a million a year so unless you’re making over i i i think most americans nowadays with inflation and everything Unless you’re making over $250,000 a year, I think you’re pretty much golden handcuffed territory. There’s a little bit of savings, maybe paycheck to paycheck, but money’s not worth what it was anymore. And how technology changes so fast, I mean, I guess it’s, and hope shouldn’t be a strategy.
Speaker 0 | 33:49.353
It’s not a strategy.
Speaker 1 | 33:50.794
yeah you know it’s like what are we what are we doing seriously what are we doing are we looking at consulting when in our
Speaker 0 | 33:58.356
70s or i mean what’s going on you know well i think it’s rv and to me it’s an rv in in motorcycles or it’s an to me it’s an r you know it’s like it’s both of those things um so i do have a little side gig going on that doesn’t make me very much money but it does bring me some joy um it’s not technology related um i write uh i’ve been writing motorcycle articles for a motorcycle website and uh and it doesn’t pay very much i mean it’s let’s plug the website some gas screw it let’s plug let’s plug the website what are we doing what’s the website it’s
Speaker 1 | 34:37.787
simply motorcycle.com simply motorcycle um.com okay cool Look, a lot of IT guys are into motorcycles. Gotta be. There’s only so many things that you can be into as an IT guy, right? Gaming, motorcycles, I don’t know, me, it’s jujitsu, and, you know, I don’t know, maybe powerlifting for some dude. Surfing. Surfing, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know. Okay, so Simply Motorcycle, simplymotorcyclesingular.com.
Speaker 0 | 35:08.184
Angular, yeah.
Speaker 1 | 35:09.364
Hey, simplymotorcycle.com. Okay, cool. So you’re writing blog articles for it? Okay.
Speaker 0 | 35:12.945
Yeah. And it’s an interesting thing because I’ve written technology blogs before. I always get kind of burned out on them. This one is kind of interesting because the editor sends me assignments. It’s like a paid writing gig, you know? He’s like, write me an article about this. And sometimes it’s stuff that I don’t really know anything about, so I have to go research it, I have to learn about it, and then I write about it.
Speaker 1 | 35:36.851
How do you find you? How did he find you?
Speaker 0 | 35:40.822
It was on a, there was some website and I can’t remember what it was. It was like a, you know, get a writing job.com or some crap like that. And there was this, he had posted up there. I’m starting a new website. I need, I need people to write articles. And I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1 | 35:55.714
I need people to write articles. By the way, since writing technology, since writing technology articles is so exciting. Dissecting popular IT nerds, advertisement. I forget to do this always in the middle of the show. always forget blatant advertisement please not an advertisement i need writers if you’d like to write an article on i don’t know um my old short tail phone system that became my tail that got bought by rackspace and an upgrade to microsoft teams happy to i’m welcoming i’m welcoming that subject i’m also welcoming numerous other uh subjects um i don’t know something about silos would be cool anything but go on go on so you’re writing motorcycle blog articles He’s got to pay you for it. Where did you get your writing experience? Or you just kind of just wing it? And does he ask you to do keywords and stuff like that?
Speaker 0 | 36:46.668
Really, my experience is just the fact that I talk a lot. And I like to talk. And I just figured out that I could actually type instead of talk.
Speaker 1 | 36:57.016
Yeah, good marketing, writing. And I’ve gone down the black hole of marketing. Uh, believe me, I’ve gone down the black hole of marketing and I’ve, what I realized is that I hate it. I really do. I’m like, I’m kind of like this natural, more of like a natural sales guy. And like, I think you’re either in sales or marketing and I hate marketing. And the reason why is because I don’t like, I don’t like psychological games in a lot. I think a lot of marketing is about like psychological games, although good marketing is not, you just have to hit the right, I don’t know. me and uh but i love writing i was creative writing so i just write the way i talk so if you if you’re a good talker and you just write the way you talk that’s what i found is good so and that’s exactly what i do and i think i hate marketing because because i’m also in technology and a lot of marketing is trying to get someone to enter their email into a little box nowadays and that’s stupid yeah and i mean we know it’s gonna do that enough bad marketing yeah so okay So really cool. So anyways, it’s motorcycles. And that’s the guide gig.
Speaker 0 | 38:06.195
My long-term plan for retirement, when I get to the point to where I can retire, I’m probably going to just, like you said, RV and a couple of motorcycles or RV and a motorcycle. And park the RV in Denver for the summer. It’s floor the area and then when we get bored with that pull up stakes and move someplace else Have you women are in come by writing articles about writing stuff about things?
Speaker 1 | 38:36.190
Have you been to Colorado?
Speaker 0 | 38:38.191
Yes, I was in the Colorado like three times in the last year
Speaker 1 | 38:41.053
So I went I went to Colorado State University. So in Fort Collins, I don’t know if you’ve been to Fort Collins, Colorado I have not poor Collins is great. They’ve got like more restaurants per square mile. I think than any like place in like the united states or something it’s insane so there is a camping spot on horse horse horse tooth reservoir in fort collins it would be nice because and ironically i i i pulled over a motorcycle accident while i was going up because you have to kind of like drive up this little mini canyon it’s like you know it’s foothills it’s foothills there in that area and i remember you’re just motorcycles and the camping ground. Now this is all coming back to me. I remember there was a guy, you know, careful on your turns and laying your bike over on certain turns, especially in mountain passes. Cause there can be a lot of gravel on the side and, um, you know, you don’t have to have, I don’t know what the helmet laws are. I don’t think there’s a helmet law in Colorado. You don’t have to wear a helmet or anything, but you know, guy had a t-shirt on basically came around a corner, a lot of gravel, laid his bike over and I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced road rash, but this is the worst thing I’ve ever saw. Like, I saw this guy pick his face up off the ground, and literally his side of his face was left on the pavement. Like, I’ve never seen so much, like, just blood and dirt and tar stuck into the side of a guy’s arm and face. Anyways, a little gory, but that was my… I, uh, I used to have a bunch of motorcycles and then me, unless you’re really just cruising, you got to kind of, it’s like not a matter of if it’s like a matter of when you’re going to lay a motorcycle over and how bad it is. I think. Have you ever laid one over yet?
Speaker 0 | 40:26.734
Yeah. Okay. I got, I was in Corpus. Luckily I wasn’t going very fast and, um, I was in the right hand lane and the lady in the left hand lane decided to make a right hand turn.
Speaker 1 | 40:38.557
Uh, man.
Speaker 0 | 40:41.226
The fact that I was there, not relevant.
Speaker 1 | 40:44.967
So
Speaker 0 | 40:45.867
I avoided hitting her and her hitting me, but I went into a bicycle lane, like you said, had some gravel, and there was some fishtailing. And, yeah, I dropped it over at about 25 miles an hour and tumbled and scrapped myself up a little bit. But, I mean, it wasn’t terrible. I mean, it’s not. I would be like, hey, let’s go lay the motorcycle down today. Yeah,
Speaker 1 | 41:10.857
no, because you’re looking at the pen.
Speaker 0 | 41:14.240
It wasn’t bad enough to where I didn’t pick the bike up and continue upon my way.
Speaker 1 | 41:25.432
Well. Safety. I don’t know what else to say there.
Speaker 0 | 41:31.741
Safety tip for the day. Wear gear. Leather.
Speaker 1 | 41:36.384
Leather guy. Lots of leather. Preferably colored. I remember my first motorcycle, Jackson. My wife was like, bring that back. It was like red, red paneled leather with yellow and blue panels, like in all different. I thought it was awesome. I still wish I should never listen, never listen to it. I should have kept that jacket. Greg, it has been an absolute pleasure having you back on the show. You know, and seriously, I’m proud of you. 30 years and then jumping to a much, you know. More it’s I guess welcome to the pressure. I don’t know how else to say that but you know congratulations and again Well, I think it might be already Stead but if there was any one piece of advice you’d have to give to people out there listening in the IT world What would it be?
Speaker 0 | 42:42.627
Do not do not fall into the golden handcuffs of complacency complacency and by that I mean and this is important do not get stuck on your technology skills of this is what my company needs me to know right now you’ve got to look at what what the the greater IT community is doing what the industry is doing because otherwise you’re going to wake up one day and your skills will be horribly horribly out of date I fell into that trap for about five years because, like you said, I was golden handcuffed. I was comfortable. I was making decent money. I was, you know, I was able to play with some technology and stuff, but I was limiting myself.
Speaker 1 | 43:34.382
I think that’s great advice, too, even for employers out there, too. You know, not everyone’s, no one’s perfect, right? And the purpose of a business is to make money. And if that is what it is, but. Um, you know, secondarily, you know, we’re going to make money with, by, you know, keeping really good staff and keeping people, you know, I guess, motivated and growing and all that stuff. And, and if that’s not available, then, you know, Hey, you know, it’s like no hard feelings. It’s like, congratulations, you know? Um, so again, uh, thank you, sir. And we, uh, I, I welcome you back on. Let’s say, let’s, let’s look at how much you can do. How, let’s see how much. IT can change. Let’s see what you can do in a year. I’d love to see how we start tracking the numbers now. Game on. Okay, sure. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Dissecting Popular IT Nerds. If you like this or any other episode, make sure you rate it and share it with one of your friends. And remember, when it comes to IT, you always need to be dissecting, analyzing, and improving.
