Rocking Leadership - Insights from Matt Godsted

s1e25 Rocking Leadership - Insights from Matt Godsted

In this episode of Wired Garage, host Pops interviews Matt Godsted, a strategic leader in cybersecurity and a passionate musician involved in the charity concert 'Suits That Rock.' The conversation explores the parallels between music and leadership, the impact of charity work on community engagement, and the importance of mentorship for youth in technology. Matt shares insights on managing stress, the significance of work-life balance, and the skills needed for future leaders. He emphasizes the value of giving back and finding personal fulfillment through charitable endeavors.

Keywords: cybersecurity, mentorship, charity, music, leadership, Suits That Rock, Inter Alliance, work-life balance, youth development, community engagement

Takeaways:

• Being prepared is crucial in both music and leadership.
• Suits That Rock raises funds for arts education.
• The camaraderie among musicians enhances performance.
• Leadership requires diverse skills and collaboration.
• Stress management can come from engaging in music.
• Finding work-life balance is essential for well-being.
• Mentorship plays a vital role in youth development.
• High school students can outperform full-time employees.
• Professionalism and soft skills are critical for success.
• Giving back should align with personal passions.

Sound Bites:

"The energy that you see on stage is all genuine."

"You have to find something that makes you happy."

"They're always willing to listen and learn."

Chapters:

• Introduction to Matt Godsted and Suits That Rock
• The Intersection of Music and Leadership
• The Evolution of Suits That Rock
• Emotional Highlights of Suits That Rock
• Mentorship and the Inter Alliance
• Engagement in Tech Olympics
• Impact of the Pandemic on Education
• Skills and Attitudes of Young Interns
• Cybersecurity Awareness Among Students
• The Role of Mentorship in Student Development
• Finding Opportunities to Give Back
• Quickfire Round: Music and Technology

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And having our high school students actually work at the companies throughout the s in the summer and sometimes even longer. And probably the most rewarding thing from a an employer that has had is the number of high school students, uh Inter Alliance students on my team, that the feedback is always the same. That high school students, the sixteen-year-old, the seventeen-year-old comes in and works at the same level of not outperforming some of the FTEs from that team. They are hungry, they are they are so knowledgeable. You do not underestimate the talent that these students have. When I worked with Ustele, you probably remember a couple that we had from Interalliance. They could they come in and they write code, they build websites, they build mobile apps, they do production work and and and on production systems. We give them real projects.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Today we're joined by Matt Godstead, a strategic leader and architect in the world of cybersecurity. He's a driving force behind the Suits Dot Rock, the high-energy charity concert that benefits the Carnegie Art Center in Covington, Kentucky. The show, which packs the house every September, has become a local favorite thanks to its mix of heart, talent, and Matt's there just looking good on stage. Beyond that, Matt gives back as a mentor with Interalliance, a nonprofit helping students discover the IT industry here in Cincinnati. In this episode, we'll talk with Matt about his charity work and mentorship. Matt, you're a guitarist, you're a vocalist, you're part of Suitset Rock. How has being on stage in front of a crowd influenced the way that you lead teams in high-pressure tech and security environments? I imagine there's got to be some aspect of being able to go on stage in front of all these strangers, entertain them, rock their socks off. It translates a little bit into the executive boardroom.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Not all, yeah. Uh first of all, thanks for having me. Um one of my favorite topics is suits that rock. So, I mean, obviously, we're not a not a hard sell to come on and talk to y'all about one of my favorite things. Um, to your question, I see similar. There's a lot of similarities, but most of what comes to mind is you you have to be you have to be prepared and you have to have your part ready. Uh, whether that's on stage and you're, you know, you've you've gone through the grueling five, six months of preparation all for that one night, or whether it's that team meeting, whether it's going into a board to present, or whether it's, you know, whatever the analogy, you have to be prepared and you have to have your part ready. And just as important, you have to be able to, how do you react or readjust when something doesn't go right? So it doesn't go according to plan. A number of times we've but there's been technical issues or there's been something that's cropped up that you didn't plan on. How do you recover? How do you respond to that? Do you keep your cool and or do you freak out, lose your shit, think, oh my gosh, just you know, stop the stop the performance or stop a thing. Do you do with grace? You do are you cool, or do you or do you panic? And I think that that's two are very, very similar. Um, and you're gonna make mistakes. Um you're gonna misspeak when you're presenting, you're going to hit a wrong note, a clunker, you're gonna, you're gonna forget a lyric, you know, and you just you have to be able to handle it with grace, and you really have to act like you planned it the whole time. And uh, that's where I I really feel like that one has really helped the other. Um, I'm not sure which came first. I don't know if it was more being prepared and presenting and and leading teams and or, you know, did it help music? But one way or another, you really have to be prepared for both. And I think that that's kind of how you react and just being really well prepared and having your part ready is Rice T it applies to both.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

And just as a quick follow-up, for folks who aren't familiar, we we uh glossed over it at the start, but what exactly is Suits That Rock? It's a charity benefit. Could you explain that?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Suits the Rock has been um around for uh we're probably like 18, I think we're in our 18th or 19th year. It was actually formed as a um in order to raise money for the Carnegie and Covington uh for their arts and music education programs for kids. It was really meant to the first year it was probably gonna be a one and done. You know, it was like, let's just have fun, raise a little raise a little bit of money, and it just started to take off and it turned into what it is today. So it is a to your point, it is a sellout show year after year. Um, and all the money goes towards the Carnegie's um programs for arts and music education for kids. We started off for for years and years, it was at the Carnegie, and because the Carnegie has a capacity of probably 550-ish, 560 um people, we did two shows over two weekends in order to just meet the demand uh for for the show. COVID happened. First year, we obviously were like a lot of uh things getting canceled. But the next year we we did it outside at Covington Landing and realized we wanted to be probably 2021, people weren't ready to be in such a small confined space like the Carnegie. And then after that, we partnered with the ovation, which is MegaCore Pavilion, and we've been hosting it there in the fall ever since. So uh it what's awesome about the suits is we have some of the most talented musicians in the state of Ohio and Kentucky, and they are predominantly they're all corporate professionals in some way, shape, or form. We have lawyers, we have people on IT, we have financial, you know, all day jobs that are also musicians at and on the side. They are the most amazing people that you could ever hope to work with or talk to or meet. And they're even better people than they are musicians, and they are some of the best musicians I've ever played with. So what's awesome about the suits is that you're when you come, when we come back together every year and we start those first round of rehearsals, you feel like you're back with family. We talked a little bit about before we started tonight that um we have the fun that we're having on stage, the energy that you see on stage, that is all, that's all genuine. We're all just having the time of our lives because we're making music together. And uh it usually makes for a much really great experience for the show because people see the fun we're having up there. They can't help, they can't help dancing, they can't help singing along. And that can like we're the ones that wrote the songs when we're not, you know. So that's it's really what that is. It's one, it's a one and done now. We do, we do one show. Each show, we we keep raising the bar for attendance. We keep raising the bar for how much we raise through sponsorships and and through uh through ticket sales. And uh, it's such a thrill that every year that that money goes right back to the Carnegie. And uh the only the only downside of the Suits the Rock show is is when the final song is done and we take the bows and we hug each other on stage and we know if it's gonna be another six or seven months before we see each other again. So that's kind of what the Suits the Rock is. We love it and and we just love the energy that it brings and and certainly that what we are contributing to the Carnegie because it is such an important organization uh in in northern Kentucky for what it does for arts. I highly encourage people to check out come go to Covington and go and Scott at Scott Street and go check out the Carnegie because it's such a cool place.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, we're about to get you going down there and and reporting live one there for the podcast sometime.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I'll just do it. We'll take it to the gallery. Um the art that that that's on display there. Um the suits don't play there anymore, but they they do many, many productions there throughout the year. And they're some of the best, the best performances you'll see you'll see in the region. It's that's fantastic. And as someone who has seen the show, I I can confirm. Amazing show. Even on the rock fraud, they did uh did uh American Idiot by Green Day uh about three or four years ago. Phenomenal. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

So do you do you see any like um uh like how do you see any like parallels? I guess we've we've talked about that some, just just in your leadership styles with the band and leading like those efforts, like leading the effort with the Inter Alliance, you leading the effort with the the Seuss of Rock and everything. What kind of makes you you as far as how what kind of builds you up in that way?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And you know, between like like playing in a band and like you're right being a yeah. I think because a lot of programs, so whether it's a whether it's a a technology team, whether it's a program you're running, it is cross-functional. And just like a band is cross-functional. They're very similar being in a band leading a program. I love that you said cross-functional, or because we're talking about that, because yeah, a band is not made up of five to six guitar players that all sing lead.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Even though it should be.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Just like if it's if any one person in a band doesn't show up, it's not gonna sound right. Any one person on a cross-functional team doesn't show up or on a program doesn't show up, things are gonna get missed. Something's not gonna be right. So I think that there are a lot of parallels with that.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

What do you make how do you manage stress and avoid burnout with your leadership and all these things? How do you stretch out with these things?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

How do you manage off time and you know So sometimes you know one can alleviate one of the two can alleviate stress of the other. Very often, stressful day from work, you come home, you break out the guitar, or a good suit season, we're working on songs, you know, start to just really take some of the stress and apply it towards the towards the music and kind of get some of that stress out. I I think that they can both take there's been times where I've even stress from music can, okay, I'm gonna focus on on something a part of my job. I'm I'm very fortunate that I love, absolutely love what I do now. It it'd be very easy for me that if I'm kind of suits suits the rock prep mode and practice mode, and I'm getting a little overwhelmed or a little thinking like, oh, I'm not can't hit a part or I need a break. It may sound like a workaholic thing to say, but I I will sometimes go off and kind of focus a little bit on something I'm working on for work because that will take some of that stress away. So they the two can kind of alleviate stress from the other, which is great. I can think back long ago when I first worked at Kroger, you know, I had 10 years of very high stress. Not related to music, but just there's sometimes the circumstances call for it. I had to leave. I mean, I had to, I had to exit out and find something else because I just the work-life balance was was way out of whack. At the end of the day, you got to find something that that makes you happy from a career standpoint that doesn't take away from the even more important things. Your family, your spouse, your kids, the things that make you happy, like music. I a couple times tried to get back into music and actually kind of join a band. And then what happens? The pager goes off, the BlackBerry goes off at the time. Got to jump on an outage bridge, gotta do something for IT. That's not gonna say, not they're not gonna say, Oh, it's oh, you're in a band practice. That that's okay. Come back to us in three hours and jump on the bridge then. You know, so finding that balance that uh you make them room for the for the things that are most important, but still being able to find a career that satisfies you. I'm very, very lucky that I found that. But I think that that's that's really important.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Do you tell them, but wait, I'm the drummer, I can't leave. Don't you know?

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yeah, I remember just coming up through. I was so I I love my job too, and my wife thinks I'm crazy, but you know, I do like what I do. And it's yeah, it's it's not doesn't seem like work. My mind's always kind of going and I'm thinking of solutions and things that we can do, but it's fun for me. Um and I and I used to coach girls basketball, AAU, and stuff like that in school, in school sports and and stuff like that. Now that I'm a grandpa, I started looking back though that yeah, I did well there, I provided for my family, everything like that. But I think I did miss out. There's a piece I c I wouldn't do differently. My kids, although I spent a lot of time with my kids, I didn't spend a lot of time at home quiet, you know, or with them, you know. It was always about these things I was investing in. But I think I tell my daughters all the time, I wish I just spent a little bit more time watching them grow up, only because I think maybe they're they're gone and everything went so fast, right? And um yeah, you just kind of look back, not that I did anything wrong, but just that balance, that stress. And I I had ways of balancing it. I I enjoyed it, but I think I still missed the little bit, you know, it's just one of those things I always look back on. And I don't do that with my grandkids. I spend my grandkids. That's the stuff that matters. Yeah, yeah. Now that's my de-stress for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah. I mean, for me that's yeah, uh absolutely have to balance that out as much as possible to prevent the burnout. I think once you achieve burnout, it is really hard to untangle from that and and recover. And I it takes a very long period of time.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah. When I realized I was uh found out that I could be an exceptionally good liar with my kids with saying, almost done, honey. I'll be done in a minute. Just let me wrap this up, knowing good and well it was gonna be ours. And uh I think at the end of the day, it was that was what did it. I was like, I need to, and I I think I'm so I I'm so thankful for that part of my career. It made me realize the important things. But when I left and I went over to, I worked out at a nonprofit for two and a half years. Uh, we supported it to Knowledge Works. Knowledgeworks is in Cincinnati, and you know, we supported and we worked with secondary education and it it was a reset. It was I was able to lead their technology teams as well as that was my entrance into cybersecurity. That was my first CISO role. And uh, you were able just to spin down a little bit. Um, you know, it took me six months. It took me six months before in the email server crashing wasn't, oh my gosh, we have to get this back up or how's it gonna roll? I worked at a at a business that said, no problem, when it comes back up, it's up. You know, it was it took me a long time to spin down, realize that, and that so many things that that were life-changing, and that was one of them was really reclaiming that work-life balance and really, and I haven't ever gone back. I've never I have not gone back. And then without without that opportunity, too, I wouldn't have found music and I wouldn't have found the Inter Alliance. So that which means I wouldn't have found and I wouldn't have found Suits That Rocks. Um, I believe I'm a firm believer everything kind of happens for a reason. And uh and that was one of them.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

On that same bean, how did Suits That Rocks start? Because I I imagine you're you're getting back into the guitar, you're playing for fun, you're you're wanting to do gigs. Like where where did this come from?

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Suits itself or my involvement with it?

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Your involvement with it.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So I I has I've been a part of uh actually one of the things we haven't talked about today was Northern Kentucky University and the College of Informatics. When I joined Knowledgeworks, I also got more involved with NKU and specifically the COI and started to serve on their advisory board for the Center for Applied Informatics of the Time. And right around 2015 was when I um started to work with uh one of their um executive directors at Outreach. And uh they were in urban development. And I was approached and asked, you know, hey, it's our 10th anniversary for the College of Informatics. We want to do something cool, we want to do something big. Have you heard of this thing called Suits of Rock? And I had not. Several of our of our longtime suits have served in some capacity with NKU, either um advisory board members or board of regents members, or just volunteers, or, you know, serving in different capacities. So there was there was already this awareness about suits. They wanted to create a band of very similar to suits, except it would be all, you know, staff or alumni or teachers or people affiliated with the college, and for their 10-year anniversary, hold kind of a suits that rock like gig of three hours of music and having people rotate it and out of songs. And I was introduced to two the members of Suits the Rock through that. It was John Damashko and um, I think it was Kevin Canafax and Greg Shoemates, so three of our four founding fathers, right? And uh lo and behold, it didn't work out. Uh, there was some things that kind of happen, you know, happened that would have made it on probably not the best thing to have a concert for their 10-year anniversary, they went on a different route. But that that was when I was first introduced to three of our four, three of the four founding members of Suits the Rock. Uh fast forward a little bit, I was at a at an NKU fundraiser, and I I saw Kevin Canafax for the second time, and he asked me, Would you like to come out to and be a part of Suits the Rock as a as a guest suit? I'll wholeheartedly say yes, please, I would love to do that. And met with with John Damashko and I sent him my some samples and I was asked to join and um very blessed that after my first year, which was the best first year you can imagine, I was asked to to not only play again the next year, but actually be a a full-time member of Suits the Rock and haven't looked back since. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Is there a particular performance or event that stuck with you emotionally?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah, Suits the Rock every year is is an emotional roller coaster in such a good way. But our my third, my third year in Suits was titled Thanks a Million. And that was the that was the year that we hit um a million dollars. That was our 13th year that we uh where we hit the million dollar mark from a fundraising perspective for the Carnegie. And we got we opened up the show with normally it's kind of a you know, we change up how we open up the shows. This particular show, we actually had one of the um, one of the Carnegie students, he's about 13 years old, and he came out and sang, he was on the on the music side, music education side, and he came out and opened up the show with A Million Dreams from the greatest showman. We did the pink version, but he came out and we and we started the show with with this 13-year-old that just fearless. Absolutely not. I mean, we many vocal rehearsals, just kind of listening to him, no fear, just came out and just killed it. And we had one of our uh regular suits sing the sing the older, the older version part of the song, and it was just phenomenal. There wasn't, it was you could heard a pin drop in the in the house because it was so impactful. And because it was because the fact that we we we loved it because we had hit a milestone for our fundraising for for the Carnegie, which is why we're there. But to actually have a student from the Carnegie's programs come out and be on the opening song and sing and just kill it. I mean, he was the highlight of the entire show, and it was one of our one of my favorite shows overall. And once that was done, then we we came out, and I'll never forget, um, I was on the follow-up song, it was running down a drink by Tom Petty, and it was just awesome. It was like so good.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

That's awesome. I I could just imagine it being pitched black, spotlight, other than singing and going your own.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah, it was absolutely gross. Now, if you'd asked about one of the more entertaining ones, it was the year before we did the we do themes every year, and the the theme but the year before that was uh toga party. Yeah, because it was the 40th anniversary of Animal House. I'm not sure which I'm not sure which show you attended, Steele. I don't know if you were either one.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

That might have been the one I attended. I'm pretty sure it was because I remember the Toges.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah. We opened up the show with uh scene from Animal House. John Belushi comes down and smashes the guitar when the guy's singing I gave my love of cherry. And uh we went through five guitars between two, between um three rehearsals and then the two shows. We we smashed five guitars. There was a strategically placed cinder block behind the amps in the front, and um, one of our suits snatched it from my hands as I was singing I Gave My Love of Cherry, and he uh snatched the guitar out of my hands and smashed it. The center block, it was uh it was fantastic. And seeing half of our audience wearing togas. That was also kind of a highlight from our vantage point.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

You need to have one of those live DVD things think about having something like that. Because that that's awesome. But I I guess that's the draw is being able to come out and see things like that and never knowing exactly what it is that you're gonna see. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Yeah, never, you're never gonna well, you're never gonna know. There's always gonna be a surprise.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

So kind of you you mentioned it and kind of shifting gears here. You mentioned the Interalliance and mentorship. What is Interalliance? How did you get involved with mentoring there?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

So the Interalliance is a nonprofit in Greater Cincinnati with representation from most of the big companies in town. So from and on our board, we have we have Kroger, we have Fifth Third, we have GE, we have most of the big companies in town. And it was founded um probably almost about the same time that Suisse was founded. Uh it was probably Mark 2000, 2008, I believe. And they came together to try to solve the problem of how do we stop losing all of our best young talent to in IT to Silicon Valley or New York or Chicago? How do we stop the blit the brain drain? How do we stop the losing of some of our best talent from high school, uh, from high schools and leaving the region when we have so many cool companies in town? We have more Fortune 500s in Cincinnati than any other city. How do we keep talent in the region? So the Inter Alliance was formed and through various programs to really to add supplementary IT training and IT development to the high school students that they wouldn't normally get in your standard high school curriculum. So offering, you know, the Inter Alliance is in so many of our schools, high school students in the region, it's it's almost like a club. This is we call it a chapter. And though that's why they do technology competitions, they have speakers, they learn how to write code, they write, learn all of these things that they probably they were not going to get in high school. And then over the years, sort of develop some of our key programs, two of which are are so critical. Um, that's our internships, and having our high school students actually work at the companies throughout the sum in the summer and sometimes even longer. And probably the most rewarding thing from an employer that has had this the number of high school students, uh, interalliance students on my team, that the feedback is always the same. That high school students, the 16-year-old, the 17-year-old comes in and works at the same level of not outperforming some of the FTEs from that team. They are hungry, they are they are so knowledgeable. You do not underestimate the talent that these students have. When I worked with you, Steele, you probably remember a couple that we had from Interalliance. They could they come in and they write code, they build websites, they build mobile apps, they do production work and and on production systems. Just you give them real, we give them real projects. They're not there to kind of do the grant work or make copies or do anything like that. We're giving them actual IT work, and that's where they learn so much. So our inner our our internships is is a big part of the Inter Alliance. And then Tech Olympics, which is sort of our flagship technology conference for high school students. That's a two-day conference that we we we used to hold it at um at a hotel downtown that's no longer there. Um had a great American ballpark for a few years, and then now we're we're hosting it at our, we're actually hosting it at our board companies, uh, rotating that around. So it's a two, so we have it's a technology conference. High school students, the best part is that the high school students are the ones that organize the conference. We have um what's called the ILC, which is our Inter Alliance Leadership Council. It's about made up of about 20-ish um high school students that apply for for leadership roles within the Inter Alliance. And that's the group that actually plans the conference. They recruit the speakers, they agree, they set the tracks, they they do all of the work behind planning a conference. Outside of you know, signing contracts and some of the things that you know adults have to do, they do, they put do all the planning, all the coordination, and run the event the entire weekend. And I think that that's probably the the biggest source of pride is um they're the ones that are they're there most of the staff that runs the Interalliance, the nonprofit, are high school students as well. It's crazy. It's it it is amazing. That's so when you ask me, well, you know, how'd you get interested in us? That's that is why. My first year was uh that I was exposed to um Interalliance in 2013. I was actually asked to be a part of the Tech Olympics as um the CIO. And just two after three exhausting days of being with the being with these students and exhausting in a good way, you're just you're hooked. Like, okay, how else can I get involved? And so I started to get more and more involved over the years. I joined the board in 2015 and uh still there, still on the board. I've way, way surpassed my term limits. And as long as they don't mind, I um I stay on. I served as the board co-chair for for four years. It's just it's something that just keeps giving back to me and kind of like the same way it suits. You know, it the the it's a lot of time investment and it's it's incredibly worth it because the students are so worth it. You just you see the uh the the passion, you see the students that are just so eager to learn and and uh just so well balanced and just makes you want to invest more time there. So that it's kind of how I got involved, very much like Such. I just kind of looked into it. So I said, Yeah, you should get involved with this and have it look.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Did you see this as more successful pre-pandemic or post-pandemic? Like the pandemic had it played its toll on people. Sure. You know, jobs and things as far as not working it in in the office anymore, you're working remote. I'm sure working in a physical location together helps. But how how is it kind of working today?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Very much the same. I will say that the Tech Olympics in 2020 knew by you know, by mid-February, you knew something was coming. You we we got it in right before, probably about three weeks before shutdown. Right. So we were very fortunate. But the entire time we also knew it's like, well, I hope I I hope everybody's okay with this. The next two years we were virtual. And that was that was hard because it's a very as with most of Inter Alliance programs, they're they're face to face. Their their success is built on on in-person collaboration and in-person you know, working together and getting around each other. So tech Olympics was no different. So we were really kind of curious how uh those the first Tech Olympics was gonna go virtual. It was, you know, it's it's did we lose a little bit? Yeah, because it is just is not as easy to keep people, keep students engaged in Zoom meetings and zoom breakouts for nine or ten hours. Um just it doesn't have the same energy. But we got you know, we got through it. Our executive director at the time, Heather Accles. I'm confident that we could inner alliance survived because of some of a lot of the innovation that she brought when when we went virtual, or just when when the world remote went remote, just because considering how important in in-person is with to the Inter Alliance and Tech Olympics and and all the programs, internships is really hard. Students in you know July of, or I should say May of June, 2020, students are adapting to the virtual world. They probably had to do their last month, their last two months of high school virtual. And now you're doing internships, which is way more successful very face-to-face and in-person and in an office environment. And you know, they're virtual too. It's not as easy to go out and talk to your mentor at the company that you're interning for, um, or whoever you're working with. It's not as easy. You can't just overhear off this conversation and learn from that, right? You you could just kind of ingest it and pick it up. It's not as easy to just walk over to somebody and ask a question. You have to intentionally get on a Teams call or a Zoom call. Made it through, learned a lot from it. You know, you it's it's definitely very interesting that that uh when we w resumed in-person Tech Olympics, just how different it had been. There's these students that have been used to the virtual world for you know two years. It was reintroducing people back into an in-person event. Um, but in the years that since then, it it's back to where it was. And if if not uh just as strong. We rolled with those punches and uh we fortunately came out of it. Going back to suits and the Carnegie, Carnegie was the same way. Uh I've been on the board for the Carnegie since 2019 and very, very similar. They had to go through, you know, you have the Carnegie programs that are in person that you know you you're you're putting on events and your uh education for the students is in person. They same thing. And um it's amazing that the innovation, how important it is to have a really strong executive director for a nonprofit that can get you through something like a pandemic when you are have a nonprofit that is so that is so dependent upon in-person events and programs.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

When you think about the high school students, you're through Inter Alliance, through Tech Olympics, you are essentially preparing them for the future. What skills or attitudes, and we we talked about this in the other segment, but I want to mention it here. What skills or attitudes instantly stand out when you meet a student or someone who's really early in their career, could be an intern. What what are some of those things that stick out for you?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

The soft skills, the the courage to um the courage to come in as an intern and not think like an intern. I've I've presented a number of times at Tech Olympics on internship readiness. One of the things I talk about every, every time I present this is do you do not go in feeling like you're a subservient, like you're any less of a team member just because you're in high school and just because you're an intern. You go in with the mentality that you are part of that team, you're just as an important part of that team. And even though you probably won't be on that team four months after, you're still just as important. Taking that includes taking on ownership of things, that includes having the courage to go and and ask for feedback or going to your boss saying, hey, I can take on some more work here. I've already talked about the technology skills in these students is unmatched. I mean, they're it's incredible the aptitude and how far advanced they are in a lot of the technology skills. What really shocks me every single year, shocks is the wrong word, but what really just continues to amaze me is just seeing the soft skills, the professionalism. I have interviewed high school students for internship positions that have the most polished resume and have the best interviewing skills that I've ever seen. So I think it's the it's also the focus on the professionalism and the soft skills that really continues to just blow my mind year after year, that really is really stands out.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

I mean, that's promising because you think of so many students and teenagers and young adults who kind of lock their lives away to cell phones and private, you know, to the world between them and their phone and aren't very interpersonal, don't have as interpersonal abilities to communicate. And you look at and say, oh man, I mean, we the world really needs that, you know, that the ability just for people to talk to each other, to work with each other and things like that. So on those topics, when you got the phone is the biggest thing in the world, how do you introduce those heavy topics like cybersecurity or just digital ethics to these teenagers without scaring them away or having them just put that wall up and say he's old, my like daughter says, stop the 80s dead and walk away?

SPEAKER_01 34:09

You'd be surprised how cognizant and aware they are of those very things of cybersecurity and ethics. I can remember talking to our ILC. The ILC is broken up into different teams, marketing team and the wave of an IT team, and talking to the IT team about cybersecurity and how it applies to to the interlines business. I mean, our our students manage our website and our students manage our data and our students manage, and I think dreading the discussion, thinking, okay, I'm gonna have to guess talk to you guys, make sure, hey, we're locking the website now, protecting data, they were already all over it. They already, some of the fundamentals that they were talking about that they do from a privacy and a security perspective just was it was blown away by the maturity there. So you know, sitting with um, not and you know, maybe not they're not all in the same level of advance, but uh you know, having some sit-down discussions at Tech Olympics with students about, you know, the the importance of being responsible on social media and they're in the end of being responsible with security and AI and some of the things. And it is eye-opening for a lot of students. I can remember talking about specifically on the social media front. And after 15 minutes, a number of them, you could tell, couldn't wait for the conversation to be over so they could go check their Facebook and make sure that they didn't post that thing that's gonna haunt them 10 years later, you know. So, but they are so receptive. And that's why when we have Tech Olympics, we have a lot of volunteers from the corporate world that come in, executives that just sit at a table of 10 students and and talk to them and just QA. They get so much value out of that because they can pepper them with whatever questions that they want. So many curveballs. How did you get into IT? Or, you know, how do you lead, or what advice can you give me? And they every year they walk away with that and they take that seriously. That's you know, it's uh, you know, getting back to your original question, there's not a lot of curveballs, but they're always willing to listen and learn and and maybe better for it.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Yeah, I I think you have an opportunity because I was reading uh uh just some post on Facebook and I was gonna repost and I thought, nah, it's just too long. And whatever, but it reminded me of the Breakfast Club. If you remember the movie The Breakfast Club, right? And you're all in like detention and they're they're scattered different types of people to get to know each other and they find out, hey, he hurts like I hurt, or she's like me, or they're more alike than they are different. To today's world, it's sort of the same, but I guess I could my grandpa would say it was easy, whatever. The ages have changed, but today's world, the cell phone, social media, school shootings, the things they deal with today, and the absentee of parents. My wife works at a school, my daughter works at a school, and just how parents I remember if I got in trouble with a teacher, I got doubly in trouble with my parents, right? And nowadays that is not the case. These parents are not involved like they used to be. And so they need people like you sometimes as some adult in some other area to look to for advice, for mentorship, for guidance, in a sense, even if they just watch you, they don't talk to you. You know what I mean? It just it's such a value. I commend you for doing that. It's just such a value.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Appreciate that. And a number of times where, you know, even our executive directors, all the way my time within our alliance, but there's been four executive directors in the role since I've been on the board. And all of them have had a personal relationship with the students and that they felt like they were there in the event. It wasn't all about delivering this and learning that. There was a, you can come to me when when you have a question about something, or you're troubled by something, or you're you just need somebody to lean on. I think that's one of the awesome, one of the greatest parts of that or executive director role is that they are that that higher level mentor. They're beyond it's not just career stuff. They can come to them when they're hurting, when they've had breakups, when they've had something at home that's that's not right, and that they have a trusted person that they can lean on and a shoulder they can cry on sometimes and talk about their problems. And that's part of what's awesome about our executive directors is that they do that. They they're there for them on a personal level, just as much as they're there for them to help them grow, develop, and grow and develop and mature, not just as technologists, but as leaders. These are gonna be students are gonna be our our future leaders, all of our companies in town. And that and so they're not just there to help them get there professionally, but also just being there as a as a as a trust a trusted mentor and a and a trusted um, you know, somebody that they can just talk to about whatever they're whatever's going on with it.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

You know, that there's there's so much to like we talked about earlier, like the teamwork, you know, uh cultures and the right employees, or they gotta learn that technology intertwines with your person with people's personal life so much that them learning how to act and things is just as important as how to code, right? How to be how to be professional is just as important because you have to understand who you're delivering for, have empathy, you know, learn all those traits. And that's what makes you very successful and handle layoffs and moving from job to job, you know. I mean, because you have that foundation, right? And I think you know, that's just what they need to learn more of. It's not about the computer used to tell us how to work. Now we tell the computer what we want it to do or how we're we're gonna work. And it's just a different world than back in the 70s and 80s, uh, as far as helping.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

I I miss the simplicity of the yeah. The 70s and 80s, yeah. The the the the easy button, run life or difference. Yeah, the technology is a great thing, but I do believe that the cell phone and social media has d has been the contributors to the downfall society. And or they're it's getting there. And they it's just how you use it and how much you depend on it. And yeah, I just you just it it's really opened up a different, a different world. There is something to be said for waiting for things, and it doesn't have to be this instant gratification thing that you get from from the cell phone. Wow, having to go and do research in a library, what forget that. You got Google, you got ChatGPT. You don't need a library anymore. You don't need to so I'm I'm starting to sound like uh like an old guy, which I am, but there is something to be said for growing up in an age when when you didn't have access to things like that.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

I think it's having more having those tools in your toolbox helps you build that resilience, which will be a skill that you will need in life. And I I think that if you depend too much on cell phone technology, as ironic as it is, um, it it almost becomes the crutch because at some point It does.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

It does, but then it opens up more opportunities for maturity. If you know that you have that power at your fingertips and you still go off and do things the hard way, meaning the right, meaning like the the not the fast way, knowing I have that power at my fingertips and I'm still gonna go do my research papers like I should, and I'm still gonna not replace that, you know, instant messaging and chat and all the things, and not allow that to replace human human interactions and friendships, then then it's even that's a even more of a blessing, I think, when you can learn to know where its place is in your life.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Yeah. So you talk about this all day, I think.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Yeah. For anyone who wants to give back, whether in security, music, or education, what would be a small realistic first step?

SPEAKER_01 42:02

I've been very fortunate. I always feel like I just was in the right place at the right time. So it's finding that right place at the right time. Every wherever you work, there's gonna be some sort of an opportunity to get back. And to but but something that gratifies or something that really everyone's gonna have their different way of of giving back and and using your talents. I've done my fair share of of volunteer days where you're building houses and you're sweeping grass or so you're sweeping root leaves or you're doing this and that. And you know, it I feel so good at the end of it, but it's like I don't feel like wow, I loved doing that. So finding the thing that you're good at. Habitat for humanity is gonna be your total jam. If you love to, if you love woodworking and you love building things, you're gonna get more out of that than you're gonna be playing music. So it's it's really finding where your where do your talents intersect with your uh you know, with with the charitable things that you want to contribute to. Uh and also not just making sure you believe in the charity too. I mean, I get to I get to play music every year and raise money. But if I didn't care about the Carnegie, it wouldn't have nearly the impact on me personally, uh, because I believe in in the Carnegie and the mission and what we're doing for kids that uh, you know, I if if if I no longer play music, I would still want to find a way to contribute to the Carnegie with other kinds of talent. So I think that looking for those opportunities, they're all they're out there. They're just all out there. It's it's easy to searching for it. It's you know, it's it's doing some research. Most companies have all kinds of charitable things that they that they give back to. Some companies give to a number of charities, some more targeted, pick four or five. Find the ones, figure out a way to get involved. And most of them are going to have opportunities to use your talents to further their mission in whatever way you want to get. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Love it. Quick fire round for you. Love it. All right, are

SPEAKER_01 44:00

ready yes these are gonna be really hard questions strat or les paul yes i have both i i have uh four les pauls and five strats uh i think that would really fun i i i don't know if i answered that right with yes but i you know i it that's a that is a tough one that you cannot absolutely beat the sound of a les ball all right tab you you can't beat that so but i but i also love the lightness i love the the the the tone of a strat so i don't think i answered your question if i had to pick i'd say les ball uh okay if you're standing on a desert island we know it's a ship you just or by ear by ear um i harder solos i've had to learn i've said okay i'm gonna get the tab and i sit down and look at it and i play and i and i just i find myself having to push that away and just do it by ear unless it's a part that I'm really kind of I can't quite figure out what they're doing I will learn it much I will learn it learn it like if I do it by ear versus trying to trying to remember what a tab what's on the tab what's tabs I'm sorry basically it maps out the six strings and that kind of gives you the the the numbers show what fret on what string and but the problem is is that I've always learned I've always said if you can't whistle it you can't play it just it's just a bunch of just a bunch of numbers on six lines um so if you're gonna go it means you have to know already know it anyway so you may as well just do it by yeah I I I always enjoyed I learned the chords of course the way they were meant to play but by year was my natural way of doing it.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

And I appreciate that much I got one for you responding to a severe incident or playing impromptu solo in front of 500 people.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Done both what uh the one that probably gives me the more of the howling fan tods would probably be the sevone outage because it's never it's not always in your control and you don't have people yelling at you and screaming at you as can happen on a sub one outage. And uh I have done a number of times well one thing I will say about playing solo that it's sort of like you really are going out on a wire if you haven't practiced it and you decide the first time you're gonna try it is in front of 500 people. I've I've done it before and nine times out of ten it's I've pulled it off. However what I will balance that with is if it's a solo, if you're doing it because you and the people you're you're playing with decide out of the blue to have an impromptu jam there's absolutely nothing cooler than just taking that risk and playing that solo. And if you hit a clunker, you know what you do? You hit it again. Then people think huh that you know that was kind of an interesting combination there. I like it you know and smiling the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

I would agree with you if you uh at a group of people that would be like an unplugged session right you just get up there and start jamming there's nothing like it but by yourself getting pulled out of the audience say hey you play guitar play us something you know and oh I'll take the seven out of you I'm take I'm rolling back I'll take the seven out of you again that's uh I uh when you're by yourself my first year my very first year it suits 200 people and I was doing the the opening to Hotel California on the 12th string so you're already a little nervous because it's your first time doing it but that's solid 90 seconds of you playing without any background and it's a very recognizable opener.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

And everyone knows after three four bars of that opening you know what song it is. So you mess up there's nobody to hide behind and uh yeah so I would say that that was that was probably the seventeen would have been looking pretty good. Oh long dusty highway could you run out fortunately it all yeah and you can check out anytime you like but uh fortunately it all came out great.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

That's awesome. Matt, thank you so much for joining us. Not only a strategic leader but a charitable soul who gives back to the community and is invested in helping to guide the next generation of future leaders. Until next time this has been Ward Garage with pops rock on.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

Yeah thanks for giving back to us thanks Matt thank you thanks for having me thank you