99: An Unfiltered Conversation with Network Chuck

In this episode of the IT Career Podcast, I sit down with Network Chuck for a raw, unfiltered conversation about tech, career growth, burnout, content creation, certifications, and the real behind-the-scenes life of one of YouTube’s biggest tech creators.Whether you're just starting your IT journey or you're a seasoned professional, this episode is packed with real talk, laughs, and valuable insights you won’t want to miss.Exclusive Career Resources✅ Weekly Insider Tips: https://thebeardeditdad.ck.page/55f710292b🎧Listen to The I.T. Career Podcast HERE: ➡︎YT: https://itdad.info/ytpodcast➡︎Apple: https://apple.co/4aw0uVM➡︎Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yBcrfuDisclaimer: Some of these links are affiliate links where I'll earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.#networkchuck #networkengineer #cybersecuritycareer

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Which some people may not realize, this is a whole area of
IT. Phones, VoIP phones, voice over
IP. There's like a weird
intersection of like telephony, phone calls and networking.
And they put them together and I'm like, what?
I fell in love with this. If you've ever watched the
network check video, you alreadyknow this guy makes IT feel like

(00:23):
a superpower. But today, we're not doing
tutorials or project reviews or any of that kind of thing.
This is something different. This is an unfiltered
conversation with one of the most recognizable faces in tech
YouTube. We're talking about the grind,
the burnout, the breakthroughs, and everything in between.

(00:44):
From coffee fueled certifications to building a
massive community, We're digginginto Chuck's journey and talking
about the stuff that you don't always hear about.
If you've ever wondered what it takes to turn your passion for
tech into a full time career or just looking for some straight
up motivation, you're in the right place.
Let's dive into it, Chuck. Welcome and thank you again for

(01:06):
coming back to the channel. Yeah, Dakota, it's a pleasure.
I always have a good time here. And by the way, that was one
take that was impressive. I can't do that.
I practiced a few times. I'm just like he's, he's going
to break here in a second. He's going to break.
He's going to break. No, that was one take Smooth.
Well, again, thank you. It's it's so great talking and
catching up with you. We were talking a bit before and

(01:26):
and it's just amazing what you've been doing in the space.
And I just got to take a few more seconds here and just, you
know, honor what you've been doing for the community and just
in general and just giving people the motivation.
So thank you. Thank you for your kind words.
And it's, it's the reason I still do what I do like being on
YouTube. It's, it's hard and it's
definitely a different landscapethan when I first started.

(01:47):
But it's, it's hearing these stories and it's so funny
because when I first started out, you know, I was the young
guy just inspiring all the youngup and comers.
And now I'm having people reach out to me and go, hey, man, I
used to watch your videos back in the day and now I'm in IT and
I'm like, back in the day. Am I that old?
But I, I love it when people come to me and tell me like,

(02:09):
yeah, you're the reason I got started in IT or you're the
reason I jumped into cyber security.
That's that's why I do this. I love it so much.
What is like the biggest misconception people have about
you that couldn't be further from the truth you think?
So this is something I wish was obvious, but it's not.
I'm not an expert in anything like I you should not hire me in

(02:34):
a professional technical role unless I had time to acclimate
because I I teach and that's about all I have time for.
And when you see me teaching on YouTube, it's because I've
studied that thing. I'm teaching very much in depth
weeks before and then I'm teaching it.
I just so happen to have found my gifting, which is explaining

(02:55):
things I can do, but I'm not an expert.
So people when they normally meet me, they think, oh, you're
a networking expert, Oh, you're a professional hacker.
No, I've dived deep enough into these things to be able to teach
some concepts, which is its own thing.
That's extremely hard. I've been in situations where
I've been an expert, where I've been a network engineer, and

(03:16):
it's really hard to explain whatyou do.
So it's a whole different skill set.
So where I do what I do nowadaysis I devote most of my time to
learning how to explain things better and not so much being a
professional expert. So I wish people, more people
knew that because it's like a misconception, like, oh, we're
going to get this expert on the line.
I'm not, I'm not an expert. I just pretend to be on TV.

(03:38):
Hi, I'm Troy McClure. Do do people actually reach out
to you all the time for for thatkind of stuff?
Yeah, yeah, they do. So they they assume if you talk
about something on YouTube and you have a following, then oh,
you must do it every single day.And that's your job.
So I've had people and I've had to decline this because I'm
like, I wouldn't be of help. I've had police departments from
different countries reach out tome and say, hey, we need your

(04:00):
help finding this criminal. I'm like, I can't, that's not
really what I do. Like I can point you in the
right direction. There's some amazing people who
do this every day. I am not the person for that.
I again I play this guy on TVI cannot do that.
But you know, there there's a skill in that, having that
ability to articulate knowledge and to teach other people and
inspire other people. I think you've done an amazing

(04:22):
job with that. And that that is a really
difficult skill that very few people have, I feel like.
Yeah, I I found that it's not the experts who are very good at
explaining things. In fact, if you meet a real
expert, most of the time they'reterrible at teaching and that
there are rare cases, but it's adifferent mindset.

(04:43):
I think it's a different thing you bring to the table.
Now I can sit down with an expert, I can go show me enough
about what you do to help me understand it, and I can teach
someone else what you do, but I can never do what you do because
that's a whole different thing. I mean, I probably could
eventually if I really sat down and try to figure it out.
But yeah, Dakota, you and me, we're, we're content creators
like we, we want to spend more time just teaching and while,

(05:06):
but you know, who am I talking? You, you actually do this every
day. You're, you're a professional.
So you're more of an expert thanI am ever, ever will be.
For a long time no no. And I and that's one thing about
me I'll never claim to be an expert, but for I feel like also
different reasons yes, I do likemy day job I'm a director of
network operations. I live and breathe networking
every single day I dream about this stuff, but I won't ever

(05:29):
claim to be an expert because I really feel like no one can
truly be an expert except for there's the select few that like
just devote their life to every waking moment.
And those people rarely have a YouTube channel.
There's a few of them out there,but I feel like those, those
people, you, you hit the nail onthe head.
They, they don't necessarily aregreat.

(05:50):
They're not great at explaining things.
And my whole thing is like when I got into tech, you know, I
felt like there was this like Stonewall in the industry that
like I couldn't see past. I couldn't find a path into the
industry. And my whole thing is I want to
break down that wall for people.I want to, you know, demystify

(06:11):
like how scary tech is because while it is kind of scary to get
into, once you, if you have the motivation is the thing like
this whole world will open up toyou.
And there's people here that aremore than willing to help.
That is what you said is so true.
And that's that's the I know that's your heart behind what
you do. And that's largely what I do

(06:32):
too. It's I felt like I found a cheat
code to life almost like, you know, before I was just kind of
going down a weird path, not only having any guidance.
And when I jumped into IT, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is a
thing. You can do this.
And not only can it like you canjust get a job on the help desk
like you don't, you don't need acertification.

(06:52):
It helps you don't need experience.
It helps, but you can work, you work at Starbucks, you have
Starbucks experience, jump on a help desk and that experience
you start gaining at the help desk level will immediately
apply and help you to grow so fast.
And that's what I did. Like I, I saw like you're a
director, you know how fast someone can move up.
You just you, you look at the other guys around you go, hey,

(07:14):
what, what are you doing? You're, you're typing in a
terminal. I have no idea what that is.
Can you teach me that? Before I knew it, I was doing
what he was doing. And it just, that's just how it
happens. And that's what's amazing about
IT. And that that's the reason we
talk about it all the time. It's so cool because it, it is
fun. Like today I went down a rabbit
hole of just, I don't think I looked up from my screen.

(07:34):
In fact, this meeting very much surprised me because I, I, I, I
had my briefing this morning with my assistant.
She told me it was happening, but 450 came around and I was
deep in the terminal just typingaway.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I've got a meeting.
I got to go. And that's just how amazing IT
is. But you can lose yourself in it
and it can change your life because it, it's not like

(07:55):
traditional stuff. It's not like traditional
education where you have to go down a, a regimented path.
You have to pay your dues. Oh, it's you can, you can, you
can design your own path. And I love that about it.
It it is so cool and you know, Itell people like I get asked
literally every single day, how do I get started in tech?
How do I land my job? And I tell them like, there is

(08:18):
no two paths in this industry that are the same.
Everyone comes from different ways.
And you got to really find out what your journey looks like.
You know, you can go the collegeroute.
And for some people, they need that structure of like a college
education. I'm not going to knock college
education because they have their place.
You know, some people really need that college education.
And for some of the higher end jobs, it's still kind of a

(08:42):
requirement. Unfortunately.
I feel like, I feel like that's starting to fade away.
But for me, that wasn't my case.I couldn't do college.
I was a college dropout. I had a huge passion for tech
when I first started out. Like I did the CCNA back in high
school. And then I tried to go into
college and then I just kind of like flopped and just did jobs

(09:02):
to put food on the table. And it took me like, gosh, 10
years to come back around to finally starting in tech.
I was a, I've told the story to you before and on my channel,
but I was a bulldozer operator before I got into tech and I was
done doing a job that I didn't enjoy anymore.
And I knew I enjoyed tech. So I knew I couldn't get it into

(09:25):
college. Like college wasn't for me and I
really didn't have money to throw up boot camps.
That's another path. So I decided to go YouTube and
watch videos and I eventually got certified and stuff like
that. And I, I kid you not, this
career field can be as lucrativeand as fast-paced as you really

(09:46):
want it to be because it took me3 years to go from help desk to
Director of network operation with no degree.
I mean, I had a handful of certifications by the time I hit
director level, but still, I just had pure dedication and
willingness to learn. And that's really, I think, the
key to success in this field. You're, you hit the nail on the

(10:08):
head, I think. And, and this field rewards that
very much so because it's not tosay that.
Well, actually, you know, I, when when I went through, when I
was on the help desk and when I saw that you could just jump up
and move forward, like if you wanted to level up, they gave
you a path that said, Hey, just learn this thing.
And if you can show us that you know it, we'll let you do it.

(10:30):
I'm like, OK, let's do that. But then I looked around and I'm
like, why isn't anyone else doing this?
And I would ask them like, oh, I'm happy where I'm at.
And that's fine. And that's fine for those
people. But if you're hungry, you have
motivation, they reward that. That happens.
And absolutely. And there are jobs where it's
harder to move up. And I totally like it.

(10:51):
What we'll probably see in the comments, I'm really stuck at
like, there are jobs like that. But for the most, like in most
of my experience, it is you can move up pretty quickly.
It's amazing. But yeah, I, I love your story,
Dakota, because you, you changedcareers and that's a big, that's
my hardest for people like that who realized I, I kind of hate

(11:13):
what I'm doing right now. Like my life is not going where
actually I don't even know wheremy life was going to go.
I'm just here now. But now I'm realizing that you
need more money to make life, life work.
I've got kids. What do I do?
And that's, that's where I hit. And I think many people I meet
in IT like you, Dakota, you, youkind of already had a love for
IT that wasn't me. Like, I, I wasn't looking to get

(11:36):
into iti wasn't like a super nerd.
I mean, my dad was in IT and I, he had showed me computer stuff,
but I, I never really showed an interest in it.
My interest was like making videos, which is why I do this
now. I, I've been on YouTube since
2016 when I, when I first came out, or yeah, that's right.
No, 2006, 2006, getting my dateswrong.
So I hadn't, I had no desire to be in IT until I needed to be.

(12:00):
And I thought, OK, I'll just trythis.
I'll see if it works. I don't think I'm necessarily
gifted in that area, but I'll just try it.
And what I found, and it so surprised me is that I loved it.
And I think that can be, it's true for anybody.
Like you may not be the most gifted person in IT, but if you
work hard and you really try to know the stuff, there will be a

(12:23):
place for you and, and you may not go down.
And this is what I love IT to, right?
You may not go down the path of becoming a tech.
Maybe you learn enough IT to be a marketing person.
Maybe you learn enough IT to be in sales.
Maybe you learn enough IT to, I don't know, just do something

(12:44):
like one of those neighbor skills, right?
You don't have to be the tech guy.
You can be the whatever your gifting is your personal
gifting. I think finding that is very,
very hard now because school doesn't teach that.
School doesn't teach you to findwhat you're gifted AT and then
channel that into something that's actually something that a
partner and mine are kind of trying to figure out how we can

(13:05):
revamp education a bit to where that's put front and center.
Let's help you figure out what you love and get you going,
because I I think that's totallymissing right now.
It is because, you know, again, it goes back to everyone has a
different path, a different journey, different set of
skills, different passions, and there is a place for every skill

(13:26):
set and passion in tech. You know, like you said, tech
adjacent, you know, sales, you know, marketing, so on.
Like there's project management,like there's tons of different
things and this field will let you run as wild as you want to.
And I'm, I'm curious like for you, like what kind of when did

(13:47):
it start clicking for you that like how broad this field was
and like, how like wonderful it was, I guess.
I think it wasn't very long after I started on the help desk
because I, I was so blessed to be in a career or a company
where the entire IT department was in one room.
So I'd be sitting here on like the wall with the three help

(14:09):
desk guys that were there. I was one of them.
And then on the other side of the aisle, on the other wall was
the network engineer, the systemengineer, 3 programmers.
And I'm like, what, What all these people do?
When I got a chance to learn that I'm like, I didn't know IT
was this, that there were different levels.
First of all, I thought just if you're an IT guy, you're an IT
guy, that that typical TV, like when you try to tell someone who

(14:29):
doesn't know anything about IT what you do, they're like, oh,
you're like, you're like help desk support.
Like if my printer doesn't work,I can call you.
Yeah, no, no, you cannot. Because I I can figure it out,
but I'm no better than you. The lame IT guy and everybody
hates me. I didn't know there were so many
things. So yeah, being on the help.
And that's why I love the help desk because many people don't

(14:50):
know that. But when you get in it, it's
like, it's like taking the, I forget, is it the blue pill or
the red pill in the matrix? I don't remember.
It's taking one of those pills and having your eyes open,
you're like, Oh my gosh, this isa whole thing.
And I can choose which way I want to go.
And my best advice for people ischoose the path that has the
most upward mobility. So for me, I chose networking

(15:11):
because they needed a networkingperson, not because I'm like,
oh, I saw the command line and Ifell in love.
No, no, no, I just they said we need help.
I'm like, OK, I can help. And that and I'm like, there's
opportunity there. So yeah, that that's my best
advice for people is, yeah, follow your passion.
But I think, I think you'll findyour passion with whatever our

(15:33):
choice you make. So pick the pick a thing that
will give you the most momentum,the most upward mobility.
Identify like maybe they're running out of cloud, people
jump into cloud. Maybe they need someone who
knows firewall, jump in the firewall.
Like there's so many options. It's so fun.
Absolutely. So you, you, you got in the help
desk, you chose networking as a path.
Where did the career journey go for you for there or go for you

(15:56):
from there? You know, how did you go?
Go from this networking guy to creating a 4 million subscriber
YouTube channel. Oh it it took me a while cuz I I
did not want to be a YouTube. Actually, there was a moment
where I wanted to be a vlogger, a family vlogger, back in the
day when family vlogging was at its height.

(16:18):
I'm like survival vlog entry oneI.
Was going to say, I think everyone who's like, interested
in YouTube at one point wanted to be a family vlogger like I
know I have, yeah. It's like, I've got kids.
They're pretty cute. I think let's put them on TV.
Glad it didn't work out actually, because those
families, some make it work, some are just not doing so well.
So I'm glad we didn't, but so I,I mean, we, we, I was always

(16:41):
YouTube adjacent, but like I knew my career is my career and
I think the moment I so I'll, I'll answer your question.
I'm going to like go around the back.
I sorry, I'm drinking like a seltzer water.
I, I fell in love with it because it's the first job that
I wasn't bored at and that I would look up from my desk and

(17:03):
it would be time to go. And I was sad about that.
Like I'm not done yet. And now that I'm like, wait, did
I just say that about work? That felt so weird.
And it became a problem because I was coming home late.
My wife got mad at me, but it paid off.
So anyways, I was a network engineer.
Well, actually I went from help desk or let me step back.

(17:24):
I was junior help desk less thanless.
I went to help desk at a promotion and then I got to
junior network engineer because I just expressed A willingness
to learn. I would go to the data center
with the guys on the on the maintenance weekends, not
getting paid any extra money, just there to help.
And eventually the reason I got promoted to network engineer is
because the main guy left and, and my CIO was like, can you do

(17:50):
this? And I'm like sure, sure.
I could not do it. I had no idea what I was doing.
So I, I, I'm not, I kid you not,the network engineer that was
leaving. I'm like, can I, can I come over
to your house like a few nights and like study with you and
like, you can show me everything, like go over the
firewalls, the ASA configurationbecause I, I, I don't know.

(18:11):
So he did that and and he was just the best guy.
So awesome. So that's one piece of advice.
So I give people like don't be afraid to step into an area that
is going to make you grow that you're not ready for.
You'll get ready, you'll get ready.
And if you don't and if you fail, you learn so much in that
process too. So anyways, I'm network
engineer. I found that I really love the

(18:32):
Cisco voice, which some people may not realize.
This is a whole area of IT, phones, VoIP phones, voice over
IP. There's like a weird
intersection of like telephony, phones, phone calls and
networking. And they put them together and
I'm like, what? I fell in love with this mainly
because they didn't have a phoneguy.

(18:52):
You're seeing a trend, right? They didn't have a phone guy.
I'm like, I'll be the phone guy.And that decision really
propelled me very quickly because that's a rare skill.
Not many network engineers enjoyvoice.
I'm like, I'll enjoy it for them.
I'm going to get paid. So I enjoyed voice and.
Paid getting paid. I learned voice I got, I started

(19:15):
getting my, I got my CCNA voice that back when they had that
certification and I was at my job for probably that, that one
company for maybe five years before I made the jump.
Because when you save the company for too long, you'll get
those incremental raises. But if you want to make some
serious money, it's moving to a different company.

(19:35):
And I realized that when I started applying and they're
like, we can pay you this much. And I'm like, wait, what?
That's, that's that's Monopoly money.
That's that's not real. But no, it was a real thing.
So what was cool is I, I, I worked in a way to where I made
sure I had in demand skills. What I would do in my downtime
is I would get on LinkedIn, get on monster dice and look at jobs

(19:58):
that I like, like my dream jobs.And I would look at the skills
they would look for and I would just go, I'm going to add that
to my list. I'm going to add that to my list
and I would do it in my job. So I feel like.
Hey, CIOI want to implement Cisco Expressway in our
environment because I think it would really help us.
And this was like a tool that allowed you to remotely do calls
and stuff is the whole thing. I'm not sure it's around

(20:20):
anymore, but I presented that because I, I wanted to put it on
my resume. So I, I pushed this in that
direction. It was a good thing.
It was good for the company, butit was really good for me.
So being in the IT is kind of like a a give and take like you,
you get to like you're, you're getting paid to learn every day.
It's like you're, you're you're in school every day.

(20:42):
Half your job is figuring out stuff and figuring out how to
how I can't talk today, figuringout how to make things work.
So anyways, any questions so farto go by the way?
I'm just going to keep. Going Oh, no, no, absolutely
keep going. OK cool.
So I land my next job which was a whole It's.
It's weird going from one IT department to another because

(21:02):
you're like learning a whole. No IT department is No2.
IT departments are the. Same.
No, never. They're going to be vastly
different. They're going to use different
technologies. Like I was a Cisco guy through
and through and moving to the next place.
They had a bit of Palo Alto. They had a bit of what was the
other brand, I forget now, thinkCisco bought them anyway,
doesn't matter. They just had a bunch of

(21:23):
different things. And I'm like, Oh my gosh.
But you get used to it. You realize that all tech is
similar. Like if you learn the concepts,
if you know what AV land is, if you know routing, OSPFBGP, if
you learn those concepts, they're standards.
They they apply to every area. And if you and if you know
Cisco, you can go anywhere. Anyways, I I get to the the

(21:43):
voice job and I made the mistakeof moving far away from my job.
Up until that point, I'd always been like 5 minutes away from my
job. I lived in the city so I could
just drive to work. But this is the first time I had
a commute. This murdered my soul.
Now I know many of you probably have a commute and that's that's
hard. I had an hour there an hour back

(22:04):
and this robbed me of energy. It robbed me of time with my
kids. And I'm like, this is this is
stupid. Why am I doing this?
So that's when I started prayingin my car every day on the way
there on the way back. God, I don't think this is for
me. Help me find a way.
And that's when I started working on this whole YouTube
thing I had made if you go back in my channel back in 2014, the

(22:27):
birth of network Chuck I, I justdecided to make a YouTube video
about networking. I'd always done personal YouTube
videos. If you go on my personal
channel, you'll see I did the original cinnamon challenge.
If you remember the cinnamon challenge where you get the
spoonful full of cinnamon, try to swallow it.
My video was the first one ever on YouTube, so you can go look
that up. You won't recognize me though.

(22:49):
You'll have to like really figure it out.
Ask AI or something. So I, I made this first video
and the IT closet of my first job and I was just like, my
motivation for that was I saw this guy on YouTube named George
Almazan. He's not really making content
anymore. But back then, like back in
2014, there weren't Youtubers like you and me, Dakota, like

(23:11):
there weren't people making content about Cisco.
There might have been some programming YouTube channels,
but this level of this branch ofit was ignored that nobody knew
about it. So there's just one guy who was
making content about his Cisco certification journey and it
inspired the heck out of me. It wasn't like a huge
production. He wasn't doing anything crazy,

(23:31):
but just the fact that he was talking about his CCMP and he
was moving towards the CCIE. I'm like, I could binge this guy
all day. This is exciting because I was
studying for my CCMP and I lovedjust seeing someone else talk
about it. Then I thought, huh, I like
YouTube, I can do this, let me try it.
So that was my first video. I actually, my, my CIO had asked

(23:53):
me to make some training videos for the IT department to like
hand out to to our users. So we didn't have so many calls
just for the phone stuff. So I, I convinced him to buy
this camera and it's that camerathat I used for my video in the
back closet. There was no lock on my closet,
so I had to close it. And I'm like looking around
going OK, is anyone coming? No, I'm going to try and make a

(24:16):
video and it was just, it was the worst video ever.
But I love looking back on that because it's just the, it's the
first moment where I'm like, oh,this is kind of cool, but I
didn't think it was going to go anywhere.
I thought it was a waste of timeand I ignored it until
20/17/2017 is when I realized that commute suck and that
working a nine to five may not be for my personality type.

(24:38):
You might be this, this might beyou.
During work, you might get up and get bored and start walking
around the building. That was me.
I got really bored because my previous job was you had to know
everything in IT. You had to know the Active
Directory, you had to know a little bit about exchange.
You had to know like everything.So like we were always hair on

(24:58):
fire, busy. This new company, I had one
role. It was voice and a little bit of
networking. So I had a lot of extra time.
So I just walked around. I got bored and I had a 2 hour
commute. I'm like, this is this is not
for me. Oh.
My gosh. Yeah, it was just, it was the
worst. But so I, I started making
videos in my house and again, I thought it wouldn't go anywhere,

(25:20):
but I wanted to try it because I, I, I found that I enjoyed
making them and I wasn't teaching anything back then like
I was scared to teach. I would make videos like here's
6 CCNA tips for your next certification.
Then I would do a here's 7 CCNA tips and then here's six travel
tips to study while you're studying for your seat.
Like I was running out of ideas pretty fast.

(25:41):
But I started making a few training videos and I started
doing training videos about Cisco voice.
I have some old ones on my channel.
It was about Cisco hunt groups. Basically it's a way to when you
when you call the help desk, it can like go between different
people and you get you get the the first agent, the most basic
way to do that. But I made a video about it.
And does anyone here know JeremyChara?

(26:04):
I I definitely do, yeah. Razor, if you know Jeremy like
he's, he may not be a big deal anymore.
He's about to be, though. I'll get some more of that
later. But back in the day, if you
wanted to learn Cisco, you learned it from him.
And if you couldn't afford it, you would go bootleg it, You'd
go download it from Pirate Bay because he was good and I
watched him all the time. He's the reason I'm in IT.

(26:25):
Like I know this because watching, I watch the CCNA
stuff, I watch the CCNA voice stuff.
He got me excited about voice. And one day I checked my Twitter
DMS. This is back when it was Twitter
and it's Adm from Jeremy Chara. So I'm like, first of all, I'm
making sure it's actually him. And then I'm like, hit my wife.

(26:46):
Honey, honey, you'll never guesslike I, I'm like freaking out
because she she knows who I'm talking about.
I play his videos in the car. She knows his voice just like I
do. And then he's and he says this
to me. He goes, hey, I saw you on
YouTube. I love your content.
Do you want to jump on a call? Like what?
I'm going to get to talk to Jeremy Chara.
So it's, it's a weird experienceto, to be listening to someone

(27:10):
for so long and then have a conversation with them.
It's almost like you forget to talk because you're like you're,
you're so used to that passive listening.
And that was my experience. Something on the call with him.
But essentially he wanted me to come work for CBT Nuggets to
give it a try because he liked what I, and back then, like he
had to have seen something because there was nothing like I

(27:30):
was not good. I, I was stinky, like I was not
a good creator. And he, I guess he saw
something. So I, I give it a try.
I, I spent I, I did this, this video about V Lans.
I think it might still be on my channel and it's so bad.
It was so bad and I think I did it four times and it took me
forever and I wanted to make sure it was perfect.

(27:52):
I can't believe they let me start making content, but they
did. They said yes.
They, they let me start making content and working at this
company, CBT Nuggets was a life changing thing for me.
First of all, I didn't have to going to the office.
It's a remote job. They they're based in Oregon.
I could stay in Texas. This is great, but it required

(28:12):
me to learn how to teach, which I thought I knew how to teach a
little bit. I did not.
I did not. So I got to learn under the
masters. I was learning under Jeremy
Chara, masterful teacher, masterful teacher.
Keith Barker. Oh my goodness, he's amazing.
So like the the first, but my first week working at CBT
Nuggets, I, they actually flew me to his house and I stayed

(28:33):
with him for a week and like, itwas like a boot camp watch me do
this. It was intense and I was scared
to death. So I'm like, I've got like have
Keith Barker watch me teach. That's not OK I'm terrible.
It is. It was the most terrifying thing
ever. But it's under these guys where
I could, you know, anybody can try to make a training video,

(28:55):
but if you try to explain a basic concept, you might sit
there and rattle off for like 30minutes and it was pointless.
And it was, that's how I used todo it.
They taught me to no, no, no, no, get that idea down to its
single most basic form and teachit in 5 minutes.
And I kept having to do that over and over and over and over
again. And that truly shaped what I do

(29:19):
here on YouTube now. So we're going to CBT Nuggets.
I'm making content. They first gave me the voice
content to make for the CC and Pcollaboration, which I think is
still around. And then I got into making CCNA
with my heroes. So the same CCNA course I
watched coming up. I was making it with the people
I watched now, which was a surreal moment I was making with
Keith Barger and Jeremy Chara. But at that time I was still

(29:41):
making YouTube content. I was like, I'm taking what I
learned at CBT Nuggets and I'm going to start teaching on
YouTube. And that was fun because CBT
Nuggets was frustrating for me. I would make a video.
It would I would edit it, it would go into this box and it
wouldn't be ready or seen by anyone for a long time on
YouTube. I'm like record, edit, go

(30:03):
instant feedback. People comment, Oh, that was
cool. Or they say this is one of your
worst Chuck, like instant feedback.
You get that. So YouTube was always like my
favorite thing and I saw that I was helping the most people with
YouTube. So eventually in, in Dakota,
you're kind of experiencing thisnow sponsors started coming out.

(30:24):
They're like, whoa, we talk, we,we sell networking things.
And this guy over here is talking about networking things.
Is there something we can do here?
And that's, that's exactly what happened.
I started making sponsorships, which I had no idea what I was
doing. In fact, I don't think anyone
did. Most of the companies I worked
with had never ever worked with an influencer before.
I was the first one. So they would come to me and go,

(30:47):
how do we do this? And I'm like, aren't you
supposed to tell me that? Because I, I think I was my
first sponsorship was I and E back in the day.
And it was like for pennies likeI think it would, it was maybe
400 bucks, maybe not even that. And I got to give away some
content that was so exciting. But more and more sponsors came

(31:07):
up and influencer marketing started becoming more of a
thing. And I got to a point where I
could leave and make this my full time gig.
And it was actually during, oddly enough, during COVID.
So I I've been working CBT doingYouTube part time, recording
content for training, recording content for YouTube.

(31:27):
That was so exhausting and I just didn't want to do anymore.
COVID made it made it really clear for me because the world
shut down and everyone just kindof had to think be by
themselves. I got a chance to really reflect
and go, OK, I think YouTube doing my own thing is where I
want to be. So I move that direction.
I'm quitting was the most terrifying thing ever.

(31:48):
Because you'll leave security, you, you leave your, your
insurance, you leave that guaranteed paycheck and you're,
you're stepping into a world where it all depends on your
performance. Work always depends on your
performance to a point. But you know, you can have those
lazy weeks. You know, you can go into work
one day and mail it in and the company's not going to die when
you're on your own. It's all you like.

(32:10):
It's, it's, oh, it's, it's terrifying.
But I made the jump. And back then, I mean, I had, I
had nothing. I was probably 607080 thousand
subscribers jumping off this my own.
It was the terrifying world. Not to say that it's not like
Dakota. You have 60,000, which is
amazing. Like that journey takes a long

(32:30):
time. It does.
I remember when I hit 1000 subscribers, I lost my mind.
I was telling my family like, hey, I think I'm a big deal now.
But I'm kind of a big deal. So you, you guys got to got to
recognize that. I remember going out to lunch
with one of the guys I used to work with and I'm like, yeah,
I'm getting like 100 views on each video.
You will not believe how cool I am right now.

(32:52):
Like, it's amazing. Like I just remember being so
happy with. So celebrating those, those
milestones is incredible. And I remember getting on a call
one time with, you probably knowZach from IT career questions.
Oh yeah, I've had, yeah, many conversations with Zach.
Yeah. So this is back in the day.
We're, we're both on the come upand he, I think he had hit maybe
90 and I wasn't like I, I never ever thought I would hit 100K

(33:15):
and that, that was like the thing.
And so we were talking like, Oh yeah, that's our goal.
And he convinced me to start, start doing a live stream.
And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, I, I can't do a live stream.
Live streaming is terrifying. I'm, I'm good at like making
videos and highly editing myself, but I could never jump
on a live stream and just like talk to people like this.

(33:35):
Heck no. But I'm glad he pushed me to do
it because I found that it's a fun thing and it it creates a
new level of, I mean, Dakota, you, you live streamed before.
Oh, yeah. It creates a new level of even
though you're not necessarily receiving back the conversation,
you feel like you are talking toyour people directly.
And I think it. It's just another level of
community you're building, I feel.

(33:56):
Yeah, yeah, like it it, it does break that that that barrier
that a YouTube video can't. So it was so cool to start doing
that. That changed a lot of what I
did. And so anyways, COVID that hit
went full time and man, going full time on YouTube and, and
putting all your energy into it,that hit in the gas.

(34:17):
My gosh, things just went. And I, I was so blessed in that
process. But it was just, it was from all
the stuff I learned from being anetwork engineer, from being on
the help desk, learning how to learn, because that's what I
love about IT. You find the most successful
people on IT are the people who learned how to learn well.
If you think that you're going to go to school, come out and be

(34:40):
done with learning, you are. You're going to have a rough
ride, buddy. You're just starting.
Yeah, this field is evolving so rapidly, especially with the
introduction of AI now I feel like the field is evolving more
rapidly than ever before. And you got use every single
tool that you have available to just try to keep up.

(35:03):
And I'm not saying that in a badway, like to try to discourage
anyone. Like for me that this gets me
excited. Like, I love learning new
things. And one thing I had a big fear
of getting on into tech early onwas like some of those roles
like you were talking about whenyou got that position working in
VoIP is being siloed off. Like that was like a big scare
of mine because I come from a job where all I did was a

(35:26):
bulldozer operator and it was just mind numbing.
I didn't want that to happen in tech.
So I made sure whatever job I did, I was a Jack of all trades,
which when you're that you are constantly learning because you
have such a broad scope in frontof you.
But yeah, you, you can't stop learning in this field.
The moment you do, you're left in the dust.

(35:46):
You're not evolving. You're so right and it's, it has
been true for a long time. It is very true now with AI.
It's a great thing you brought up like I know people they're
they're 5050 on AI. Some are like shut, don't show
me that stuff. AI is nothing, but AI is here to
stay. It's changing everything

(36:07):
fundamentally and you need to beaware of the technology, you
need to actively use it. And when someone like when open
AI releases a new tool, use it, learn it.
And I, yeah, that it is stressful though, because like,
I can't keep up with all the tools being released.
You got 50 companies releasing tools at a rabbit's pace.
And I'm like, which one do I trytoday?
I only have an hour to play withsomething.

(36:28):
I can't do this. It's, it's a lot and it's easy.
It's very easy to let that overwhelm you.
I, I, I feel that, I know peopleworking in the industry right
now, they have to feel that. And I would just say it's going
to be OK. Like pace yourself, don't stress
yourself out, but push yourself to keep learning.

(36:48):
Always push yourself those new AI tools and you'll learn them.
See how those new AI tools can help you do your job better.
That's the best thing I can tellyou to do.
But yeah, anyways, getting back to my story a little bit if you
want to keep going with the story.
Oh, absolutely. So YouTube started taking off
like crazy and it was just, it was such a massive blessing.

(37:10):
And I got to a point where Dakota has already gotten to
where you find out you can't do it all on your own.
So I, I hired my first person, which is a person for e-mail
because I never answer e-mail. And it was really hurting me
because I was losing sponsorships.
So I hired a person that does e-mail.
Then I hired an editor, Then I hired another editor.
And now I'm at a point where I have roughly 9-10 people that

(37:31):
are full time. That's.
Crazy. And now it's terrifying.
Like I'm like, every time I think about it, I'm like, Oh my
gosh, I pay these people every two weeks.
That's a lot of money. But it's, it's, it's all God.
God brought me here. He gave me the ability to teach
every, every moment, every corner I've turned.
He's been there to help me because like it's doing YouTube

(37:52):
is hard. It's it is like you don't get
like when if you're not a YouTube, when you post the
video, you've got this ranking system one through 10 and
YouTube will tell you, hey, thisvideo, it's a one of ten.
That means out of the last 10 videos, this is the best video
you've posted out of the last 10.
So that's what you want to get when you get into your YouTube

(38:13):
studio. They even give you fireworks.
And I don't know about you, Dakota.
That's the best thing in the world.
I'll refresh that pH. It it is the best feeling too
and and I hate it. I hate it too because of that.
Uh huh. And then, but then you don't,
you can't always post one of 10sunless you're Mr. Beast.
No, you're going to get those 10of 10s.
You're going to get that nine and and eight of 10's.
And sometimes those might happenfor a while.

(38:34):
They'll get into a slump and that'll make you go huh, Am I
done? Have I fallen off?
Should I quit a bomb ahead? Like I've had those thoughts
probably 17,000 times. Oh my gosh.
And but it's, it's been God that's kept me aware of what
he's doing in my life and aware of like, don't get distracted by

(38:54):
that stuff. Just keep doing what you're
doing. Because at the end of the day,
the reason I'm doing this is because I'm looking back on me
when I first started out and I was looking for that, that job
that would lighten me up to helpme provide for my family to like
make me feel a bit more free andless stressed.
And that was IT. So I'm trying to create those
moments for people as much as possible.
And it's still very much possible.

(39:15):
Now, I know people are like, oh,AIIT, no, it's we're able to do
more than we ever have been ableto do ever before.
But there's still so much opportunity.
I'm not worried at all. So yeah, anyways, I've got a
full team now and we worked withsome really fun people.
We did a video with Mr. Beast, which I still have not made a
video about because it was hard.And we have so much footage.

(39:38):
And I just, it's this big Goliath in our nest right now I
don't want to deal with. But yeah, I'm just, I'm excited
about what we're doing now. We're making some really fun
content, we're able to do more than we ever have, and I really
do enjoy teaching. It's like the best thing in the
world. Absolutely.
And we'll be going to do some cool stuff this year.
So Cisco live, we're going to Cisco Live.

(39:59):
So if you're going to be there, I want to see you.
Definitely want to hang out withyou, Dakota.
Absolutely. Looking at your hat, we are
going to Black Hat and DEFCON this year.
Same. Same are you?
Going to go this year. I'm not going to Black Hat, I am
going to defcon though this. Year.
Cool, cool. Yeah, I'm definitely going to
DEFCON and I just want to make sure and enjoy DEFCON instead of

(40:20):
trying to like just cram a wholebunch in while I'm down there,
so. Oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
I'm going to be running around like a crazy person with my crew
recording things. So it's it's going to be that's
what we're doing it for. That's how we can justify these
trips. We're also doing something very
fun. We're all going to Romania, but
I can't really talk about that yet.
So awesome. But it's, we've done some,
we're, we're doing some fun things and being a YouTube is

(40:42):
like the greatest blessing in the world.
It's also very hard, stressful. And I appreciate everyone who is
OK with me sometimes not uploading for three weeks, which
is currently what's happening right now and, and being OK with
me posting some AI slop every once in awhile because you know
what? I know people get tired of
hearing about AII get it. I get fatigue too.
Also, there are some things I feel you need to know because AI

(41:04):
is here. So I'm going to teach you it,
even if you don't like it that much.
It's like a medicine because youhave to know it.
But anyways, Dakota, how do you feel about AI right now?
I'm right there with you. It is not going anywhere and I
feel this is what I tell everyone is the people who
utilize AI as a tool that it is are going to exceed beyond
everyone's wildest dreams. You know, I'm not saying like

(41:29):
copy and paste everything in andout of ChatGPT because that is
not the proper way to use it. But it is such a powerful tool.
It is what Google was, you know,so many years ago for the tech
industry when people could actually start communicating
with each other and like searching, you know, forums and
stuff like that. It's just re imagining the, it's

(41:50):
re, you know, building the tech industry.
And yes, it is taking away some jobs.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I do believe it is closing some
jobs. But for every job it takes away,
it's opening up like 20 plus more.
And people who are willing to adapt are never going to be out
of a job there. People are willing to change and

(42:13):
learn and are motivated to learn.
You're gonna have guaranteed jobs.
But for the people who are really resistant to change and
are stuck in their ways, they'regonna start struggling, I feel.
But that's kind of a hot take, Ifeel.
You know, it is a hot take, but I agree with you.
So it's our hot take. I think that AI is is

(42:37):
transforming certain jobs and I say transforming it.
I don't think some jobs are going away.
Like you might have a help desk that may only need three people
instead of 20 because AI has streamlined things.
So it's transformed that job andthey still need help desk, they
still need so many people and we're going to see more of that.
So yes, use AI to make you better.

(42:57):
And this is what I saw like whenwhen chat DBT first like started
coming out back in like 2023, itlike was insane.
And I was scared even back then.And if I would have known what
we have now, I've been way more scared.
But I knew that if you use this correctly, it'll make you
amazing. But you can use it in a way to
make you stupid. I think a lot of people are
going to go that way. Your brain, it's a muscle buddy.

(43:20):
If you don't use it, you're going to lose it.
It's going to atrophy. If you start putting all your
thinking ability into something else, it's you're going to lose
that thinking ability. You're going to lose your
ability to look through documents and figure out what's
important. You're going to lose your
ability to write well, that willhappen.
So for me, the way I use AI is always, how can this help me do

(43:42):
this better? It's like when I'm trying to
like write better, I'll say, hey, I just wrote this thing.
Don't correct. Like don't, don't rewrite it for
me. I hate that.
I'll tell it this. Just tell me how it could be a
bit better, like maybe increase my prose.
Or if like, goodness, maybe I'm just totally using that that
word wrong. Tell me that and then help me
improve it. But never ever write for me.

(44:03):
I've had to start getting in that habit.
Sure, sometimes I get lazy and say, Hey, write this little
e-mail for me, but most of the time I'm trying to use it to
make me better. But on the other hand, this is
where I love it. I'm not a coder.
I learned Python to a point. I'm a scripter.
I'm not a coder. AI is amazing for this.

(44:24):
I'm not going to ever have to learn programming now like I
like, sure, programming is stillgoing to be around for a while
and then we need people who we know it well.
But for people like you and me who want to build tools and like
do some crazy stuff, AI just bridged that gap for us.
We don't like, we can just focuson like the thing we're trying
to do and it does the coding forus and that's, that unlocks
amazing things. So use AI to make you better.

(44:46):
Just just make sure you're not, you're not using as a crutch.
Make help. Use it to make you better,
smarter in every way. Use it to and use it to do
things you couldn't do before. I don't know.
I don't know how heavily you useAI Dakota, but I use it pretty
heavily for a lot of things and a lot of things I use it for now
people probably wouldn't like, but I use it to analyze my

(45:10):
journals and help me help me seewhat I'm missing.
Because you you can get into like weird habit cycles and
weird thinking cycles that kind of like you don't see until you
get a bird's eye view and go, oh, OK.
Oh yeah. So I'll, I'll feed a lot of
stuff into AI and say, hey, justtell me like, what am I missing
or like, what am I not doing enough of or why?

(45:31):
Why am I feeling sad on these days?
It'll correlate. Like AI is really good at
correlating data, disparate data.
So you do stuff like that. AI is going to, it's going to
fill in those gaps. So we can never have filled in
before. Absolutely, you know, and, and
sometimes just having that, that10,000 foot view of, of
something, yeah. I can't tell you how many times
I've been stuck on something I was working on.

(45:54):
And you know, I just, I would feed it into ChatGPT just, you
know, or whatever AII was using that day and just say, what am I
missing? You know, don't, don't solve the
problem for me. Give me a direction, you know,
and just having that the systemsof check almost, I don't think
that's the right word. But you know, what I'm talking
about here is, you know, just having that other view on it can

(46:18):
be so, so much help because yeah, it really can.
Again, if you let it become a crutch, it will, it will totally
just rob you of everything. You know, And I, I, I've
definitely gone down that rabbithole, you know, before where,
you know, I was having ChatGPT, you know, create stupid emails

(46:39):
for me that I didn't want to respond to and stuff like that.
And I kind of had to take a stepback.
And who thought that prompt engineering would be a thing so
many years ago? You know what I mean?
That's crazy. But use it to make yourself
better. You know that that is really the
key. Yeah, and I, I think I'm glad

(47:01):
you brought up prompt engineering, because prompt
engineering is something I'm always trying to become better
at. Because if you can figure out
how to ask really good questionsto AI, you have a superpower.
And that the, the ability to do that, to prompt the AI properly
means that you've, you can put together something in a system
like you understand how things are supposed to work.

(47:23):
You can solve problems. That's what people don't realize
is that the people who are usingAI to do some crazy stuff,
they're not using it as a crutch.
They're using it as a complete superpower.
They've they've expanded their abilities not replace them.
And that's what what AI is goingto do now.
Sure, maybe one day in 30 years,we're just all beginning going
to be sitting on a beach becausewe don't have to do anything.

(47:43):
We have endless food, endless whatever.
I hope not. That sounds terrible.
Being that bored all the time would be the worst thing.
But for now, just enjoy the ridebecause there has never like
again, sometimes I get in like the whole dooms like, Oh my
gosh, what am I going to? What's my career like?
What's it going to be like in 10years?
But on the flip side, I'm like, this is there's never been a

(48:05):
better time to be in IT. There's never been a better time
to like know how docker works and be able to deploy tools that
are available to us. Like it's, it's so insane.
Like if you know a little bit about AI and you use chat TBT
for a few things, you're way ahead of most people because
most people do not use AI the way we do.
It is a fascinating time to be in.
It's so fun. There, there is so much you can

(48:28):
do with it and just going beyondjust content generation and you
know, doing the simple stuff. It's just just having that
almost like I, I just envisionedthat whole domain expansion.
That's just the brain exploding type of thing.
You know, when, you know, I, I use it to be almost a second
brain for me and just, you know,I can feed it what I'm working

(48:49):
on and just come up with things that I've never even thought of.
And sometimes it's garbage things, but that might lead to
something like, oh, wait a minute, you know, and help me
work on a project. Yeah, absolutely.
That happens to be so much. I'll say hey, generate 20 ideas
on this. I will never use any of the
ideas. But one of those dumb ideas I

(49:10):
said sparked something up here. I'm like oh exactly yeah your
stuff was dumb but it made me fake.
Thank you. Exactly.
Now I got to ask, if tech were to disappear tomorrow, what
would you be doing instead? Oh, that's a hard one.
I would probably, I would probably make videos.

(49:34):
I would still make, I would still teach.
I would teach something else. I would teach how to make
benches or something or how to how to.
So cool. I don't know, just something I,
I would do that because I reallydo enjoy it and I enjoy making
content. I enjoy telling a story like
that. So I I I think I would be doing
the same thing, just it won't betech.
That's cool. And you know, it took me a while

(49:54):
to figure out like I enjoyed teaching.
I had so many people come up to me and told me that like, oh,
you're such a great teacher and stuff like that.
I'm like, oh, whatever, You know, I just always would blow
them off. And I don't think it was until I
started getting serious about YouTube, I don't know, a year
and a half ago or so, and I kindof realized like, hey, I'm

(50:15):
actually good at this. And I kind of enjoy it too.
I have fun with this. Finding something you're good at
and you also enjoy. Like, you know, I remember back
in the day, like, I'd be workingon my car and like under the
hood, like getting my hands dirty and someone like a family
member be like, oh, you're really good at working on cars.

(50:36):
You ever think about becoming a mechanic?
And I would say just because I'mgood at something doesn't mean I
enjoy doing it. I just means I will do it
because I hate to pay someone else to do that or something
like that. And so finding something you
really enjoy and you're also good at is just like I, I can't

(50:56):
explain it. You know what?
Does that make sense? Oh yeah, 100%.
Like when I discovered like, I can make content about IT rather
than do IT because I do love doing IT to a point until I get
bored and then I want to move onto the next thing.
And so that that's why like whenI was a network engineer and
voice engineer, I was kind of bad at my job because like I

(51:17):
would never make documentation because that was too boring for
me. I loved learning about the new
stuff and then deploying new things.
But supporting that new thing ormaking sure it worked really
well over time, that was not my thing.
So I was kind of like, I was really good at like here boss,
let me tell you about this new thing we're going to do and let
me explain it to you and let me convince you to do it.
But. Oh, I was just terrible at my

(51:38):
job. And actually I forgot to mention
that the reason I quit my, my last like real IT job, like
where I was doing it was becauseof that job.
I, I was doing a whole new numbering system for our
company. So like, again, I was a voice
engineer, we're changing up the numbering system.
It was going to be a massive change.

(51:58):
And I had to present this changeto our, our VPS in the, in the
IT department. This is a big company.
So when we were in a board a board room, I put together this
little presentation. I was just making it fun being
me, and I thought they were going to pay attention to it
because it's very nerdy stuff. But at the end of it, the VP
looks at me and he goes, that was really good.
Like, how did you do that? I paid attention to the whole

(52:19):
thing. I'm like, oh, OK.
And I was right around the time like when CBT was kind of
reaching out to me and I'm like,huh, maybe I can do this.
I, I think I like this. So that was the biggest.
That person probably doesn't even remember saying that to me.
But that moment totally like solidified to me and gave me the
courage to step out and like do this teaching thing.

(52:41):
But you're right, teaching is amazing.
It's also hard, though, people don't realize like it's not just
like I think you can turn on learning how to teach and then
figuring out how to explain something very simply is the
hardest thing to do. It's easy to do a demo, like let
me show you how this thing works, telling you how it works,
and then making sure like you understand it well enough to
articulate it. Oh, it's a whole thing.
You know, it's it's, it's a bad.Just sitting down in front of

(53:04):
the camera and turning the, the lights on, like, getting that
like motivation sometimes is difficult because let's be
honest. Yeah.
Like most of us would much rather just sit back and watch
some TV show or something like that.
Getting the drive to like, you know, I I enjoy it, but still on
the same hand, like there's justdays you like, OK, I'm going to

(53:26):
try to do this. I got to get it done.
And yes, you know, it's not thatyou're don't enjoy it, it's just
like it's a lot. It takes a lot out of you to
come and be everything. You got to be like 120%,
especially when you're talking on camera.
I recognize that and it's rough,so.

(53:47):
It's an incredible amount of energy.
And if you talk the way I do, like with your hands, I'll close
my move ring on my Apple Watch. Recording a whole day, like I'm
sitting down, but like I am burning calories.
I'm moving around. And I find that if I don't
record pretty regularly, like ifI don't record at least every
other day, I start to kind of atrophy.
And then I get back in front of the camera after a while, like

(54:08):
after a vacation, and I'm like, oh, I have to teach myself how
to do this again. And then I'll, I'll mess up like
50 times and my editors will hate it because they'll know,
like, Chuck's rusty again. Here we go.
Yeah, it's, it's a thing. It's a whole thing.
But it's so fun. It's, it's like where the world
of IT and teaching and creativity all kind of just
blend together. And it's just a really fun thing

(54:30):
to do. Now, Dakota, I'm curious, do you
plan on hiring more people? Yes, I'm actually currently on
the search for like a social media manager.
I'm very much like when I started my YouTube channel, I
did it differently. Like I have this huge passion to
help people, but I also want to treat it as a business kind of

(54:53):
I'm very I'm at nine people. I think you, you, I'm sure you
teach, treat it as a business now, but I, I plan to try to
stay in my current job, my day job as director as long as
possible. And the only way I can do that
is to buy back my time with morehelp.
I have not only got the YouTube channel, I launched my own

(55:14):
community, I'm creating my own courses now too as well and
things like that. And there's just not enough
hours in the day. And plus on top of that, you
know, I got a wife and three kids.
I can't imagine what your life is like with, you know, your
family and everything. But yeah, so I'm the, my whole
thought about it is I'm just reinvesting the funds back into

(55:38):
the business and buying back my time.
So. That I agree with that to a
point, but you got to be very careful with the overhead.
Yeah, the overhead. There are times I do Daydream
about when it was just me and my, my 1 little room and it was,
it was maybe not as less stressful as I remember because

(55:59):
I'm romanticizing the past. But it is a lot to have a lot of
overhead and that drive to have to keep to, to pay that monthly
bill. But also it enables you to do so
much more. So you're on the right track.
Just make sure you got that cost.
Yeah, no, I'm start. I'm keeping it small.
You know, it's been over a year now since I had my editor start
with me. And you know, I, I, I looked at

(56:22):
it at what was the biggest time suck for me and also what took
the most joy out of it because Ilove creating videos.
I definitely do not enjoy editing videos.
I it just takes so much of the fun out of it for me.
And I would put out crappy content because I would just be
like, Oh, I'm so done editing here.
Oh yeah. So it makes me a better content

(56:44):
creator. I feel that way.
But yes, IA 100% agree with thatand definitely starting small,
quick or slow to hire, fast to fire, I think is the the what
the term is out there. So absolutely.
I still haven't learned that by the way, but I have a really
good team right now, like amazing team, so I'm scared to
hire anyone else. I and you know, I love that

(57:06):
you're not the only face we see on the network.
Chuck Channel as well, you know,with the shorts and everything.
I love that you were able to do that.
That's something that you know, a lot of Youtubers don't even
do, you know, they, they carry the load themselves and it's
just really cool to see is whereyou've grown, what you've done

(57:27):
with the channel and it's very, very inspirational.
I appreciate that, Dakota. Yeah, I have a my team is very
creative. They're sometimes very much more
creative than I am, especially outside of IT stuff.
But like, I have to bring them back into the IT and I'm like,
OK, be creative, but talk about switches.
But they're actually they're getting into ITA bit.
Actually my whole team right now, most of them are going for

(57:49):
their A+, which is very fun. Oh, that's awesome.
So as I'm creating the A+ course, we're creating for the
Academy, they're going through it.
So that's it's been very fun. And Speaking of your Academy,
you know what's on the future for Network Chuck.
You know, I know you can't tell me all the secrets, but is there
anything that you are super excited about that's coming up

(58:09):
in the future? Yes, I'll, I'll get some
teasers. We are working on some really,
really fun things. We have a whole team that this
is outside the team I'm working with right now that I pay full
time. We have a whole team working on
this. And the same guy who brought me
here, Jeremy Chara, the one who I watched his content.
We're partners in this now. So we're building this Academy
together. And I'm really excited about

(58:30):
that because he's he's a master teacher.
It's where I learned. So to have him teaching with me
is like the best thing ever. So we're we're bringing.
So right now you can actually see some of his content.
It's already on the Academy. He made an entire CCNA course
for the modern era and he's the best CCNA teacher period.
Better than me, way better than me.
So we're we're building that, but also we're also building

(58:50):
something very cool on top of that that's not quite ready yet.
But it's a lot of what I said already in this, this call about
people finding what they're goodat and, and finding their
passion and getting clarity on, on like what they're actually
going to do with their lives. Because not a lot of people do
that. They just kind of fumble their
way through a job where they like, they chose a college
degree because their parents said it might be good.

(59:12):
We, we want to help bridge that gap.
We want to change up that, that decision making and give
guidance on that and then provide just an amazing path to
IT. So you're doing a lot of that
too. It's the best thing ever to
provide that kind of thing just to be like, hey, I found this
cool thing. Why don't you let me show you
how to come with me. Come on, let's go.
I, I love being able to do that.So yeah, that's that's the

(59:32):
biggest thing we're building right now.
And of course I'm selling coffee.
If you want some coffee, go get some coffee network stuff dot
coffee. I'm drinking it right now.
That's awesome you switch the decaf these days I hear though.
Yeah, yeah. So right now I'm drinking decaf.
I have to drink decaf in the afternoon.
Yeah, I'll drink. I'll drink 2 fully powered full

(59:53):
powered coffee cups of coffee inthe morning but afternoon I have
to do it. Although we are going to stop
selling our decaf which is kind of sad because no one bought it.
Apparently I'm the only old man around that has to drink decaf.
So sorry, what? What's your favorite blend?
I I was so sorry I didn't mean they're up.
What's your favorite blend that you have?
So my favorite is the default route, which is a a roast out of

(01:00:16):
Ethiopia and they just have the the most full body flavorful
roast. It's, it's amazing.
I go to it as my go to. My second favorite would be the
pseudo blend, which is not, not blends, they're single origins.
So they're just from farmer to us.
We roast it, ship it out and normally when we ship it to you,
it's been within like 2 days. So you get that nice fresh

(01:00:38):
coffee flavor. It's that's crazy.
I mean we, we are our best customers.
I order so much and drink so much of it, it's ridiculous.
If you run into me at Cisco Live, I'll try to have some with
me and I'll hand it out. That's awesome.
I'm I'm definitely looking forward to it.
I know we've met in person before, but just meeting again.
Hopefully we can make that happen that'd.

(01:00:59):
Be awesome. Yeah, that'd be great.
Awesome. Joel, Chuck, thank you again so
much. I don't want to take up too much
of your time. I could go on for hours upon
hours. I think we're actually already
over on time. But thank you.
And do you, do you have, you know, for people that made it
this far, do you have any parting words of wisdom that you
like to bestow upon us, us, you know, mere mortals?

(01:01:23):
Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I would say two things.
First, don't wait to figure out what you're doing.
I would right after this video, sit down and just jot a few
things down of what you're trying to do with your life.
And then just think about what are the things you have to do to
make that happen. So maybe you're trying to become

(01:01:45):
a network engineer. Maybe you want to jump into IT,
put that as your goal. And then underneath that goal,
say, I'm going to do this, this and this.
I'm going to study every day. I'm going to watch educational
YouTube content on YouTube to get inspired and I'm going to
make a study 40 flash cards. If like just do a plan, figure
that out and follow it. And the second thing would be to

(01:02:08):
start right now, like like my, my whole thing is like right
now. I'm serious.
Don't wait right now. Replace a bad habit right now
with studying IT. Jump into it if you're playing
too many video games because youare, let's be honest, you've
been playing a lot of video games.
Stop it. Cut it in half or something, or
make video games your reward forstudying for an hour.
Just like hack your brain a bit.Start right now.

(01:02:30):
Don't wait for stinking anythingbecause all you have, literally
all you have is today. You're not guaranteed tomorrow.
What you do today is going to impact everything.
And guess what? Tomorrow that same thing is
true. All you have is today.
That's my best advice I can givepeople.
Anyways, that's it. That's some amazing advice and
on that note everyone, I really hope you enjoyed this episode.

(01:02:52):
If you took something away from this, let us know down in the
comments below. Everyone again, thank you for
tuning in and until next time, keep learning.