The Power of People + Tech: Unlocking Innovation with Gerry Mecca
This week on The Influencers' Connection Corner, we’re diving into the mind of an IT pioneer who’s been ahead of the curve for decades. From leading global IT strategies at Tropicana to coaching startups through their biggest challenges, he knows how to turn ideas into action and action into impact.
Please help me welcome to our stage: Gerry “Gerald” Mecca. Gerry’s expertise, authenticity, and innovative vision are sure to leave you with ideas you can apply right away.
Takeaways:
- Hear the secrets behind IT strategies that disrupt and deliver.
- Learn how mindset and collaboration drive lasting success.
- Be inspired by a leader who’s as passionate about people as he is about tech.
Connect with Gerry Mecca:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrymecca/
EKG Group: https://www.ekggroupllc.com/
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mMIpLv_ldE
Raqi 💙🙏🏼
A Brilliant Beam Media Production
Proudly sponsored by Check Point Software CPX Americas 2025!
#CPX2025 #CPXAmericas #tech #IT #technology #youtube #podcast #livestream #event #checkpoint #linkedin
Transcript
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome everyone to another episode of the Influencer's Connection Corner.
Speaker:So happy to be here. Happy Saturday. Yay!
Speaker:No, we always have to have the energy. Bring the energy. Bring the energy.
Speaker:Oh, look at you all, Schwingy. Oh, you're right. But we'll talk about that later.
Speaker:Yes, we shall. We shall talk about that in a little bit later. But anyhow, guys, welcome again
Speaker:and to another episode of this amazing show where we feature so many influential individuals
Speaker:and experts in their own industries and in their own right. I'm so thrilled to be here
Speaker:to really talk about one of the biggest things that is what buzzword. It's been buzzwords
Speaker:for a long time now. However, now it's come to the forefront and you know, it's all about
Speaker:technology, tech, AI, IT. Give me all the hashtags, right?
Speaker:Well, yeah. I think for some people, they think it's a scary thing. I'm not a techie tech.
Speaker:Oh, I'm not technical. So therefore, I don't learn things or have a hard time learning
Speaker:things. And it's like, look, as ubiquitous as technology is and pervasive as it is in
Speaker:today's culture, you don't need to be quote a coder programmer. You don't have to worry
Speaker:about all that database administration, but as a user of technology, let's move away from
Speaker:being afraid of it because it's part of your life and every day. And so I think with today's
Speaker:guess, I think understanding a little bit of the history and like, you know, how one gets
Speaker:a career and not necessarily have to be all that technical, guys, you can rise up leadership
Speaker:in technology and not necessarily be a freaking like, you know, computer science-grade person.
Speaker:I'm just saying, that's my, that's my two cents.
Speaker:No, and I love that because, you know, individuals like myself who are, who may not have a tech
Speaker:background, I am into healthcare industry. You know, that's where I, I've been, you know,
Speaker:for the majority of my entire career. However, there is, there are in sections with healthcare,
Speaker:healthcare and tech, health tech, right? There is always a niche. And so to be able to actually
Speaker:look at things and step out of the box and actually look at it, oh my gosh, tech is everywhere.
Speaker:Tech can be anything, but not only that, developing a human aspect of it, a human element, the
Speaker:connection element. And so that's why this is so important is talk is so important in preparation
Speaker:to what's going to happen for us the next quarter, the next year, all these events that
Speaker:we're having, they have to deal with tech. So I'm super excited guys. So thank you, thank you,
Speaker:thank you for allowing us to have the space and being present and listening to this amazing
Speaker:expert who's gonna share about his life and how tech has done for him. So yes, man, so are
Speaker:we ready? We should probably roll that intro and get the party started.
Speaker:I think we should, we should, we should, all right, let's go.
Speaker:Welcome to the influencers connection coin.
Speaker:Hey, and dance. Oh wait, I forgot to click on the button. I was dancing girl. It's okay.
Speaker:You know, you can this party started, but yes, shout out to Sincera Mitchell, a lot of
Speaker:Orlando Florida for that battery voice in the intro always catches me off guard. I'm like,
Speaker:oh, and it's to this is sold. So shout out to you. Thank you for everything. But anyhow, guys,
Speaker:let us know where you're tuning in from. I would love to give you a shout out during the
Speaker:show. I know we have folks all over the world tuning into, you know, just to learn a little
Speaker:bit more about what we're going to talk about today and also our guest just because it's
Speaker:so important. Stay in the loop as I always tell people. Do you do diligence? So many folks are like,
Speaker:oh my gosh, AI, I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to talk about that. I'm like,
Speaker:it's everywhere. Tech is everywhere. So do you do diligence, inform yourself, educate,
Speaker:become, you know, aware of what's where where tech is going or what the future is going. Isn't
Speaker:that right? You crack me up. You're like tech tech tech tech tech tech technology.
Speaker:No, you just said it like like that. I'm going to I think I might have to in the post edit maybe on
Speaker:this. I'm just going to do a counter of how you say the word technology today. It's cracking me up.
Speaker:But anyway, okay, look, I can we just please bring our guests on because I'm hell excited. This is
Speaker:someone that is I'm not even going to say how many decades of experience, but it's more than one,
Speaker:okay? And one of the coolest guys I know and and like I said, it's like one of those career
Speaker:trajectories in PASS that is it's just not standard. It's not by the book. And so without
Speaker:further ado, can we just all please welcome our good friend, Mr. Jerry Mecca.
Speaker:Oh, you're good. Is he you're ready for this party, Jerry? Because you know, I know. I mean,
Speaker:they're watching you guys kick this thing off and I'm thinking, man, where do I get that energy from?
Speaker:It's only 10 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. Well, I realize you have people from the UK
Speaker:etc on here. So good afternoon. Yes. Well, welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time for me,
Speaker:you know, to be here with us and really really just dive into everything that is Jerry because
Speaker:you're such an interesting human being. All of our do respect. And yes, let the audience know a little
Speaker:bit about you, Jerry. And you know, I'm blowing up right now. I would just grabbing something. I heard
Speaker:the two of you talk about during the introduction. Yeah, I am I'm probably 60 or 70% people 30% tech
Speaker:and growing up in a large family. I I learned how to be a communicator, especially when there was conflict
Speaker:to get things done. And my degree at a college was communications speech communications,
Speaker:organizational communications, but because my dad was a cable television pioneer, best best word I
Speaker:could use for it, there was always gear around the house. So in a way, I have on the job in life
Speaker:experience tech. I don't have technophobia. In fact, I always had sort of the fake it to you make it
Speaker:kind of approach. And, and you know, right out of college, I got into really technical sales of
Speaker:technology. My sister had started a company and she needed people to answer phone questions and
Speaker:one thing led to another and I was able to like you said, talk talk business to the business folks
Speaker:and then swing around and talk technical specs to the guys who had just piece the systems together.
Speaker:And that's really the on the job experience I got for the first 15 years of my career.
Speaker:My goodness. So from communications to tech. And yes, we're probably going to have a contest to ask
Speaker:the audience see who wins a price of figuring out how many times we say tech tech tech tech.
Speaker:No, I'm driving crazy kids driving crazy. But no communications at NC in this thank you for sharing
Speaker:that part because so many folks get wrapped up and oh my gosh, I have to have such a technical
Speaker:background and I have to have this degree computer science or this degree in you know coding.
Speaker:And not necessarily. So let us know how that led your communications back.
Speaker:Sure, so in in the latter years of that let's call it first quarter of my or first third of my career,
Speaker:there was a CRM project. And I was working in obviously in the sales organization. If you can
Speaker:imagine back then email was new. People were still faxing documents to each other for specifications or
Speaker:you name it and keep in track of all the clients and what their opportunities were and all the
Speaker:things that CRM is now doing for us in a much more automated fashion. We were putting it in for
Speaker:the first time and they came and asked me if I would take the business lead on that project.
Speaker:At the time I was more telling them what I needed as a salesperson. I need this capability.
Speaker:I need that capability so that they could then go to the market and get sales pitches back from
Speaker:the technology guys about this is the solution for you. And sure enough, after I did that project
Speaker:and it required me understanding the engineers needs and it required me to understand accountings
Speaker:needs and understanding obviously sales and marketing needs and making sure that we tied it all
Speaker:together. And I guess I had developed a bit of a process orientation that allowed me to know the
Speaker:steps. And at the end of the project they said, hey, we need to start a technical support
Speaker:department to answer phone calls and support these folks. Can we put the CRM in there? And I said yes.
Speaker:And one thing led to another and they needed a leader of the IT function. And they came to me and
Speaker:said, hey, you really kind of gel with all these nerds and geeks on one side and then the CFO
Speaker:on the other side, how do you do that? And I really think experiential learning is the word.
Speaker:I'm a fight, not flight kind of person. I'll take a chance. Why not? And certainly that's
Speaker:I think the thing that I would say to anybody listening that's thinking about their career and
Speaker:what the next step is, don't be afraid of a major change. I was at the end of that 15 years,
Speaker:my college roommate called me up and said, I just got IT. I'm leaving company names out, but they
Speaker:can see my resume. But the bottom line is, I've never done IT before. I'm in finance. Can you come down
Speaker:and help me? And so I picked up and I moved to Houston to go to work for an oil and gas company.
Speaker:Right near neck of the woods. And that changed everything. And interestingly enough,
Speaker:that's where I did learn a little coding. And I did, if the Windows 95 movement started and
Speaker:and I had had a lot of through that CRM project, the company I was working for was keeping the prices
Speaker:way down. So we built all of our computers. I mean, bought chassis, motherboards, everything. And so
Speaker:you can kind of see I'm, I'm going to geek out from time to time, but I'm really going to be much
Speaker:more about trying to say you say tech a lot. I say thingy, widget, bunches, try to keep the words
Speaker:from blowing people's minds. Yes. I think that's what the thing is though is you don't need to be the
Speaker:hardcore architect. Okay. But you from a leadership perspective, you need to understand where that
Speaker:technology enables business, right? It's a function of business to ensure that it is a successful
Speaker:business. And by the way, I said this all before you guys, you're, if you have a company today,
Speaker:you are a technology company because everything is run based on all the systems and applications
Speaker:and processes. It's all on IT infrastructure. So, and all the software and all the fun little,
Speaker:for the end users, all the apps that you guys use. Like, again, it all falls on the weight. And so,
Speaker:you know, one thing that struck me about you, Jerry is you really have a good grasp on seeing bigger
Speaker:picture. Like, you see beyond widgets, right? You see where, okay, this business wants to grow 5X
Speaker:in the next three years. Here's where the trends are. How, how do you, what's your approach on that?
Speaker:And even before that, before you answer what's your approach? Yeah. To stay on top of, you know,
Speaker:the next trends and all that. Was it always in you as a kid to see the bigger picture? Or was that taught
Speaker:through college and whatnot? Wow, those are great questions. I still remember the first time my
Speaker:dad brought home a light emitting diode calculating device that looked a little like an adding machine,
Speaker:but in reality, it was a mini computer from a little company in Dallas called Texas Instruments.
Speaker:And it was, I'm going to say it may have been 1970 now. I'm really dating myself, but I remember
Speaker:thinking even then, you know, like a kid wouldn't it be cool if it could do this? And if, you know,
Speaker:so yeah, I've always had a little bit of a futurist kind of view, not quite Georgia,
Speaker:well, you know, whatever, the, you know, not quite that. Well, of course, that's all come to be real.
Speaker:And that's why the futurist idea is is, or the futurist concept is important. But yeah, I do have to
Speaker:admit a lot of this seemed to come naturally to me, but maybe I was fed it at a nice, you know,
Speaker:rate that it didn't overwhelm me. And, but to your other question, I got some really good
Speaker:education around strategy. And, and, and now I have sort of this autopilot methodology in my head when
Speaker:anybody says they want to go here, or I don't think they said they wanted to go as far as I think,
Speaker:I sit down and I kind of put in my order of documents, you know, and this is nothing,
Speaker:current state, what's the future desired state, what are some short term things we can do to get
Speaker:there with those little tactical things, but we really need to build so we have, we can scale here.
Speaker:And these are just, I went to, I went to Baylor University, so I'm going to give a plug for them.
Speaker:I had a global strategy teacher by the name of Dr. Gary Carini, to your question about the kind of
Speaker:reinforcement that happens. I wrote a paper on a wireless startup company when wireless wasn't
Speaker:cool and mobile devices like the ones we're talking about were not ubiquitous. And the, he gave me a 100
Speaker:on the paper. He said in his career as a college professor, he had never given a 100 ever.
Speaker:I'll be talking about blowing my head up and talking about making me think, wow, maybe I've kind of
Speaker:found something here. That was 2000. Wow. Eight months later, I became a CIO for the first time.
Speaker:Okay. That is crazy. Okay. Okay. So let me ask you because there have been so many discussions.
Speaker:The path to a CIO, even the title CIO in 20 plus years ago, that was a very hard thing to do
Speaker:because the CIO didn't often have a seat at the executive table. So how did you work and navigate
Speaker:through that because, because before, remember, I remember back then, they're like, oh, a CIO,
Speaker:yeah, that could work under finance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was with the oil and gas company,
Speaker:it was the first time I ever saw the title CIO and they were at the table. Those companies,
Speaker:having, you talk about being, they're like the government. They have huge investments in technology
Speaker:well before it's real or well before it's practical for everybody else to have it because it costs so much.
Speaker:That's not a pitch to say oil and gas companies aren't profiting massively, but without the profit,
Speaker:they can't make these other investments and it's the fight that goes on every day in the world. But
Speaker:my, I coveted that position on that day. I thought, I'm reading the guys, M-O, and it's not all,
Speaker:3D seismic and petro-technical. It was, it was a business guy who had been put in the position
Speaker:of running the IT. And so when I got to Dr. Pepper and oh shoot, I said I wasn't going to say come,
Speaker:okay, you all know. When I got to Dr. Pepper, they had, they had some really bad implementations of SAP.
Speaker:Maybe I go to the, to the boardroom in the very first staff meeting that I can recall.
Speaker:The, the president of the company at the time said something to me when I tried to weigh in on a
Speaker:subject and he goes, look, I don't need to hear from the peanut gallery. And it was kind of an insult.
Speaker:Like I didn't know him that well. But then later as more dialogue was allowed to happen and I wasn't
Speaker:going to be shy about having an opinion about how we sell something, how we ship something, how we
Speaker:manufacture something, he started going like, you know, hey, he called me into his office and we talked
Speaker:for 45 minutes an hour about, you know, how, where did you get this business sense? And I told him I
Speaker:wasn't a traditional IT guy. I just get it. And man, I did, I mean, that was a place where, you know,
Speaker:I thought we were going to go public and I was going to get rich and start a bunch of tech firms and
Speaker:things didn't really, well, 9/11 happened and a whole lot of other crap happened and some of my plans
Speaker:got put on hold. But that's that's kind of what I, I remember another, this is just a little anecdote,
Speaker:I was presenting back to the board, the, the SAP re implementation we did because they did such a
Speaker:bad job of it. God love consulting companies. But if you don't connect the people, I mean, I showed up
Speaker:and half the people didn't even know anything. They've been so used to using green screens with
Speaker:digital menus where they, I show up on a R clerk, I hit 117 and I enter in receipts and they didn't
Speaker:understand SAP. It's different. But nonetheless, I got them all reeducated and we created a list of
Speaker:five key performance indicators. We can hit these five. This is a success story. Obviously one of them
Speaker:was cost, but I delivered on all five, not just delivered. We exceeded some expectations and I was
Speaker:super proud of it. So I'm presenting my slide with the five things and we're going through and I'm
Speaker:saying this, this, and this and at the end, but CFO says, you know, something real negative. She wasn't
Speaker:a nice person, but nonetheless she said, well, I don't know. I didn't really see any big changes in what
Speaker:I'm blah, blah, blah. I know this kind of real negative crap. And I was like, gee, Holly, oh shit,
Speaker:Saturday. I don't want to, like, you're so lucky we're on a Saturday. You know, right? I know, right?
Speaker:I don't see those things you just described anywhere on the top five.
Speaker:So I'm sorry that we deliver on something you wanted, but we decided as a governing body that this
Speaker:was a five key factors. And that's what I delivered to and now I'm like thinking somehow another we missed.
Speaker:And the CEO looks at Holly and goes, so what are you going to say about that? Totally got my back.
Speaker:And I know I kind of, I kind of, kind of got it at that point. You've got to, you've got to measure,
Speaker:you got to, you can't just do stuff, you can't just spend money endlessly. Yeah, if I missed a
Speaker:requirement, maybe we can figure it out, but that's, that's probably the, the, the sort of pinch me and
Speaker:I got in a moment in my career. And so go ahead, yeah, go ahead, go ahead because I'm like,
Speaker:doing some backend production stuff. So go, go, go, go, go. Yeah. So, you know, talk about bringing,
Speaker:you know, the heat to the table and that definitely puts you, you know, kind of set you apart from
Speaker:what was then happening. I think that the trendsetter, you know, if you, if you want to definitely say
Speaker:that you're, you were definitely a trendsetter and I'm assuming that that came a lot of challenges
Speaker:that you have faced. So how, like, what were some of the challenges that you faced back in the day?
Speaker:You know, I'm not talking about eons, but you do have a lot of expertise under your belt.
Speaker:I think we used to walk to the pool and the snow and not too.
Speaker:No, I, I think a couple of things jumped into my head when you said that.
Speaker:You know, the sort of number one is you've got to, you've got to speak your piece without being,
Speaker:you know, a bad, you know, mean person. I got some early career training on, you know,
Speaker:Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence people. Needless to say, Holly was not a friend maker.
Speaker:But, you know, as far as trendsetting, I mean, just delivering and managing things under budget and,
Speaker:and being able to translate, we would set an objective of the company to collect our AR faster
Speaker:because we got the cash, we could then put the cash in the market, the market could produce an
Speaker:income. So we were making money on the cash we had if we could get the payments faster.
Speaker:This is back before EDI is really popular and I had totally bought in on EDI. That is the future.
Speaker:That's, well, at the time, let's go ahead and say that. But, but talk about trendsetting. And so I showed
Speaker:my technical people how if we could enable all of our, our big retailers to pay their bills via
Speaker:this electronic interchange, we could drive profit for the company. And so the company had a goal to
Speaker:raise at 5%, I think we raised it 40%. And it was all attributed to 8/10s and 8/50s and receiving and
Speaker:delivering purchase orders, receiving and delivering product, getting payment, direct deposits
Speaker:directly into our bank. We gave discounts for 15-day payment that no one ever took advantage of,
Speaker:but it sounded important. But the point is, is we were getting our money in so much faster. And when
Speaker:you're a private company and you're having to pay out these, these, these investors, the responsibility
Speaker:that you have to pay them every year and show them their profit, having real cash is a big deal.
Speaker:In fact, it got to be so big that Cadbury bought us. And that changed everything again for me.
Speaker:Suddenly I'm working for Cadbury Shwebs and I'm, and I'm, I'm not a CIO anymore because there
Speaker:already was a corporate CIO and now I'm dealing with global IT leaders all over the place,
Speaker:all fighting to make themselves out to be the next, the next one.
Speaker:So in the, so in this competitive environment, right? So you know darned well, everyone's pitching
Speaker:for the same position. It's competitive. There's no, there's no choice about it. So how did you,
Speaker:I mean, because look, Jerry, and for those that don't know Jerry, for those that know me,
Speaker:you know, no one's ever accused me of being a, you know, a flower, flower against the wall type.
Speaker:What's that called? Wallflower. Wallflower. Yeah. Yeah. English is the first line of journey, everyone.
Speaker:They're worried about it. But, but where I'm a bull in a China shop, you are like the, okay,
Speaker:we bid, I don't want to say that. We mean. Yeah. Now you sound like me when I mix my
Speaker:spanglish and all that language. I'm like, wait, well, how did that go? Because in my brain, I was like,
Speaker:you know, like they call me a bull in a China shop. Well, you were the original and I'm like,
Speaker:oh, wait, that means I'm dating him. And I don't want to do that to you, Jerry, because I mean,
Speaker:you're not that much, I mean, you're older, but you're not that much older. I can, you know,
Speaker:somebody said it the other day. I'm spicy. I'd like that. You are. I think that. I would
Speaker:flavorful. There we go. I'm going to do that. But Samantha, Samantha, we're, because she's the,
Speaker:she's the, the movie producer, movie maker that I mentioned and she had, yeah, she said you're spicy.
Speaker:And I, I don't know how I go this long in my life and not everybody nail a
Speaker:characteristic, but I think is correct. But just spicy enough. Not, not to the point where I'm,
Speaker:I mean, I'll call bullshit. And that's hurt me sometimes, and it's not. But,
Speaker:do you think that was the one of the many critical differences? Like if you were to like talk to your
Speaker:20 year old self, right? Did you become, did you add more salsa to that spiciness over time? Or
Speaker:you always like, you know, a ghost pepper from the dark? No, being the middle childish, I was always
Speaker:the mediator, but when I got to 20, I started to feel like I was making everybody else happy and not
Speaker:myself. And so I, I kind of flipped the script, I kind of, I even have it somewhere. I like, I wrote out
Speaker:a life philosophy. There's a whole lot of tools and things that I've used in my life that not everybody's
Speaker:going to, I'm not putting a book together or going on a, audio tape tour to sell stuff, but I wrote this
Speaker:out and I was like, you know, it's okay to be selfish to a degree. And so when I would get in a situation
Speaker:where I could hear that the strongest person in the room, tidal wise, was trying to make their point
Speaker:happen to the exception of every others, I was the one who was the one who always, I could feel the
Speaker:room looking at me. And I would go, you know, look, and you, everybody says this in all due respect,
Speaker:but I would say something more like, hey, I'm going to just say I don't see it that way at all.
Speaker:I mean, that is completely shifting it to you without saying you're wrong. A really good example,
Speaker:which I won't again say name is as we were all trying to put together a, a visual on how the company,
Speaker:you know, should work together as a team and how we can leverage each other's strengths. And,
Speaker:and I produced a, an infographic that I thought was a good thing that we could put into material.
Speaker:And of course, it was very early on and we didn't use infographics, but it was trying to,
Speaker:sort of show visually all the leaders, this is our team. In some cases, we're, we're throwing pillows
Speaker:down to keep people from hitting the ground. We're, here over here, we're giving them enough rope,
Speaker:but we're not going to let them hang themselves. And I, I kind of like thought, I loved it. And in the
Speaker:end, the CEO comes in and just completely obliterates all of everybody else's ideas and makes his idea,
Speaker:the one that we're going to do. And I, a part of me in the old days of strategy, he wasn't allowed
Speaker:to be in the room yet, but he was already there. And because he was already there, everybody went,
Speaker:yes, boss, you're the greatest. And what do I do? I'm not sure I agree with that.
Speaker:- Ooh, I love that. - I love that. - I love that. Spicey.
Speaker:- Spicey, but I think you can get your fire. Don't be, be good, be factual, give good arguments,
Speaker:but recognize that Spicey can get your fire. I've been fired a few times twice in all these years,
Speaker:and I'm not going to go into either, but, but, you know, you can't say that, but you bring it up,
Speaker:Jerry. - You won the first time, was totally, I, oh, this will correct. You know, this will correct you.
Speaker:Okay, no, go ahead. I don't want to go into that. - No, I'm like, okay, don't, don't,
Speaker:like hey, maybe we'll bring you back for a second when we're ready for the emotional,
Speaker:like overcoming challenges. We'll go over today's like the happy, like,
Speaker:the happy, Jerry stories. - Yeah, how about that? - My trajectory has a few little, you know,
Speaker:but it's a trend going up and to the right. - Yes, yes. I love that, Jerry. And thank you so much
Speaker:for sharing, you know, these anecdotes because it does put into perspective some of the things
Speaker:that people have faced in the past or are currently facing and may face in the future. It just,
Speaker:that's just the way life is, but, you know, now one thing that really surprised me about you was
Speaker:your love for baseball. I'm a sports chick. So please tell us a little bit about that just because,
Speaker:you know, sports, food and music, you know, people, I always say this. So, I think that's perfect. Yeah,
Speaker:baseball, so when I say I love baseball, I love playing, I love being a fan, I love the research into
Speaker:the, into the statistics and who the best player was in the teens versus the, you know, I am, I,
Speaker:I run a foundation to help raise money so the kids who have lesser capabilities can come out and,
Speaker:and play the sport. I think the quote baseball is life has, people are bored with baseball because
Speaker:they don't understand it. And I mean, not watching a game and seeing the picture in the hit or do their
Speaker:thing, the dance that is going on on the field is a ballet. And if you get into it like you would
Speaker:into a ballet, you would understand that baseball is enormously indicative of real life.
Speaker:You know, we still, and I use anecdotes all the time, somebody did a great job man, you hit a
Speaker:home run, somebody did okay, hey, you're getting bass hits, but I need to see the extra bass hits. You
Speaker:need to move in the power, you know, or you need to get, you need to give somebody a cut off. You
Speaker:know, these are all baseball terms. And my brother, Len, who's 10 years older than me, was an enormous
Speaker:New York Giants baseball fan. Now, they're now in San Francisco, so you kind of understand how far his
Speaker:baseball life goes back, but he was my idol. And so that helped. But really at this point,
Speaker:I'm now coaching Texas Rangers Youth Baseball Academy. Yeah, I've been hurt, and I got my medical
Speaker:release yesterday, so I get to go back to training and then again, and it's a labor of love. It's not a
Speaker:it's not a pay, it's a paying gig, but you're not going to get rich doing, you know, youth baseball
Speaker:coaching, but it's more more sophisticated, more routinized than Daddy Ball, or some of these
Speaker:select baseball leagues, which they look like they're more interested in in paying coaches and
Speaker:having fancy uniforms than they are teaching kids the game. And I'm about teaching kids the game.
Speaker:I used to sit down at the baseball field and give every kid a nickname. Now I'm watching this guy
Speaker:baseball this this YouTuber coach baseball. He calls himself coach baseball. He's using all the same
Speaker:techniques I used 25 years ago, and I he is dead on. So if you don't know who he is and you want to
Speaker:you want to read my style, he's exactly in my vein. Ely. Hey, child, I invented that.
Speaker:I don't know that I invented it. I think I had some good coaches along the way. No coach who screams
Speaker:at you for making a baseball, they say this all the time, a 300 batting average, which means you hit
Speaker:the ball 30% of the time safely is a success. So when you're screaming at somebody because
Speaker:they didn't get a hit every time, you're going to lose them. They're never going to be good,
Speaker:and they're going to hate it. By the time they're 15, they're going to mail it in.
Speaker:I know the fur babies make their appearance as ones in a while here. My doors to the flash couldn't
Speaker:drive us nuts. My name is flash. I love it. Oh, so sweet. I, you know, sometimes I'm...
Speaker:You don't have to flash any more. He's 14, so...
Speaker:Oh, but he's still, he's the, you know, apple of your eye, but I love it. I love it. You know, just
Speaker:baseball for me, it's been an interesting journey because I have girls, so they're not into
Speaker:software or anything like that. But at first from as an outsider looking in, for me, it was like,
Speaker:oh my god, this game is so boring. Why do you all like that? Coming from a country that loves soccer,
Speaker:you know, food, as we say it. But it was interesting. Once I actually started learning the everything that
Speaker:goes and it's, I've never seen it, describe as ballet, but it makes perfect sense. I was like, wow,
Speaker:there's so much going on. I hold baseball university at my house for the kids. I serve pizza and beer
Speaker:that kids don't get the beer. The hair had come and even though I'm acting like I'm teaching the kids,
Speaker:it's all for them. 100% and really for the moms who do the exact same thing. Now a lot of these moms
Speaker:come in and they're rabid about it and it's not, I don't need to teach them anything. I got to
Speaker:ratchet them down a little bit. Yeah, there's, and I think also why I would put myself in the
Speaker:category of a team builder is a shortstop is different than a third basement is different than
Speaker:a catcher than is different than an outfielder. And at the risk of sounding like I'm a DEI
Speaker:advocate, diversity of skill, talent, capability is critical for a great team. And I've taken that
Speaker:baseball metaphor into my business. Have you ever read five dysfunctions of a team?
Speaker:I have. Oh my god. That's one of a few books I've actually read.
Speaker:Well, it's great. Like all the way through. I read books, but I go chapter-effic, like I skip
Speaker:chapters, but I actually read that one. That's good. That's good. And I think if you also go through
Speaker:the whole, you know, get them to come in and run a seminar with your team, what I learned about
Speaker:that was if you have too many jerrys on your team, you're not going to get a lot of stuff done,
Speaker:because we talked too much. You need analyticals. You need the people who lead from the back. You need
Speaker:the the introverts. And so I would go as far as saying that that has been the key to the bigger
Speaker:program successes. The ERPs, the HRIS implementations, the CRM implementations, when you're going across
Speaker:continents and you're dealing with very large user bases and you're getting everybody involved.
Speaker:And I say everybody. And then the other part is is whenever you're trying to change a process,
Speaker:if you just bring in all the people who kind of own the top of the process, you never get to the people
Speaker:down at the bottom that have the actual job of putting a cap on the top of a bottle or sticking
Speaker:in a case of soda into a truck. And I found from that experience that
Speaker:got to include everybody. And I don't mean race, color, create. I mean degree of knowledge about
Speaker:the subject matter from as little to as much. And yeah, if you happen to be lucky enough to also
Speaker:deal with different backgrounds and social, you know, and cultures, it just makes it that much better.
Speaker:It's enriching. It is. Well, you just were totally reminded of inception, right?
Speaker:Every single person had a specific role. And for those that didn't see inception.
Speaker:Oh, Jerry, we gotta do that. We gotta do that. Okay, so if you don't know, I happen to also have
Speaker:a show called Technophile Real Talk sponsored by today's episode sponsor as well, Checkpoint Software.
Speaker:And we review movies from the, the, what do you call lens of technology and cyber security. So maybe
Speaker:we should do inception. And Jerry, not this, Jerry thought this one. It's the, and two, and we can have.
Speaker:So we won't say what Jerry's episode is, but if you're coming back, we get way too much fun.
Speaker:We did. I keep feeling bad about, you know, wow, I don't know, I'm not going to go there, but
Speaker:I don't know. It's been a busy week. This has been a insane week. And I don't know that I'll ever stack
Speaker:this many, I love this stuff because I just get to answer your questions. I'm making, you know, I had
Speaker:to have everything organized and then they even throw me a curve at one of them and want to change the
Speaker:format like an hour before. And it's just fun stuff isn't it? You can have me on the chat anytime.
Speaker:Well, you know, it's really funny about you and, and, and full disclosure. So I met you after I left
Speaker:HP. So my boss, I think, I might, I had a counterpart that managed your accountant. And I'm not going to
Speaker:name names or anything like that, but I just remembered, I remembered at one point my boss came to me and he
Speaker:goes, you know, I probably should have put you on the, that, that, you know, soda company.
Speaker:You could say that you guys, you would get along with that C, that VP that CIO, you would get along
Speaker:with those, you would get along with them. And I remember he said that years, years, years, and then you
Speaker:and I met after the fact by left HP by then. And so the fact that, you know, I adore you. You're like
Speaker:a, you're like a mentor, big brother for me. It's really funny because you know, I'll tell you this,
Speaker:as much as I've learned from you again, from a non like, like, there's no pressure to, quote,
Speaker:sell anything. You just, you just, we just exchange ideas. I wonder, you could have been both ways,
Speaker:a nightmare for a sales rep to deal with. I'm like, oh, God, Jerry's going to like shoot this down,
Speaker:but we have this project to do. And I can also see you being like, I like what you're saying. Let's
Speaker:talk more about this. Like, how was your vendor relations and, you know, partner relations with your
Speaker:and that's a great question. First of all, vendors are my source of all of my knowledge. What I mean by
Speaker:that is every, you know, I got to stay on top of stuff. I try to read, I try to go to conferences,
Speaker:but I can't tell you how many meetings I take just because they're talking about a subject that I
Speaker:don't have a good grasp of. And I want my team to hear it. I mean, the first time I talked about AI
Speaker:was about six years ago as a product or a service or something. And it really turned out to be more,
Speaker:you know, sort of, you know, predictive analytics more than it is what it is today. But,
Speaker:I use vendors both, and I tell them this, hey, I'm not sure I have a need for your product, but I'm
Speaker:digging in what you're doing. Let's let's talk about it. But also the spiciness comes out. I,
Speaker:you know, a doctor Pepper and maybe people know this, but if you are on this podcast and for those,
Speaker:you know, Rocky, you and see it, don't come into a business carrying the competitor's product.
Speaker:Oh, okay, baby. Oh, wait, yeah, I got a process that.
Speaker:Okay, so here's a perfect example. In fact, I didn't even remember this, but when at my,
Speaker:oh, is that that speech on on Wednesday? And one of my old employees came up and told this story.
Speaker:And I forgot I had done it, but it absolutely is a gerry. We are a doctor Pepper, where
Speaker:doctor Pepper is seven of, Welch's, A&W, Sunkissed, Desha Blue, Core Water, Fiji, you get these
Speaker:products that you can come in and it pretty much covers everything. We even RC Cola. Maybe you're
Speaker:not going to drink that instead of your Pepsi, but good for, you understand your audience. In comes
Speaker:a person with a Dessani bottle, which is Coke's water. And, and, you know, we're not owned by Coke,
Speaker:we like I'm still there, but they are not owned by Coke. And I simply sat down and said,
Speaker:well, I guess you don't want to be selling anything today. Oh my gosh. Left. I mean,
Speaker:there's one of my spicier moments. I mean, but that's just sales one. Oh, well, maybe, maybe
Speaker:this first season, it was, and it was pro, they're not called that anymore, whatever. I guess they're
Speaker:ads or, it was a good one. God, that was, okay, that was a long, long time ago. So, whatever that you're talking about.
Speaker:But it's funny when, when, you know, and I even remembered when I was working in this, the service
Speaker:providing side before I joined the oil and gas company, if we were selling to X on, I was buying
Speaker:X on gas. I didn't care that it costs 20 cents more. If we were, you know, I love Campbell suit, you know,
Speaker:I'm going to, or Campbell's, not a lot of cold. And so my, my brand loyalty is driven by the customers,
Speaker:unless they sell, I mean, I'm not, you, some brand loyalty, you can't, like I can't go out and
Speaker:fill my refrigerator up with, you know, Tito's, I guess I could, but, you know,
Speaker:Hey, I have to know the conversation, sir. Sorry. Yeah, so that's my, and I could go into vendor,
Speaker:vendor management and, and, and more so, what I call strategic sourcing is critical in this job.
Speaker:In fact, if I were to list all the things, and I won't now, because I'll probably leave something out,
Speaker:everybody thinks IT is infrastructure, ERP, software maintenance installation, and user computing,
Speaker:cybersecurity, AI, data, blah, blah, okay. So that's one side of it. But the other side is
Speaker:procurement, licensing, you know, organizational design, organizational communications.
Speaker:You know, obviously supplier management, you know, all the contract, believe me, if you're in IT,
Speaker:and you have to do us an SAP cloud solution implementation, and you want to understand how we're
Speaker:going to be licensed, you better have some people who are absolute stars at that. And that is not
Speaker:the guy who buys pipe or buys, you know, you know, janitorial services. It's a specialized IT function.
Speaker:And then the other thing is the finance of IT. What's capitalized? What's expense? How do you book your
Speaker:people and bill your people? These things are skills that I accumulated over those early years.
Speaker:And now when I run into companies, I'm going to go back to something you asked earlier. See, it's about
Speaker:the CIO today versus, you know, what would I believe the CIOs like me? And I'm not as unique as you make
Speaker:me sound. There are a whole lot of them that have the full range of capabilities. And they are the true,
Speaker:I said this to run, call them EI, EI, I don't know.
Speaker:They just need to be called top tech dude, whatever. And they were, or do that, or do that, sorry, top techy.
Speaker:They report to the CEO or the chairman or somebody other than finance. And they are a seat at the
Speaker:table. They have a strategic viewpoint. They have enough business to be business enough technology
Speaker:to be able to give to not scare. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I said in board meetings,
Speaker:the FBI comes in and scares the shit out of everybody. And suddenly I'm worried about the, whether our
Speaker:network is going to have an attack and we were good, but they were scaring my boss. They needed to come
Speaker:to me. They needed to present me this. I needed to digest it and I needed to bring it. And that's,
Speaker:I'm not saying it's just be a buffer. CIOs became so popular that companies started giving out
Speaker:the title simply to keep someone from leaving. Yes. And you'd have a CIO, and I would joke about this
Speaker:when I would, someone from the industry would write me a note, hey, I saw so and so is now the CIO
Speaker:of XYZ. And I'm like, I go, that guy can't carry my gym bag. I have no idea how they're, but then I'd
Speaker:find out later, you know, they were, they were reporting into the CFO. They came in quarterly and
Speaker:gave an update on cyber for the best part. They just ran over and make sure that the lights came on
Speaker:every day. Well, that in the CIO, that's a, that's a smart guy. That maybe is a guy with, or gal,
Speaker:sorry, with plenty of potential, but if they don't get taken through, what it really means to be the
Speaker:top IT, dude, they're not going to be that valuable resource. The other thing that is,
Speaker:tech is everywhere. I am now running in in my other career of being a, a, let's call it a fractional EIO.
Speaker:The strategy guy is pretty sharp about technology. He's 37 years old. He's been using tech since
Speaker:before tech was cool. You know, he understands everything and there's, there's a glut of those people
Speaker:now finding it in the CFO and CIO. And now the, let's just call them the top companies that do
Speaker:management consulting are coming in and they're saying, hey, Mr. CEO, you don't need a CIO.
Speaker:Put them under the CIO, put them under the CFO, make them a vice president of transformation or
Speaker:something that makes them feel good, but you now have in your leadership team a thread of technology
Speaker:that lets them be good enough to then advise the next layer down. I wholeheartedly disagree with that,
Speaker:but it's what the CEO wants to hear because guess what that means? And we're not going to brag
Speaker:about salaries, but I have had a couple of seven year, seven figure years. There are seven figures,
Speaker:CIO jobs anymore. Wow. Oh, they're all being, well, I think the exons and the, you know, they still have
Speaker:their, their, their top dogs, but I'm trying to tell you that it's not, the job's been watered down
Speaker:and Charlie felled and I had this conversation. You don't know Charlie, Charlie's sort of like the
Speaker:father of CIO. He was the first CIO at Frito Lay and he and I said, we had a 15 year window
Speaker:from about 95 to about 2010 to solidify the CIO job as a board seated or a C-suite job. And instead,
Speaker:by emphasizing all these other business characteristics that that, but we lost it. We lost it in cloud,
Speaker:we lost it in, in ERPs, we lost it in all these other distractions and now rightly so,
Speaker:the top consulting companies in many respects are dead on. You don't see I/O, you just need
Speaker:somebody to keep the lights on and I think that's, but I mean, I'm almost, you can tell, a bit of an
Speaker:evangelist for CIOs. I think this is a mistake. Oh, huge. And, you know, the CEO should be a guy
Speaker:used to be the CIO. How's that going? We're now. I'm right there with it because like I, we go back to
Speaker:that statement. All companies are technology companies. Period. In this day and age. Again, you give
Speaker:me a company that look at, look at, do you guys remember that PowerPoint? Like you guys, everyone's
Speaker:seen this video. If you're a LinkedIn nerd, you've seen this video been, and it's been played over and
Speaker:over again and it should continue to be, which is the evolution of the top, global companies in the last
Speaker:20 years or 30 years or whatever it is. And it was from the traditional to now they're all tech. Every
Speaker:single one now granted. Even if you go down the list, all of the top companies are not in the
Speaker:quote tech industry. They have a huge component of their business is technology base. And then is where
Speaker:the CIO has to have a seat at the table because the company will not grow, will not scale. There's
Speaker:no optimization of anything going on. If you don't have the infrastructure to enable that and,
Speaker:and yeah, you're a leader that can translate that business to tech application. Because you can
Speaker:get through it. Let me ask you this one because oh my god, not, I've never really asked you this
Speaker:day, which is. You guys into this didn't I? You know, God, we're getting close on time. But okay,
Speaker:which is in your experience, not just yourself, but in your peer group and there's a lot of amazing
Speaker:great leaders too in technology. How much has, because that's us sales kids, I'm going to preface this,
Speaker:us sales kid had a theory on some things here, which is how many percentage of your peers do you
Speaker:think bought things because they just love gadgets and they got the next buzzword to appeal appeal,
Speaker:the, the CEO to say, ooh, AI is cool. Oh, clouds cool. Like we got to get that, we got to get, you know,
Speaker:automation this or whatever. So how much do you think you have peers that were like, screw it?
Speaker:I'm just going to buy the stupid vendor platform because it just gets them off my back. We don't
Speaker:necessarily have to implement or implement halfway or whatever or how many of your peers are like, no,
Speaker:if you really want to do this right, here's the investment dollars. It's going to cost you $12 million
Speaker:to do this versus like, I'm just going to buy a vendor and just get them off my back. Does that make sense?
Speaker:Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So first of all, probably half of in the world have dealt with that.
Speaker:But both of those answers are knows how hard would have handled that is let's use AI.
Speaker:If it came up in a meeting or he comes home and he saw some presentation at the American, you know,
Speaker:beverage association, and I would say, hey, look, boss, let's go to lunch. I would tell him, right now,
Speaker:AI still needs quantum computing ubiquity to really, really be what we're claiming it's going to be.
Speaker:So I'm not saying don't do it. I'm simply saying, I bet I can build inside our company a pretty cool
Speaker:representation of a meaningful large language model that we could use sort of as our own internal chat
Speaker:GPT, make it valuable to the business, keep it firewalled and blocked from the public, not out on the
Speaker:cloud and beat the crap out of it and understand it and learn it will teach our employees how to use it.
Speaker:They'll understand our data because it's our data. We don't have to wonder whether it's true or not.
Speaker:And then as the industry moves to where this ubiquity occurs, then we're buying it as a service,
Speaker:these, like right now, chat GPT is getting an attack for its inaccuracies. Of course it's inaccurate.
Speaker:It's all the same crap that we've been publishing on Google in half of its half-bate. But what it is,
Speaker:what these neural networks are doing is they're seeing all the debates and they're morphing that
Speaker:larger data set to be a accurate depiction of what's going on. When they see something
Speaker:that's fat checked, they remove the bad information. So this notion of a learning, neural AI body
Speaker:that everybody thinks is a robot that's going to take over the world is in fact true. It's going to be
Speaker:a learning robot, but it's going to be learning and learning and learning from the facts that are real
Speaker:to the point where there will be a, I'm really getting out here on a ledge here, but I think we're still
Speaker:a few years. I say three to five years. I have a couple of super smart PhD ladies that I'd love to
Speaker:know we're on this call listening because I don't want to put out too many perks or plugs, but
Speaker:there. Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Yeah. Plug people who are quality. That's the whole purpose of the
Speaker:connection corner. And I'm just going to say it. I would love more women to be plugged because
Speaker:for other reasons, we don't get women don't get plugged enough. So Jerry, my omens plug away,
Speaker:male female, I don't care, but if it happens to be female, it does. I don't know why these three
Speaker:ladies are doing so well or getting so much attention. Maybe it's the DEI initiatives that
Speaker:happen in previous years, but they are beyond brilliant. They're all PhDs. It would be easier for
Speaker:me to do us somewhat of a follow up because I'd like to make sure I grab their their LinkedIn
Speaker:ones, et cetera, et cetera. But we're going my LinkedIn. They're in my there are my ones just
Speaker:sort by PhD and you'll find them all, but and they're not all female. I just happened to have
Speaker:gotten into a really good banter and and and one of those typical things where you see some insight,
Speaker:wow, that's so cool. I've never thought about that. What did you think about this? And then they
Speaker:come back and call, oh my god, that's so cool. And you know, half of these folks, I knew when they
Speaker:were 22 and 23 years old and now they're in their mid 40s and they're at their de Deloitte and IBM
Speaker:fellows and you're just you just get it's it's just a great time. Great time to be in in IT or tech
Speaker:or whatever you want to call it. And that's what I was going to ask, Jerry, just because I know we're
Speaker:running out of time, but where do you see the future? Like what is the future trend of where we're
Speaker:going when this is straight? Right now, there's a lot of things going on. Obviously, we're going to
Speaker:get to a place where there's much more everyday benefit from AI that like ultimately iPhones
Speaker:became that comfortable for everybody to use. AI will just be everywhere, but I'm really if I could
Speaker:I don't want to join Doge, but if I were to be pulled into any kind of government thing, I want to be
Speaker:in the forefront of the digital currency that's going to be the United States currency for Bitcoin
Speaker:or what have you. I think I mean that to me is just so cool. I wish I wasn't 65. I wish I was 45
Speaker:because I would and that doesn't mean that I couldn't build a team again, but I kind of got this
Speaker:rewirement thing where I want to teach and give back and be philanthropic now in my
Speaker:my later career is that I feel like I'm 20, but you act like you're 20. Thank you, but turn it over to
Speaker:the yeah, more ways than one, but to turn that over to the folks that are out there right now,
Speaker:Trump's going to make a digital currency that's going to be a US currency that's going to be
Speaker:tradable and marketable and trustable or if he's not the next conservative entity will and I don't
Speaker:think we're going to see it. I saw some comment earlier about the pendulum and I totally agree
Speaker:whoever posted that I think the CIO pendulum is going to swing and I think we're going to still swing
Speaker:much more to the the conservative secure world versus the the you know we saw it in an election,
Speaker:but I don't think it's a it's a Trump is one and done because of he only gets to go one more time,
Speaker:but there's going to be a whole movement around the national bank systems and the federal reserve.
Speaker:I would love to be involved in it. If somebody reads this and goes holy shit that guy's pretty good.
Speaker:I call him up and give him a seven figure income. No kidding. I love that, but I mean that's
Speaker:that's where I think my my head is right now and I also I love Thornton May. He's a futurist. If you
Speaker:get a chance to read him he's amusing his hell. He was the first person who told me that innovation is
Speaker:the conversion of of an invention into money and the more about it I thought what he what he
Speaker:he goes you know and he used the Pfizer example. He said you know there you know some scientist
Speaker:accidentally discovered penicillin. Yeah, and then somebody figured out how to put it into a little
Speaker:you know units to take out and save people from dying and when they got their leg blown off.
Speaker:And then but Pfizer made it into a pill and a shot. Uh-huh. That's the innovation. The other
Speaker:side was just iterations along the way and that's where the real money is. So I'll shut up.
Speaker:No, no, I mean we could hold up three more series. No, I'm sorry. I'll tell Jerry's never shut up.
Speaker:So you know like he says I'm going to shut up. That's usually his way of saying I'm going to pause to
Speaker:breathe like it and I'm ready for the next one. That's exactly right. You've got me. Okay.
Speaker:Bringing the heat. Yeah, I look. We could talk to you all day and I want to be respectful for your
Speaker:time because I know we did say hey we want to keep it under an hour for everybody. So I've actually
Speaker:had your QR code up there for everyone to scan and I'm just going to go ahead and say for
Speaker:everyone please scan because if you want to get to know who Jerry is and for those that are an
Speaker:executive leadership in general again, EI EI. He just because his background was in the CXO or IO EIO
Speaker:like area leadership is leadership leadership as far as I'm concerned. Communication. Communication.
Speaker:And if you ever want to talk to someone that's never going to miss words but give you constructive
Speaker:truth. I thought it was me but Jerry's way more spicy. Yeah, times. So I mean, you outspicy me, Jerry.
Speaker:It's freaking crazy. And by the way, the G is nothing to do with your heart. That only means everybody
Speaker:knows Jerry. I love that. And I, you know, and and now maybe a few more people know me from your
Speaker:podcast. So definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. Love to hear your viewpoints. I post from
Speaker:time. There's a rumor. I love it, Jerry. No, you do want to get to know Jerry. You know, we've met in
Speaker:person and you're just an amazing human being. So much wisdom. So many golden nuggets just drop here
Speaker:in there. So guys, please connect with Jerry. His profile on LinkedIn and any other social media that he
Speaker:has. But it's been a wonderful, wonderful time. I know that we talked about tech, AI and future of
Speaker:cybersecurity and speaking of cybersecurity, I really, really wanted to give a shout out to our
Speaker:sponsor for this episode and also for the notes quarter and amazing, amazing checkpoints software. So
Speaker:see ya. Let us know what's going on and why we're so excited for next month. Yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I'm having fun with like I'm fiddling on it here with it. Okay, here we go. So anyone that everyone,
Speaker:that's in cybersecurity. I want to give a shout out. Thank you so very much. Checkpoints software for
Speaker:sponsoring this episode as well as a couple more episodes coming up as well as sponsoring
Speaker:Technophile Real Talk. So you'll see those. By the way, Technophile Real Talk is a live stream on Thursdays
Speaker:and of course, if you can't see it live, you can always hashtag team replay everybody. But checkpoints,
Speaker:CPX America is going to be in Las Vegas at the Venetian on February 25th and 26th and yep,
Speaker:Raquel and Sia is going to be there. So we are collaborating with checkpoint and for those that
Speaker:are attending and for those that want to attend Jerry, Jerry. Yeah, that's cool. We just have there. Yeah,
Speaker:I'd love to. You know, and if checkpoint needs any speakers, you know, I'm available. Yeah, no, I will,
Speaker:I will let them know, dude, because we are going to be roaming the halls. We're going to be roaming the
Speaker:breakout sessions. We will be interviewing the executives on stage. And so you're going to see a lot of
Speaker:Raquel and see that checkpoint CPX America. So I want to say thank you, thank you very much,
Speaker:you guys for the sponsorship. Checkpoint has been incredibly amazing, amazing. Just to look here, Jerry,
Speaker:you know I'm about to say this. Sometimes some vendors, especially in technology, they're kind of sick
Speaker:and muddy, kind of vibey, right? Like, like, their marketing is kind of dry. They talk about webinars,
Speaker:thinking, oh, that's a podcast. But I got to give credit checkpoint is putting themselves out there.
Speaker:And there's just, there's just a fun company to just work with. So, yes, have you worked with other
Speaker:companies or have you worked with checkpoint? Maybe yes, I have. In fact, they, I was a customer for years,
Speaker:of course, now independent. I bring them in whenever it's appropriate. I'm disappointed I didn't talk
Speaker:much about cyber, but that's a whole subject that that's for the next, the next one, the next episode.
Speaker:I love it. No, but I'm super excited. One of the key features of that is that we will be,
Speaker:honestly, behind the scenes, just bringing the latest updates live, right? And in Spanish. So, for
Speaker:everyone, since this is Latin, my Latin family, everyone in America, for all of my people, Latina,
Speaker:who want to know more, a little more about cybersecurity, we will be there directly and live. So,
Speaker:I invite you all to the Vegas. We will be in the hotel, the sort of definition in February 25 and 26.
Speaker:So, we'll see you there. Thank you. I love that. I could realize you're dying. I'm stupid.
Speaker:I should have put it, okay, wait, wait, do it one more time just for my, just for humor, me, girl.
Speaker:And I spend you'll pour five more. Go. In Spanish, for all my people who are in cybersecurity,
Speaker:we will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the conference of CPEX America. In 2025, we will be there,
Speaker:we will be in February 25, 26, covering all the winners of what is happening in the conference,
Speaker:so we invite you friends. Thank you very much. There you go.
Speaker:Muchis mas rapias. I love it. I understand some Spanish, but you speak so darn fast.
Speaker:Is that an El Salvadoran accent? I don't understand Spanish anymore.
Speaker:So, you know, I speak more than two languages. Therefore, sometimes they get all kind of like
Speaker:the accent people can not pinpoint which where I'm from and they will never get El Salvador. So,
Speaker:it's a mixture of different things and, but yeah, it's, it's fun. People can't, but it's definitely
Speaker:not spying here. It's not Catalans. I have a theory, Sia. And I know this from my Italian background.
Speaker:The Latin languages are like songs. And so, once you've
Speaker:created all the jointers between letters and beginning and ending of words, it just flows
Speaker:differently than English, not as choppy. And so, it allows for that absolute, what feels like
Speaker:run-on sentence, but it's beautiful. My daughters will tell you that I am a run-on sentence when I'm
Speaker:you know, scolting them in Spanish. They know when I really upset when it's I'm speaking to them in
Speaker:Spanish and it just goes on and on. But anyhow, guys, I thank you so much for being here with us and
Speaker:dairy, ure a phenomenal and people, everyone connect in the chat, connect with us. We're here. This
Speaker:is the whole reason why we are on LinkedIn on this amazing platform. Lick and we love you.
Speaker:And just connect with one another network. This is a community. And together, we definitely rise.
Speaker:As Sia always says, all ships rise with the time. Somebody saying I can tell you read a lot of books.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I love that. Let's see. That's the new CIO leader trusted inspire.
Speaker:Demystifying IT. Yeah, you got it. You got to do that. I should have mentioned that. I'm not
Speaker:pitching those people's books, but the new CIO leader was great. It was foundational for me.
Speaker:You got a chance to read it. It's a little dated now, but it's still good. I hate. I have to defend myself real
Speaker:quick. Ian McLean, who was in the chat. Yeah. Is the author of that book right there, TJs War. And
Speaker:though he had to leave because he had another meeting, but I'm just going to go and say it right now.
Speaker:So I can document it. I have read TJs War audio. All right. So he's making fun. So it's a side project.
Speaker:So hey, by the way, if you got your movie producing friends, we are looking to make that into a tv show.
Speaker:So we're in talk. So, we should chat about that. But yeah, TJs War. Ian.
Speaker:I'm not going to have to have a cram db credit. I had to do that because he's making fun of me. All right.
Speaker:That's it. Okay. I'm sorry. I digress. We digress. You're fine. You're fine. But anyhow, guys,
Speaker:thank you again. I would love, I'd love to connect with you guys after this. We'll go through all
Speaker:the comments and see you I guess next time. Shout out again to everyone, but love you. Oh,
Speaker:really quick. Felipe, thank you so much for coming. An amazing leader, Steven. Ian, thank you so
Speaker:much for tuning in from the UK. We love you. We love you. I know it's late, but we love you. We love
Speaker:the support. And yeah, I'm waiting for my book. It's coming in the mail. So I'll be reading TJs War.
Speaker:So love you guys. Have a wonderful weekend. Ciao.
Speaker:Thank you for joining. If you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe and follow us for the next
Speaker:episode.
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