Speaker 0 | 00:09.647
I have six kids, no TV in the home ever since the night that my first born was born. And that was almost 11 years ago.
Speaker 1 | 00:20.576
Excellent, sir. Yeah, it was halfway through my four kids, I got rid of the TV. It was tough for like the first six months, but now it’s not completely. completely device free, you know, because they still got to like be on the computer and TV is kind of, it’s one of those things where most of the kids are watching all kinds of stuff. You don’t want them to watch anyways on YouTube and various other places. Let’s be honest. So it’s a, even if there was a TV, they probably wouldn’t be watching it. So it’s not that big of a deal anymore as it used to be. Now, if I said no devices, no this, no that there’s no PlayStation, there’s no Xbox, there’s none of that. My kids read books and play sports and play outside. But it’s funny.
Speaker 0 | 01:02.560
Because we have an iPad and that thing doesn’t get used much now. You know, they will watch stuff like on Amazon Prime, you know, video prime. But my wife has already vetted it, you know, so they don’t watch anything unless she has either read about it or watched it. Oh, that’s good. You notice that I’m saying my wife because, you know, I’m blessed.
Speaker 1 | 01:31.008
dude so she’s like the uh she’s the content filter she’s the human content filter yes she is so yes so i’m um i hit record i hope you’re okay with this because if we have a conversation it ends up being really good then we don’t even need to talk about you know what do you want to do a show about so i hit record you know just in case all right cool so you didn’t even know see we’re already having a conversation it’s great There was something I wanted to talk about how you got involved in IT. But before I do that, you have something on your LinkedIn profile that is kind of near and dear to my heart in some ways. First of all, you have Dale Carnegie training. Yeah. So I’m kind of a fan of how to win friends and influence people and kind of the whole Dale Carnegie kind of cult. so to speak. I’m much more a fan of Zig Ziglar and some people that helped me out, you know, from a, from kind of a motivational standpoint and career organization standpoint and coming out of my shell and not being afraid of my own shadow, so to speak. But I think this aspect of a, your bullet points are delegation, which you have six kids. So you’ve already nailed that one. Um, yeah. we’re going to skip over this next bullet point which I’m going to leave as a mystery motivation, you’ve got to be motivated if you can hear my lawnmower in the background that’s because I have delegated appropriately to my eldest son to mow the lawn we’re already putting this to work that’s a key leadership principle
Speaker 0 | 03:22.587
it is thank you
Speaker 1 | 03:24.252
Yes. Passing the, you know, this episode with Chai, which is coming out, which you got to listen to. It’s going to either be out tomorrow or the next day. He talks about how most leaders really don’t have any experience with leadership whatsoever. They just decided to take on the responsibility. That’s all a leader is, is someone that just takes the responsibility, right? So yeah, that’s why delegation is so important. Building affinity. I’ll let you speak to that one. coaching, of course. I had a, in a past life, I worked for Starbucks for years and I had a pretty good mentor there say, talk about hiring people. And he said, if the person’s uncoachable, fire them. Right. Because coachability is so important. Negotiation. Cool. I like that. Communication. You mean IT guys have to communicate and finance and P and L. This is like everything that I’ve been saying IT guys need to learn and everything that this show is about. And why does Dale Carnegie have to rip this off from me? You know, Dale Carnegie is just supposed to be the motivation, like, you know, this conglomerate that everyone, you know, kind of says is just another, I don’t know, almost. I’m just, I can just think of the negativity, but it’s good. And, you know, kind of like how do we charge people to teach them these things? But who cares? Because this stuff is all so important. And you’re the first person that I’ve seen kind of put a formal training around. IT needing to learn these things. And I think I’m heavy breathing because number two was stress management.
Speaker 0 | 05:14.474
It’s a beer,
Speaker 1 | 05:18.215
man. Let me take a deep breath. Let me take a deep breath. You know, yeah. I just kind of want to start off with that. How do we integrate these things into IT? Because I think these are the things that… modern day it people that have been hiding out in the server room closet for the last decade prior to maybe 1990s need and has this, you know, I don’t know, let’s, let’s just speak to, um, I don’t know, um, finance P and L how, how do you deal with finance and the P and L in your day-to-day job? Why is that important? Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 05:58.305
Yeah. So, um, very important why well we’re talking about the bottom line right i mean uh any company uh whether you’re a for-profit or not-for-profit have a p l right uh and that’s what it matters right i mean number one and so you have to be able to understand what the numbers mean that’s it you know not necessarily how to crunch you know you can get an accountant for that you know you have to know what the numbers mean because those are the metrics, you know, the KPIs, you know, that the business is using to grow or to sustain or to transform, right? So that’s why it’s so important, right?
Speaker 1 | 06:43.988
And from the aspect of, I think a lot of times IT guys can be selfish and not know it. I think they can think like, you know, why are we being treated as a cost center? And, you know, our budget’s not big enough. And, you know, It’s always about me, me, me. And well, okay, what are you going to do about it? You know, because you’re only going to sell it. You have to sell it, right? You have to sell it and you have to think what’s in it for me, right? Like the with them, you know, how we always said with them, like what’s in it for them. And the only way you’re going to sell it and what’s in it for them, the boss, the business, and why you need what you need is by understanding. the P&L. That’s one of the biggest pillars. I guess pillars. I should start… This sounds like a good idea. I’ve had a lot of coffee today. So we’re going to make up like… We’re going to just make something up like the five pillars of… Six pillars, three pillars of IT missing pain that you need to fill in. We’re going to come up with something. But anyways, pillar is P&L. P&L pillar. Let me tell you a story. And I think you’re going to like it.
Speaker 0 | 07:54.246
Right? So… This has been across, you know, forever, I guess, you know, but you’re starting to see that shift, right? So you have IT, right? Then you have the business. Then there is what I like to call the Grand Canyon in between that. IT is working, you know, it’s talking about servers, IT, VIPs, SD-WAN, ARP, and blah, blah, blah. And the business is talking about money. new opportunities, that kind of stuff. Because you have this ginormous void in the middle. Okay,
Speaker 1 | 08:36.157
so IT, massive canyon, and what’s on the other end?
Speaker 0 | 08:41.738
So you have IT on one side of the canyon, right? Then there’s the canyon, and then you have the business.
Speaker 1 | 08:48.180
Yeah, this is great.
Speaker 0 | 08:51.701
So what does that mean? It means that we’re not talking the same language, right? Again, the business is talking about the P&L, income statement, balance sheet, EBITDA, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1 | 09:04.435
EBITDA? EBITDA? What the heck is that, IT guy? That’s great.
Speaker 0 | 09:08.037
Earnings before interest, tax, and amortization, something like that.
Speaker 1 | 09:11.820
Yeah, depreciation, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Either way, it’s something important.
Speaker 0 | 09:16.522
Very important, right? I mean, it is one of the key metrics that the C-suite. the c4 the port yes um so you have a gigantic void in the middle right and so we’re not talking the same language again you know i’ve used talking more about uh technology tech jargon you know ips art table server configurations and this and that and so we’re not talking the same language right and so um you know for now you know and you start to see the shift, you notice that people who are moving up the ranks into leadership, you know, are learning the business terminology. right so they understand that right and so that that’s why it’s so key but then on the other side because you know it takes to do a tango right it takes to the tango we have to understand each other right and then on the other side you know the the business side you know who typically don’t understand technology you know they’re kind of scared of like oh man like you know i have all this uh high technical stuff you know i don’t understand it you know but they’re missing the point they’re missing the point because uh in order for you to be digitally intelligent, right? It doesn’t mean that you need to know how to configure a LAN or a WAN or heck, you don’t even need to know how to set up your workstation.
Speaker 1 | 10:48.804
A perfect example is me. It’s a perfect example. I’ve got the show, IT Dissecting Popular IT Nerds, and you just described me. Yeah. The cat’s out now. The cat’s out. Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 11:02.249
But what it is about, you know, and what our business counterparts need to understand is that all they need to do is understand the technology that they have available to them and how they can exploit it to grow their company. So you made my case in point, right? You yourself, you know, are not very excited, I guess is what you said. I don’t know.
Speaker 1 | 11:26.245
If you said, Phil, I need you to configure this slash 25 and like, you know, you know, route. this and that, I’d be like, um, sure. It’s done. I like no problem done. And then I would call you. Yeah. And then you would, and then you would delegate it to somebody.
Speaker 0 | 11:41.917
But yeah, you know, but you know, you have this show and you know that, Hey, I have a microphone here. I have zoom, you know, you know, and, and, and, and, and this tools, you know, can get me in front of the audience that I need. Right. So now, you know, that’s So now you go out to the side and you call me or you call somebody. or you delegate it to one of your kids, and they will configure it for you. You find the expert who does that, right? So you’re leading that. And so that’s how we closed the Grand Canyon, right? Now you have the business side of the company understanding their IT, their IT portfolio, right? They know what technologies they have in their portfolio, and they know what they can do with that.
Speaker 1 | 12:28.333
So you basically just described the problem. Basically, what you just described is what’s the majority of the environment right now. Smart business people that want to exploit something for financial gain. How do we do the opposite? How do we take IT people and have them exploit business people for their personal gain? Do you know what I mean? Like, how do we teach? And I think that key is learning the language of business, which is a very key theme.
Speaker 0 | 13:05.189
It is. It is, you know. It has to get out of the back room, you know what I mean? For years, you know, as IT folks, you know, hey, don’t get the IT guy in front of the customer. Keep him over there. Give him a keyboard and a box of pizza and some Gatorade, right?
Speaker 1 | 13:24.777
Was there ever anything that you did that you remember being stressful, confronting fear in any way? Was there any big moment that you can remember like this was really stressful and then it got easier and easier because the more I did this, the more I succeeded?
Speaker 0 | 13:46.535
Yeah. Well, it has to be, you know, getting in leadership role, you know. My father, when I went off to college, he wanted me to be an engineer. And his reasoning was, you can work with a machine and the computer, and it’s not going to spit in your face or call you names or none of that. And guess what I did? I went the other route. I want to do the original, but that’s what he meant. And that’s what to say, right? That engineers don’t get to work with people. Of course they do, right?
Speaker 1 | 14:28.334
But that’s the thing.
Speaker 0 | 14:32.377
And so you have to be able to work with people. You have to work with people. And it is not easy. It really is not. I mean, I remember, like, you know, I’m not an expert developer, but I’ve written some code, you know, and I would just. go at it you know and it wouldn’t work you know you wouldn’t talk back to me you know then when it worked you know i was just like man that was awesome i want to think i want to tell the whole world about it you know um yeah you know but uh meeting people it’s it’s it’s hard and so At once I request, you know, like, you know, that fear moment is when I started to be in front of people, large audiences. And then as I grew my career and I was getting exposed to people higher up in the company, you know, your directors, your VPs, and then all the way to the C-suite, you know, that was very beautiful. And then managing a team as well, you know.
Speaker 1 | 15:28.394
Give me a tip. Give me something. No, no, give me something like, let’s just give people something that they can do that’s very easy to help them connect with people. If it’s one of the hardest things to do is to go out and connect with people.
Speaker 0 | 15:41.974
Okay.
Speaker 1 | 15:42.534
Or even like, let’s say it’s someone that’s, you might be intimidated by like, how do I approach? I don’t know, just this big, maybe an intimidating person or a C-level, but you know you need to do it. What’s the tip?
Speaker 0 | 15:59.223
What’s the tip? Well, the person that comes to mind is one of my mentors. You know, he’s, you know, he never knew he was my mentor. You know, he’s, you know, he’s passed, you know, but that’s Steve Jobs, right? And he said, you know, every day, remember that you’re going to be dying soon. You’re going to die soon, right? And so, you know, when I die, you know, I want to die knowing that I wasn’t afraid, you know, that I went for anyways, you know what I mean? uh i still fear i still experience that you know but every time that i feel that way i just do it anyway you know because i want to get over that you know uh um and and and and it’s so true you know and and i think you know that’s really healthy you know be where i am today you know that i
Speaker 1 | 16:47.309
just do it you know uh yeah you know some of the things that help take away fear uh just my own things is being prepared with certain questions you Um, so when you go to talk with people, when I go to do this podcast, for example, or when I go to connect with someone on LinkedIn or whatever it is, I’ve highly refined via massive numbers of mistakes and shoving my foot in my mouth and bumbling and drooling and saying all kinds of stupid things. I have managed to refine the questions that I ask in the way that I present myself. So, one of those questions would be, just in general, just questions. Like questions that you might ask someone, whatever it is. For example, I don’t know, give me an example of a question that you might ask a CEO about the P&L or something that might actually garner attention. Can you think of one?
Speaker 0 | 17:56.807
Well, how are we doing financially? you know just just ask out of curiosity you know uh i you know uh you’re absolutely right you know uh being prepared is is key to it because you don’t want to just show up you know and not know your stuff but you know when it comes to asking stuff you know i i tend to go on the open-ended questions you know uh i know you know i just ask the group you know when i’m talking with them you know i just ask the group and let them answer me you know um And that really helps, you know, because that way, I mean, I’m already having some fear, you know, that I’m experiencing. But that way, you know, I’m not pointing it to any specific person. You know, I’m just doing an open statement, an open question to the entire people on the call, you know, so anyone can answer.
Speaker 1 | 18:50.781
As a CEO, what’s your biggest frustration in the current moment? What’s your biggest challenge? Challenge frustrations. No, I’m just saying like in general, I’m saying in general, we can ask that question because like, let me give you, let’s just do, let’s just role play this because I’m a fan of role playing. Harrison, as a director of IT, at this current moment, what’s your single biggest frustration problem or concern that you’re dealing with?
Speaker 0 | 19:17.911
Well, I can tell you that and that is we’re not working together in teams.
Speaker 1 | 19:23.895
You know?
Speaker 0 | 19:28.591
That frustrates me, you know? So, you know, I’m working to change that,
Speaker 1 | 19:34.756
you know? Okay, so let’s just say the CEO said that. We’re not communicating properly across departments. I don’t know. Operations is failing to deliver on time. Okay, as an IT director, now you’ve got ammunition. Now you can ask, right? We can ask. And I just find this to be such a fascinating conversation. I hope other IT people find this to be good. But, you know, because now we can ask. So I can ask you, what do you mean teams? Do you mean teams, the application? Because as a doctor, I don’t know from an IT, if I’m speaking your language, I’m thinking teams, Microsoft teams. But you could be talking, but you could be talking no cross-functional teams. You could be talking my teams within IT. You could be talking the teams within the company. What do you mean?
Speaker 0 | 20:19.525
Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 20:20.386
So a question leads to another question. So, okay. Exactly. What do you mean? Like what kind of teams?
Speaker 0 | 20:26.650
Yeah. We’re talking about working people, teams, you know, people groups. Right. So, you know, let’s say that HR has a project, you know, and they’re launching a new payroll system. So.
Speaker 1 | 20:43.141
Nightmare.
Speaker 0 | 20:44.842
Oh man, tell me about it. I’ve done a few of those and yes, they are. they are. When I was just a PM, I had the luck, I guess, that I would always get projects that would affect people’s pockets directly, like employees, which is a good and a bad thing. Good, because that means that my boss and what have you, they trusted me to be the project. But the bad thing is, if something goes wrong,
Speaker 1 | 21:14.475
then it’s not great. I just think the right place question is, A lot of people have different mentors. You’ve had mentors. We’ve all had different kind of motivational type people, right? And you said Steve Jobs. There’s certain things that if you say a person in my mind, something immediately comes to mind. And when you say Steve Jobs, I immediately think I’m saying, well, at least I’m not making sugar water or whatever you said about Coke or Pepsi. The first thing that comes to mind. If you say Tony Robbins, There’s two things that come to mind. A, banana fingers or banana hands from Shallow Hal when he runs into him in the elevator.
Speaker 0 | 21:53.406
That’s exactly what I was just thinking.
Speaker 1 | 21:55.027
Yeah, you know what I mean? Or he says the right placed question is like everything, right? Like if you ask the right question, you can get so much information and you can connect with someone so much. So that’s the, anyways, I don’t know where we were going with that. Maybe that’s your bullet point. finance and P&L and communication and how to do it. We’re trying to give back here. We’re trying to like brainstorm here and help other IT directors. What do you do about stress management? And you’re talking to a high stress individual. I just want to let you know, talking to a high stress individual, because this is where I need help. Help me.
Speaker 0 | 22:34.310
Yeah. Yeah. You know, when it comes to stress, you know, like you need to remember that. obviously you’re a human being you have a certain capacity right certain energy and so you have to keep yourself well oiled so you have to just force yourself to walk away from a situation go walk a dog you know go on a truck you know go read a book you know go watch a funny cats video i don’t know you know but uh you know think of what makes you feel in your in your in your comfort zone right And once you have that, you know, activate it, you know, activate it in your brain, do that, you know, implement it, you know, and then, hey, celebrate, you know, hey, I got through this. You know, that’s what I’ve done, you know, like, you know, I get stressed out, you know, so I just walk out of the room and I just go outside, get some fresh air, go play with the kids, play the dog for a walk, you know, and then, you know, I’ll…
Speaker 1 | 23:39.174
Sometimes the things that are stressing us are simple things that are just kind of floating over our head that never get taken care of. It’s like the tasks that we keep putting off that we don’t want to do. Like, I’m looking at this. I relieve some stress by writing down these five bullet points here. One is taxes, audit, accounts audit, payroll, mailer. You know, like it’s just things that I’ve never gotten around to doing that just continue to float in the background that, you know, you got to do. It’s like that perpetual pile of paperwork that if you just go down and get it done, just put it aside and get it done. It’s good. The other thing is I noticed that a lot of times we worry about things that we don’t really need to worry about.
Speaker 0 | 24:22.982
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 | 24:23.762
Like one. I just quit working for like three months just over the summertime because I had some like my mother was getting old. I was taking care of my elderly mother. So I just quit. I just decided I have the, you know, I’m somewhat self-employed, so I’m just going to, I’m going to ignore 80% of all the stuff that doesn’t need to get taken care of immediately. I will only take care of the people that I need to take care of that I take, you know, that are important and I’ll immediately respond to them. And let’s just see what happens if I surf for two hours every day for the next six months. And what I found out was that my business improved. Go figure. Look at that. It was weird. It was really weird. And I think, I don’t know, I don’t know why. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was because I wasn’t. Sometimes you can get in the, in like this zone of like, don’t bother me. I’m busy. But you’re not focusing on vision or strategy.
Speaker 0 | 25:23.724
Yeah.
Speaker 1 | 25:25.185
I don’t know if that’s something.
Speaker 0 | 25:25.925
Or things to focus on. You know, where are you going?
Speaker 1 | 25:30.352
exercise matters for stress. I don’t know if that works for you.
Speaker 0 | 25:34.394
It does. It does. You know, it’s been a while since I walked out. And when I do, I am just completely sore the next day. So I’d rather just go on a walk and what have you, you know. Yeah. You know.
Speaker 1 | 25:56.032
It gets harder when we get older. It gets harder when we get older to repair.
Speaker 0 | 25:59.554
Oh,
Speaker 1 | 26:01.055
it does. That’s why I’m a proponent of legal middle-aged steroids. Legal middle-aged steroids. I am. I just don’t. Once you hit 40, you just don’t repair as fast anymore.
Speaker 0 | 26:13.463
I’m getting close there.
Speaker 1 | 26:16.826
So talk to me a little bit about your everyday job.
Speaker 0 | 26:26.272
how big is your how big is your how big is your team how many end users do you have yeah so uh you know the job that i have now you know i’m i’m fairly new i guess you know to say you know i started back in middle of august of this year and so uh um you know the you know we’re in in the healthcare line of business and uh you know great mission you know and i’ll tell you know that When my now boss reached out to me and told me about the role and what she needed help with, he said that, you know, I was interested, but I wasn’t like, really, really like, okay, let’s go do it because I was already doing that at a much larger company, you know. But I connected with the mission and that, you know, sealed the deal. So I came on over. So what do I do? So I’m here, you know, and… I’m working on rebuilding IT, helping close that gap that I was mentioning earlier, right? Between the business and IT. Because we have to, you know, if we want to be successful in what we do, we have to speak the same language, both on the financials part of the house and on the technology part of the house right and as i mentioned you know you know you don’t have to have all this deep level of technicality on either side you know but you need to just so that’s what i’m doing you know i’m uh working on restructuring processes in place working with people so that they do work together right because that is so critical you know when you have a project you know everyone that has a stake in that project has to be a part of the team. Now, some of them are going to have a varying degree of involvement during the project, right? Some of them might have just a small piece of it, you know, maybe create a testing plan, you know, or maybe they just need to know about it, right? You know, but they have to know about it, right? Why? Because when this thing launches, right, there is going to be a ripple effect. across the company, across the users, and we have to be prepared to do well to, you know, to assess things and to correct things if needed, you know, especially when it comes to customers, you know, we, you know, the customer is key, you know, uh, uh, you know, I am a very customer centric person, you know, now that is not to say that I think the customer is always right. I do not. I think, you know, um, uh, you know, us, you know, we are the experts, right. And so We put the customer first, but we’re the ones bringing that solution to them. So that’s what I’m doing, not just putting standards in place, helping people build that affinity, right? So that ultimately, we are providing what the customer wants. We’re providing that value to them, right? The sooner, the better, you know? Because when we do that, you know? Then we’re talking about men. These guys know what they’re doing. I’m going to recommend to Phil and his eight kids that they use the company that Harrison’s working with. So, and so it’s good, you know, so we have to work together. So, so that’s what I’m doing. You know, does that, uh,
Speaker 1 | 30:07.290
does that help you understand? I think, well, the thing that sticks out the most and is an important subject topic hand is how do you like your job and how do you, yeah, you know, and. for everyone out there that hates their job and, uh, you know, just wants to go in and clock in and clock out, that must really be terrible. And I think you, a lot of times it’s not about, I worked for the biggest, baddest company and got lost in the system. I had Um, and this isn’t beating on Microsoft at all. This amazed me because, uh, I have a close friend that works at Microsoft. He was like, ah, for six months, you know, I was kind of in like, they hired me in the wrong role by mistake. Yeah. You know, but I got hired and I’m getting a salary and I get benefits and you just like the whole, it’s like an ecosystem there, the way that he described it. And he’s like, and there’s all these different pods and groups of people. And they’re like, well, you know, just, you know. Like, he’s like, I didn’t have to really do anything for the first six months. They wanted me to just kind of like feel my place out in the company and, and just get on a call with somebody else and talk with them and kind of find out where you want to be in this company. Because once you’re in, you’re in, you know, and then he just got moved roles to an area where he fit in and liked it, which is crazy that, that it’s that, that, that big of a company can do that. It just blew my mind, but not everyone has that. um, luxury. And what you said was I picked basically a smaller company where I could build something. And me personally, I’ve had the opportunities to work for large corporate companies. Uh, ultimately I knew I wanted to work for myself. Um, the, it’s totally fine with your kids in the background because, uh, mine are in the background all the time. I love it. The, uh, the, uh, I always have crazy stuff, uh, come up in the background. It probably, the, um, oh, where was I? Okay. So anyways, the fact that you can build to me, for me, I’ve worked for huge companies where it was a bureaucratic, just kind of boring. And, um, I worked for a lot of startups and for me, it was always the startup or, or it was the company that’s growing fast and they wanted me to go open up a new market or they wanted me to do this. I just thrived on the building. When I worked for Quest Wireless back in the day, even when I was like, you know, in college, which I loved that job because it was a call center job. Who says they love a call center job? I do. I loved it. I loved wearing a headset.
Speaker 0 | 33:06.893
You’re probably the only one.
Speaker 1 | 33:08.354
I was, I think it’s because I worked in restaurants all before that. You know what I mean? Like I was like a line cook. I was in like a restaurant with over a hundred degrees, sweating, coming home, smelling every day. You know, so.
Speaker 0 | 33:19.899
It was refreshing to have a seat, you know.
Speaker 1 | 33:23.520
There was no firewalls back then. So we would play like networked games of like civilization and stuff. And, you know, we had like an, I think we had like an OC-12 coming into that. You don’t hear that much anymore. OC-12 coming into like, you know, a hundred person call center. And we’re like, this is amazing. Can you believe this? No one knew, you know, anyways, there’s something to be said about, I think, building. And being a part of something, me, I thrive on building something. I thrive on problems. I love fixing broken. I love problems and issues. That’s me. I think.
Speaker 0 | 33:58.455
Yeah. That’s a great thing too, you know. Let’s talk about that, you know. Because, you know, I hear a lot of, or I see a lot of online, you know, about, you know, people asking, well, you know, how do you get into a leadership position? And this and that, you know. And, you know, people will share things, you know. But what I have yet to see. uh is what uh i have experienced you know and and it’s problems you know fixing problems you know so uh i’ll tell you how i got here so before here i was working at a french conglomerate um so i started there as a senior i tpm you know and so managing small ab depth projects and what have you but uh my boss learned that i also knew uh some infrastructure if infrastructure and so she put me on that you know and and and i guess you know I guess I did a decent enough job, you know, that she ended up giving me the whole infrastructure and cybersecurity. uh portfolio for all of the america and all of the america all of the america region congratulations promoted yeah that’s like oh okay but um but you know uh um and so she gave me this you know and it’s a portfolio right and so you know there you know i i you know all i got was a list of let’s call them idols because they’re you know i can really call them projects you know but they were just lists they were just names of projects right one date, which most of them were in the past, and an indicator, right? Whatever. And then a comment box. That is it, you know? And so I look at all of them, and it’s like, okay, 144.
Speaker 1 | 35:41.017
Yeah, we got to high five whoever that person is. I got to high five them because that was the best delegation ever.
Speaker 0 | 35:47.281
Yeah,
Speaker 1 | 35:47.781
yeah. I just want to let you know, we’re going to promote you. This is a big deal. Um, a big promotion. Um, it’s not any more money. You’re not going to get paid more money, but this is a big,
Speaker 0 | 35:57.705
that was true. That was true too. You know, there was no big money.
Speaker 1 | 36:02.946
You got a new title though. You can, we’re going to give you a new title. And, um, here’s the, here’s the list. Here’s the list. Oh yeah. Oh, by the way. Uh, yeah, it’s really, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s no title. It’s no more money, but this is a really big deal. Um, we’re giving you a lot more responsibility. Here you go. Yeah. But you gotta do it You know what I mean? Those are the things where you like You love it You’re like, oh man You just This is great I don’t know why
Speaker 0 | 36:30.404
But anyways Yeah And so like to your point, you know Like fixing, you know Problems, you know If you’re not being a little superstition You know, like You know, companies The world is riddled with problems You know, like Go have your pick You know Just solve it, you know People come to you, you know Solve it for them Help them find a solution or find somebody that can help them do that, right? Don’t just be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1 | 36:59.060
I don’t know. I just had an aha moment. I just had an aha moment. It’s rare. Yeah. And it’s always the stupidest things. It seems stupid. It really does. It’s always the simplest things that are the difference between number one and everybody else. For example. Why are you better? Um, I answer my phone. Boom. Done. Right there. That’s why. That’s why me personally, I’m better. But for you, it was like, it was like, it’s so easy. How do you be number one? It’s actually really, really easy. Let me tell you, um, you just do work.
Speaker 0 | 37:42.083
Yes.
Speaker 1 | 37:42.764
That’s it. Like, like literally, because there’s so many people that don’t want to do the work. everybody, no one wants to work. Every contractor I talk with, I’m doing, I’m like painting my barn and like trying to find an HVAC guy. I talk with them like, Hey, why are you so stressed out there? I’m living the night, you know, living the nightmare, you know, Hey, you live in the, live in the dream more like the nightmare. Great. What’s going on? No one wants to work. No one wants to work. That’s the seam. If anyone asked me the quote of COVID, whatever it is, it’s not like you’re on mute. It’s not any of that. It’s no one wants to work.
Speaker 0 | 38:15.311
Yeah. Yeah, you know, I mean, you mentioned problem solving because, you know, do that, you know, if you’re not in a leadership position, you know, like solve problems and you will be amazed at how many more opportunities come your way. I mean, that’s how I got here, you know, you know, the world is really small, you know, and my boss, you know, heard about it, you know, and heard, you know, how I helped a company move towards portfolio management, you know, putting governance in place. processes, all of that. And then, you know, she was coming over here and she needed that. So she reached out to me and I was like, all right, you know, I connected with the mission, as I mentioned earlier, you know, it’s a smaller company, you know, I could do a lot more. And so, and so here I am, you know, so I, I love it, you know, it is stressful yesterday, but you know what, Bill, I knew what I was getting into and I was expecting this, right? And so, and so. I think that’s key. You mentioned earlier about being unhappy in your job. You need to know what you’re getting into. So do some research. Go online. Ask people. I don’t know, whatever. But you got to do that.
Speaker 1 | 39:31.048
And I didn’t mean to downplay you just to a workaholic. That’s not it. I’m just saying sometimes people wonder what separates the top. from, you know, whatever. And I know people that want to work, A, you’re going to learn more. They’re going to run into more problems. They’re going to gain more experience.
Speaker 0 | 39:52.784
just it’s literally sometimes it’s just the the willingness to do 10 more than what everyone else is willing to do and it’s that’s really not that much it’s not you know the funny thing for me though is is that you know i really don’t think you know i really don’t consider me like a tough guy you know like like to me all of this you know it just common sense to me like you know like hey you know you want to make five bucks or something you know okay Yeah, you know, so, but I guess, you know, maybe what, what, what, what differentiates me, you know, is that I just have something to do. And if I don’t know it, I’ll say that I’ll fix it anyways. I’ll go online or I’ll go ask somebody or, oh, hey, maybe I’ll even delegate. You know, but you have to own those problems because we’re all loaded with problems and we really are. You know, like, there’s so much stuff that needs to be done.
Speaker 1 | 40:50.816
It has been an absolute pleasure talking with you. I don’t know what we’ve accomplished, but I’m going to go through my notes here because I scribble in a 360 with notes in the middle of a piece of paper. But we’ve got bridging the massive canyon between tech jargon and business P&L. I mean, well, first of all, I guess, did the Dale Carnegie thing help you? What helped you learn the P&L? speak and language the most? I mean, would you suggest people go through this Dale Carnegie training and do the P&L thing, or is there a different way?
Speaker 0 | 41:25.469
The Dale Carnegie, that definitely helps, but I’ve always just been curious. I just go online.
Speaker 1 | 41:31.632
Guys,
Speaker 0 | 41:32.033
quiet! Free material that you can just go and do. There’s lower cost materials as well. Dale Carnegie, you know… My previous employer pulled me through that, which is great. But you don’t have to spend big bucks to learn stuff. I mean, you just go online and just understand the basics. Understand what it means. You’ll go a long way with that.
Speaker 1 | 42:03.265
We’ve got Steve Jobs. I want to die knowing I wasn’t afraid. Yeah. I don’t need to attribute that to Steve Jobs. You can attribute that to him, but I get it. Like no one, like living life in fear has just got to be the most, I don’t know. I don’t even know what the word is. Debilitating. Is that the right word? Debilitating. I’m an English major. I should know this.
Speaker 0 | 42:34.434
I mean, here’s the thing, you know, like, you know, whenever you’re, whenever you’re a, I guess, you know. but you have all these ideas you know all the things that you that you get creative with in your mind you know that you want to do and this and that but you’re afraid you know and you let us stay in the way you know then you’re going to die with those ideas too it’s like waiting to come out it’s like you’re like waiting to yeah you know yeah who knows you might have been the next oliver einstein you know or or the next steve jobs you know but you didn’t just get out of that comfort zone and therefore the next greatest technology medicine went down the grave with you as well.
Speaker 1 | 43:16.382
I really love, again, this just describes the other side of the campaign, the other side of the canyon, you know, which is understanding really what’s available in technology and how to exploit it. That’s really, that’s what I do in a nutshell is basically teach other people how to exploit the various technologies that are out there because There’s so many. And there’s so many people selling you technology. There’s so many people selling you technology that’s really not the latest and greatest technology, but they’re selling it as the latest and greatest technology. For example, selling, I heard someone back in the day, and I use this example all the time, and my telecom people that listen to this, you’ll know who this is, but I still find it to be so funny. Oh, we’re not voice over IP. We’re much more ahead of the game. We’re voice over PI. What? We’re Vopey. We’re Vopey. What’s that? No, that’s voice over private internet. This is voice over. So really, the whole presentation was like, whoa, this is like Star Wars, way ahead of the game, right? No, this is because you’re running an old gen band platform. in your data center and you need to sell someone an MPLS, aka on-net VPN T1 circuit back to your data center and charge them for that. That’s voice over private internet. Because if you didn’t do that, you’d have no QoS. And anyone could shoot holes in this that has any idea of technology. Not like, well, now you’re single threaded because if that T1 goes down, which it will, you have no voice services. done. Yet you got sold on that and you signed a five-year agreement. Hi. You must understand what’s available and how to exploit it. Otherwise you will get exploited. Otherwise you will get exploited. I love how we’re doing this right now. Here’s the contrast of that,
Speaker 0 | 45:19.486
you know, understanding what you have, you know, it’s, it is really not different than a financial portfolio. It’s not, you know, like. So you have your financial portfolio, right? So hopefully a lot of our listeners have that, if not all of them. So if you want to get some money to gain some stuff, you know, okay, well, you know, go buy some ETFs, whatever, you know.
Speaker 1 | 45:49.620
Bitcoin, you took it right out of my mind. Okay.
Speaker 0 | 45:53.762
Yeah, you know, okay. So that’s, you know, that’s the vehicle, right? What does it do? It gives you more money, more risk than heart value, right? And then, you know, you’re older now. And so you want to hold that, right? What vehicle do I have a portfolio? Well, I have some bonds. I’m holding that value, right?
Speaker 1 | 46:15.079
So it’s the same thing. So let’s figure it out, you know? If you’re an old law firm and you’ve got rotary dial phones sitting on the desk and you’re only one year from retirement, you’re not upgrading that phone system. We’re going to hold. We’re going to hold until we fold.
Speaker 0 | 46:27.688
Just hold it up to your phone. There you go. And actually, you know, I don’t know. I would say, you know,
Speaker 1 | 46:37.015
sell it, you know, because now it’s an antique. You can get some money for antiques. It’s funny because I found a rotary phone. I found a rotary dial phone over the weekend in an old warehouse at this nonprofit that we’re getting ready to buy this property and help build out. And there was a rotary dial in there and I was getting ready to grab it. And somebody I was like, Phil, you better not take that. Someone may want that. I was like, who’s going to want? this this is like it’s literally a rotary dial phone with like an old uh i can’t remember the name of the cable you would plug that thing in the back with it was a rotary dial phone with with actual like hold buttons like line one line two line three which i found to be yeah that’s rare um if you could sell us an antique and make some money on your way out um yeah and more bullet points um if you are miserable where you’re at find a company where you can build something because maybe that will inject some sort of life back into your sad situation um yeah and you’re like for me you know i wasn’t miserable where i was you know i i i enjoy i’m not saying i’m not making i’m not making judgment calls here i’m just adding in a little bit of flair i’m just adding in a little bit of flair yeah no no no i get you no um no i’m saying if you haven’t learned to do that you’ve learned to do that you know you know kind of like what’s exciting and what to grab onto. I’m just, I’m sharing this for people out there that may be stuck, you know, um, the customer is not always right. Hmm. That made me think the end user is not always right and doesn’t know what’s best for them. Yeah. The end user wants something, but they don’t know if you let the end users pick the new CRM or you let the end users start to make shadow it decisions or you let the end users do. Yeah. Oh man, that can be real bad. But sometimes people allow it to happen because they just don’t want to fight that battle of training the end users because they haven’t jumped out of their comfort zone, which is back to the fear aspect again. Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 48:42.420
I guess the question to the guest, how do you work so that that doesn’t happen?
Speaker 1 | 48:50.202
Just curious, how did you… get started in this thing called technology?
Speaker 0 | 48:58.241
How did I get started in technology?
Speaker 1 | 49:00.903
Yeah. Usually I ask that as the first thing in this question, but I’m just going to ask it to you now.
Speaker 0 | 49:05.166
Yeah. Yeah. By accident, really?
Speaker 1 | 49:08.649
Everyone says that. Almost everyone. Almost everyone. Unless you’re like a software developer, you know, like sometimes their father was, or I don’t know, told me to solder this or something. But anyways, by accident, go ahead.
Speaker 0 | 49:22.078
So I was working at a healthcare consulting firm. And when I was there, you know, they were migrating to a new ERP. And my boss, yeah.
Speaker 1 | 49:33.931
You get stuck with these projects, man.
Speaker 0 | 49:36.673
I tell you.
Speaker 1 | 49:39.096
What is up with you in drawing in this? Anyways, go ahead. I can just see where this is going now. But anyways, go ahead.
Speaker 0 | 49:44.640
Yeah. So, you know, my boss, you know, is part of the project team, you know, and she’s got some tasks and what have you that she is delegating to me, you know. So I’m pulling data from our current systems and cleaning it up. making sure that what we’re putting into the new system, you know, is the greatest and greatest and whatnot. So long story short, you know, she ends up leaving the company and I just get sucked into it. So that was the pivotal moment in my career where, you know, I went from a non-tech job to a tech job, you know, and I love it, man. I really do.
Speaker 1 | 50:23.975
So it helps then that, I mean, the business background helps.
Speaker 0 | 50:29.742
Oh, it does. The business background helps, but I think also, you know, it’s the relationship building, you know, with, with people that, that is really the key, you know what I mean? For any project manager, you know, if they haven’t figured it out, if you want your team to get work done, work on that relationship with them, because that’s the sweet sauce. It really is.
Speaker 1 | 50:55.368
Well, it’s been a pleasure having you on the show. If there was, and, um, If you were that mentor for someone else starting out in technology nowadays, and they’re just like, just give me something, like, tell me something to do. Like right now, what could I go do to, to most further my career at this moment? What would that, what would you tell them?
Speaker 0 | 51:20.152
What would I tell them if they want to further their career? Well, figure out, you know, where is it that you want to go? Do you want to be a manager? Do you want to be an IT director? Do you want to be a CIO, a COO, a doctor? What is it? Figure out where is it that you want to go. That’s number one. Number two, have the will to do the work to get there. And I think that most people, that’s where they get stuck because they start, I guess, down in their system, I don’t know. Well, you know, to be a doctor, you don’t need to go to med school. I don’t like school. Okay. You know, to be a CIO, I need a tech degree. I just don’t like college, you know? So figure out where is it that you want to go and then do the work that needs to be done for you to get there. Don’t be afraid. You know, you’re going to fall along the way, you know, but you have to be ready to just get up and just keep on going. Yeah. I really think that’s where it’s at, you know what I mean? People don’t want to do the work. You know, I mean, I’ll give you a story. So I used to work in warehouse, you know, and I managed a team of production workers, you know, and they would ask me, you know, and they would tell me like, man, I really hate working here, but I’m blind. So I told them, hey, you should maybe go to school. You don’t go to college. The first thing that would come out of my mouth was, no, I don’t like school. Okay, then… you don’t want to do the work you know to get there you know like you’re your own handicap you know uh and it’s not that you cannot do it you know they would say that they’re not smart enough and this and that it’s like i don’t think it is because because i i’ll tell you another story from college you know i met this guy in college uh richard that’s his name but richard no uh he had a physical disability he did you know and uh and he graduated from college you know with a degree in agronomy you know so i’m like man, this guy who really has a disability and what have you, went to college and guess what? Graduated with a college degree. And then I see, and so why can’t I do it? I don’t have a disability. I can do it. So that’s what I would say. Find what is it that you want to do. And you need to know that you have to do the work together. Nobody else owes you your success but you yourself. You owe it to yourself.
Speaker 1 | 53:53.606
Yeah, there’s a couple. Oh man, that’s three things. Yeah. We forgot our pillars. Yeah. It’s going to come up with the pillars at the end, but now I’ve got like, maybe we’ll call this like the three pillars of success. Um, um, okay. So here’s what I’ve got. I’ve got basically what you said is when you said, where do you want to go? I call that a dream worth failing for. You’ve got a dream that’s worth, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the, it’s the journey, not the destination, as they say, right? You’ve got to, you’ve got a dream worth failing for, no matter what, it’s the work towards that, that, that drives you, that you like every day. So number one, a dream worth failing for, um, number two, um, like look down, not up. There’s always someone that has it worse than you. So there’s no point in like complaining and feeling miserable. There’s always someone that’s worse. There’s actually someone on the face of this earth right now that has the worst of everyone on the face of this planet, which blows my mind. So there’s always somebody, unless you’re that one person. God save us from that. That has it worse than you. There’s always somebody. So you’re always going to be doing something good. And number three, responsibility. You can choose, you know, as I guess as Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or whatever it is he said once, you have the ability to choose your response and how you’re going to respond to any given situation at any time. You are 100% percent responsible for your situation. Even if you’re, even if there’s things that are out of your control, completely out of your control, someone hits you, drunk driver hits you, you have the ability for how to respond to that situation in life. So we’ll come up, these are going to be like, we’ll call this the three pillars of this episode. Maybe we can come up with something, but yeah, again, where do you want to go? Dream worth failing for, looking down, not up. And you have the ability to respond to your situation. It really has nothing to do with IT. This is just like kind of general life lessons. Absolutely. Been a pleasure having you on the show. Any final thoughts?
Speaker 0 | 56:12.338
No, I mean, I appreciate you reaching out, you know, and so it’s been great. I’ve enjoyed it. And so hopefully while we rambled on, you know, can.
Speaker 1 | 56:24.879
I thought of calling this show one time. Yeah. I thought of calling the show once just recorded conversations, recorded phone calls, recorded phone calls, you know, but I’m sure there’s something good in there,
Speaker 0 | 56:35.687
you know,
Speaker 1 | 56:36.947
I know there is. So thank you very much, sir. Yeah.
Speaker 0 | 56:40.550
You’re most welcome.
