Backstage with BobbyD featuring Daniel Adeyanju

Daniel Adeyanju's journey from watching his father build computers in Jamaica to becoming a tech leader represents the transformative power of intentional innovation. With Nigerian roots and a unique pathway through the tech world, Daniel shares how the simple image of his father building computers to feed their family created a lasting desire to extend that opportunity to others.

Growing up between Jamaica, Antigua, and eventually California, Daniel witnessed firsthand how technology could empower communities. Though initially pursuing studies in Africana Studies and biology, his realization that "tech is eating the world and none of us are in it" sparked a mission to bring more diverse voices into technology. This led him through roles as a software engineer at Macy's, a career coach at CUNY Lehman College, and work with tech bootcamps before founding his company Be Great Today.

Throughout our conversation, Daniel reveals how his cultural heritage has shaped his approach to technology and leadership. The values instilled by his grandfather – "never forget where you're from" and "never forget the father of whom you are" – remain central to his philosophy. This cultural grounding enables him to bridge divides within the Black diaspora, fostering greater understanding and collaboration in tech spaces that desperately need diverse perspectives.

What stands out most in Daniel's approach is his framework for success: "Always be connecting, always be building, always be learning." He applies this to everything from DevOps (which he brilliantly explains as bridging the gap between software engineers and infrastructure specialists) to his thoughts on AI as "amplified intent." Rather than approaching technological advances with fear, he advocates engagement from a place of love and service, challenging listeners to build technologies that genuinely serve underrepresented communities.

Whether he's discussing his co-founded coffee shop Ka Cafe in Jersey City, his approach to public speaking, or his advice for the next generation of technologists through his four Ps framework (People, Projects, Problem-solving, and Packaging), Daniel exemplifies what it means to use technology as a vehicle for positive change. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Instagram @BGreat to continue the conversation and learn how you can unlock your potential to solve the world's problems with intention and focus.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll be anywhere and I'm where I'm supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
That's what's up.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
And I usually tell the story of growing up watching
my dad build computers to putfood on our table.
And it's later in life when yourealize how powerful that image
is and the through line is thatI found that that created this
desire in me that more peoplecould have that kind of
experience.
So, through line in my career,coming to the point where I am

(00:25):
now, I'm a speaker, my companyis called Be Great Today.
So I do speaking, I doconsulting, I do some writing as
well.
My whole goal is to unlock humanpotential and to get people out
their head and solve theworld's problems with intent and
focus.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Welcome, welcome, welcome, what up.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
D-Hustle.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
What is going on?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
there, guess where we at player.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I love the Big Apple baby, I know, every time we come
to Big Apples, you always beall happy.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
How have you been enjoying the weather?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Beautiful.
Better than Florida?
Ah, look at you Right now.
Better than Florida?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Always better than Florida.
Big shout out to our familyhere in NYC.
Yes, sir, the Florentinos they.
But as always, I want to sayThank y'all so much For pulling
up to Backstage with Bobby D.
We out here In New York CityHaving a great, great time, but
I got a really Great guest forus, who we got, who we got.

(01:32):
We got my guy Daniel Adianju.
What up my guy?

Speaker 1 (01:36):
How did I do?
How did I do?
You did it perfectly.
Yeah, yeah, you did itperfectly.
I was trying to train you theNigerian version.
Fact but even my grandpa wouldcringe.
But you did excellently.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I appreciate you, my brother.
Go ahead and give me but yougot to give us, the Nigerian,
the real way of saying it.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
The closest I can get .
I day on you.
So, for my Yoruba folks.
Don't cringe, I'm doing thebest I can.
Fact I day on you.
I'm just trying to connect.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
I day on you yeah, I did that's what it's up, my god,
I love it I like it.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Daniel, thank you so much for pulling up the
backstage with bobby d.
Uh, it's one of our uh venturesthat we go out across the
country, around the world,speaking to like-minded people,
but also people that I reallyrespect in the industry and what
they're doing.
Um, I'm not sure if you've seensome of our content.
It is all chill here.
I got my guy D Hustle in thecut holding it down.

(02:27):
We love you, d.
They're always screaming forhim, but Daniel for sure, man, I
wanted to give you a quicksecond and actually more than a
second to introduce yourself tothe audience, because we're
really excited about ourconversation today, because my
guy went from the Bronx to theBay, back to the East Coast,
from from Bronx to New Jerseyand holding it down.

(02:48):
And let me tell you, it'sinternational baby International
.
I like it and whenever I'm inthe scene, I always see my guy,
daniel, there.
So what's going on?
Man, tell us a little bit aboutyourself, where you came from,
and, yeah, kick it off inconversation, my guy.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Man I got to say first, all glory be to God.
When you say it, just hear itfrom you.
I know it's a God thing.
The Bible says that the earthis the Lord's and the fullness
thereof.
So how powerful that image is.
And the through line is that Ifound that that created this
desire in me that more peoplecould have that kind of
experience.
So I was born in Jamaica.
Shout out to my Caribbeans.
Wow, I'm connected to my Aitans.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, yeah, we out there, Ait, ait, all of my.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Caribbeans right, so I'm connected to my Dominicans,
my Puerto.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Ricans.
Oh, shout out.
That's the stop of a moment ofpause there.
Y'all know how he is right theaudience, right the caribbean,
you got most of the world thisis not a paid program.
Ladies and gentlemen, everybodyno camera com sponsored you
know, and um.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
I was born an immigrant.
Both my parents are nigerianyoruba ethnic group.
Um.
From um ocean state, ogun state.
Um.
I've been ocean state, ogunstate.
I've been to my village wheremy dad is from Obaile and I've
met my grandfather.
He just turned 95.

(04:08):
Oh shout out to him so my storybegan before I was born.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Facts.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Back home in Nigeria and my parents left Nigeria
knowing that they wanted to putGod first.
They wanted to serve God, theywanted to manifest his glory.
So, coming to Jamaica, it was aGod move.
They came before we had theemail and internet.
There was a job.
They they heard rumors aboutjobs in jamaica and they showed

(04:32):
up with nothing.
Signed up and god'sorchestrated the step.
But they got jobs there, theywere able to work and then they
had me and my brother, um, andstarting off in jama, clearly I
had a Jamaican accent, that'show I learned to read and write
between Jamaica and then Antiguaultimately, but the whole time
my dad was building computers.
He would come to the US, come totrade shows, take classes, and

(04:57):
at that time my dad would tellyou they were gatekeeping like
crazy.
It was really the electricalengineers.
If you think about SiliconValley, these were PhDs that
were hobbying.
There was a certain milieu thatthey had, so there was a lot of
gatekeeping.
So even the folks that wouldlearn it would be like no, you
have to be an electricalengineer to touch this.
And my dad has studiedelectrical engineering so he had

(05:20):
that entry point.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
He was ready.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
He was ready and he's a great gate cacher.
He's like let's simplify this,there's some simple concepts
that you can use so you canstart fixing computers and
putting them together like hewas on our table.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
So that there was a mixture of entrepreneurship
there.
He wanted to be able to serveGod as a pastor without having
to necessarily take a salary,which is.
Being a pastor is a legitimatejob.
It's a lot of work, but he hada special anointing and
assignment to be able to getinto technology at this very
critical stage.
I like to joke that this is theAI of the 90s.

(05:53):
That's the AI of the 90s justhaving a computer in your house.
So he would build thosecomputers in Jamaica, then
Antigua, and he would teachothers to do the same, and then
he brought the whole family toCalifornia at six years old via
California.
Yeah, oakland, California.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Ah, so he was out in Oakland In the Bay.
Big shout out to Oakland.
So the Bay.
You see that through line yeah,the.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Bay.
I remember my first memories ofthe Bay was seeing liquor
stores everywhere and Irecognize that in Lupe Fiasco's
Food and Liquor.
Yeah everywhere and I recognizethat in Lupe Fiasco's Food and
Liquor.
Food and Liquor's on everyblock, food and Liquor stores on
every block.
His sister said that poem.
That's what I came into.
Yet in my house technology wasbeing built Fast forward.
I had this interest intechnology.

(06:38):
I didn't pursue it at firstbecause in reality it was only
technology was really onlyhappening in my house.
In high school I had some folksthat I would rock with.
One of my boys shout out toJake Zhang we used to rock in
high school together and wewould do technology together.
But it wasn't until I graduatedfrom my undergrad which was
actually a combination ofAfricana and biology that I

(07:01):
realized tech is eating theworld and none of us are in it.
So I felt like I have aresponsibility, because I know
what's happening and I know Ihave the acumen for it.
And I've been doing it, Like inchurch.
I would make websites, I wouldtake my dad's C++ book and crash
the code and then move on toDreamweaver.
Growing up in the Bay, takingall those lessons that I had

(07:24):
learned just growing up in thechurch, making things happen, it
inexorably led in thisdirection that I would be in
tech in the 20 aughts, in the2010s, and I had the opportunity
, through this friend, toconnect with a founder who had
previously been a productmanager, previously computer

(07:45):
science at Columbia Universityand I saw a pathway.
I had never heard of productmanagement, the concept of
starting a startup and thepossibility of this.
Could.
I could run this up, or at thevery least I learned a lot Now
build relationships.
So I went on that ride withJason Liang with a company

(08:06):
called Bring Me that it was anonline food ordering platform,
and I just learned so much aboutproduct development, running a
team, sales and marketing.
So many lessons there.
So that really started mycareer in tech.
And then I said I want to be aproduct manager, I want to be a
builder that actually can gettechnical.
So I did a second badge ascomputer science, I did a coding

(08:28):
boot camp and then I got a jobas a software engineer at Macy's
Big shout out.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
So that brought me back to the Bay.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Macy'scom.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
You already know.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Soma no longer in that particular location.
They've since moved everythingto Atlanta.
But, that gave me a great timein the Bay, but while doing that
, my nights and weekends I wouldreach out to people from my
alma maters, both my college andmy high school, and just try to
put them on tech.
Like are you thinking abouttech?
I know you want to be a doctor,but can you get some tech in

(08:59):
that too?
I know you want to be XYZ alawyer.
Let's get into tech.
So in the 2010s, I just feelthis urgency to tell as many
people as possible we need toget these tech skills.
So that ultimately led me totake a role at CUNY CUNY Lehman
College, where I had done mysecond bachelor's in computer
science as a career coach forcomputer science majors and an

(09:20):
ecosystem builder.
So I would just bring peoplefrom the industry to the Bronx,
bring people from the industryto the Bronx, bring people from
the Bronx to the industry andjust connect the dots.
So I just started this throughline of just being a connector
and mentoring as many people asI could.
While doing that, I felt therewas a limit in the throughput.
Yeah, yeah, in higher ed, rightLike, people are taking five,

(09:43):
six years and not always gettingwhat they need when they
graduated.
So I saw the coding boot campsand the tech boot camps as an
opportunity.
So I had done one while I wasin school, so I doubled up, got
the tech experience.
Wow.
So shout out to CodePathbecause they're doing them both
at the same time.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Amazing.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And I saw them coming up and I just said this is
exactly what you need.
You need to retrofit higher ed.
So, by the grace of God, Iconnected with a brother by the
name of Richard Rivera who knewa tech titan by the name of
Sheldon Gilbert who had started,who was in the process of

(10:22):
starting a DevOps boot camp, hipto what DevOps is the
infrastructure layer, kind ofconnecting my dad's IT
background and that I kind ofwas running away from and the
software engineering that I ranto and putting the two together
in the sense of really servingengineers so they could do
better work and increasing thequality of the software through
delivery.

(10:42):
So, and one of the things thatreally captivated me about that
work is that it's actually verypeople-centered yes, it is, it's
about culture.
So picked up a lot there.
And then, after that time atCura Labs, I decided to take on
another role at the KnowledgeHouse as a director of first

(11:04):
programs and then partnerships.
So, working with Joan Rodriguez, we helped hundreds of students
find meaningful work, upskillthemselves, develop their soft
skills, get mentorship, connectto companies.
So, through the line of mycareer, coming to the point
where I am now, I'm a speaker,I'm a John Maxwell certified

(11:25):
speaker.
My company is called Be GreatToday, so I do speaking, I do
consulting, I do some writing aswell, and my whole goal is to
unlock human potential and toget people out their head.
So they can solve the world'sproblems with intent and focus.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Let's give him a big round of applause for that.
And let me say, daniel, firstof all, I didn't know the
backstory.
Now I know why you pushed sohard my guy and it's very
appreciative and I hope youraudience can see that having a
family around you and settingstandards, setting ways that you
can level up without you know,following other pathways and

(12:07):
utilizing the resources andaccess that you have, like being
a child of an immigrant.
But it's like two layers ofimmigrants.
Right, because you went fromNigeria to Jamaica, jamaica to
the States is like even moreimpactful, just for mindset wise
, because I can see the hustlein you.
But I respect it respect it,though, because it has passion
behind it.
Right, it's not only justtrying to check a box off, but

(12:30):
it's trying to make sure thatyou make an impact, because the
way that you were describinglike even after I was done, I
was calling my friends that wentto the yo go check out tech.
Yeah, like you need something,I got you.
I become the plug, I build aprogram.
I actually learned and seen agap, because you called out a
gap from software engineering toinfrastructure devops.
Hey, let's find ways to closethat gap and then actually work

(12:52):
in the environment and get thatexperience, because now you can
really stand on it.
You know I'm saying so.
First of all, big round ofapplause for my guy that was
amazing story and big shout outsto your pops and your family.
Right, because I always tell myson this, and sometimes he's
going to be cheering what up,big boy, I'll be like yo.
The reason why you see a kingin front of you is because I
grew up in front of a king.

(13:13):
Right, you can't be a kingunless you see a king.
Right, you have to be in thatpresence.
Right, and the mindset of whatyou saw your dad doing, like the
, the challenges, that he cameback home and told you the
gatekeeping.
But then you kind of see itlike, wow, we got these
computers here at that house,right.
It's like that's the thing thatwe need to see and set examples
, because then you make evengreater kings as the generation

(13:35):
goes forward.
So big shout outs to pops forholding it down and mom and all
that good stuff.
And and you say you also have abrother, a sibling yes, yes, my
, my brother Israel.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
We are co-founders with three other folks at Co
Cafe, a coffee shop in JerseyCity.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
So tell me a little bit about we won't get all into
stuff, but I love when you knowyou're doing things outside of
the normal lane.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat venture.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for how youjust connected all the dots
there and I was just.
There's so many different partsthat I have to.
I constantly need that support.
I'll do that as well, and Ialways like to point back to the
beginning.
So as I mentioned.
We grew up building for thekingdom of God, building for God

(14:17):
, building for people, right.
So the coffee shop Ka Cafe isthe Nigerian pronunciation
you're about.
Ka means to build, to go.
It really comes from us growingup in the church and seeing
opportunities for people to grow.
We've seen so many people growand develop in their lives and

(14:39):
when Israel and I were living inJersey City together during the
pandemic, we used to run pastthis empty space and we'd both
independently been thinkingabout coffee shops like this
idea of community as space forpeople to develop their skills,
a clear business model.
We saw a vacancy and we jumpedat it.
Really, credit my brother atthe time for just saying hey,

(15:02):
you want to make this happen,let's throw out the bread and
make it happen.
Brought five of us together andthat was in 22.
And now we are still running.
We're a beacon of the community.
People love to come through.
We're having an event today forpoetry, so it's a space for
people to build, be creative,find those other expressions,
but so much networking happensthere.

(15:23):
So, yeah, tech people comethrough every single day because
they want a place to work.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Ah, that's what's up.
That's right, yo, this is onour list.
Next time in the city we'regoing to dirty city right
journey trains to get us overthere?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
absolutely yeah, and we, we do poke.
We have a podcasting space, sothe space has five jobs.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Ah, you know you got to make it multiple streams,
right, and but big shout outs toyou and your brother for making
that happen.
But the other thing is is thatit wasn't just isolated, but you
also allowed other people to bea part of it, because it's a
collaborative effort to executeon things like that.
Um, so big shout outs forsetting those sample examples.
You know, I'm saying, uh, we'regoing to jump back into tech,
but we'll probably come back tothe coffee shop because I'm

(15:59):
trying to pull up, you know.
But in terms of tech, wise, um,and I really hear, is that your
pops gave you some means ofinfluence, right?
And in terms of when you wentto school, was that something
that also helped drive thatdecision in terms of what you
were going to study, or you werejust, you know, looking for
what your path was?

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Great question.
So, starting out, when I firstwent to college at Binghamton
University, upstate, new York,my goal was to go into medicine.
My mom has a practice in theBronx.
She's been practicing over 20years in the Bronx but longer
throughout her life in theCaribbean.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, big shout out to my mom.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
And you really just see the helping healing
professions right spirituallyand physically and
technologically.
It's an important part now aswell, um.
So I saw medicine as a pathwayto helping people, um, and I saw
it also as a funding mechanism.
I originally wanted to become asenator because I could see it,
though right well, yes, and nowwe're seeing that all they do is

(17:03):
just sit around and talk,depending on the different, but
what you actually started to seewas the rise of the technology.
So I was seeing it in real time.
Actually, first I saw MittRomney as a prototypical tech
leader.
I mean, if you think about BainCapital and the kind of mindset
that they have, he's really atechnology, he's really an
entrepreneur and the kind ofmindset that they have, he's

(17:24):
really a technology, he's reallyan entrepreneur and he's a
prototype for some of the youknow, not so great things that
we see now sometimes, but thepower that they have to do.
Good from my perspective.
But I ultimately finished mydegree in Africana Studies.
I took in a lot of biologycoursework, but I was really
passionate about understandingthe black diaspora.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Oh, for sure, For sure.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
So it was very interdisciplinary writing,
reading, thinking.
There was an aspect ofpsychology and sociology and
public health.
So I got this reallywell-rounded education.
But really a lot of thateducation that I had was in
student government and I was thevice president for
multicultural affairs.
I was constantly connecting incommunity yeah so when, when I

(18:10):
started to see that things wereshifting, I knew that in service
of community, I need to leaninto technology and that's where
that previous exposure cameinto came in handy.
In high school it came to bethat a lot of the people I went
to high school with not evencollege.
We're moving to tech veryrapidly.
I went to Bronx science um, agreat school in the Bronx that's

(18:31):
really difficult to get into inthe state Um.
So community and relationshipscame into hand.
I told you about my friend Jake, who made that connection for
um, my first role in tech, andthen um, in terms of getting the
second bachelor's degree, I hadmany different influences.
My dad was encouraging in termsof being able to get to the

(18:53):
first principles.
My dad is always reminding methe first principles, First
principles, Right, Like I couldjust go do a boot camp and I saw
many people doing that, butgetting the fundamentals from
folks who know the fundamentalswas a value.
So I always encourage folks togo do the boot camp, get the
skill, get the job and still dowhat you have to do.
Now you can learn online or youcould even get your company to

(19:15):
pay for undergrad, grad school,additional learning.
So the first principles is whatmy dad really encouraged me to
attain.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's what's up and big shout-outs to Pop-Top
bringing up the engineeringpractices and frameworks early
in your life in terms of firstprinciples.
Um, I bet she was reallyexcited hearing that you wanted
to get at the keyboard like thatfor sure, right?

Speaker 1 (19:35):
oh, absolutely, absolutely, like just being able
to build, yeah we have to build.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, for sure a quick question, real quick.
So I know your dad bought umwas working on computers.
Have you built your owncomputer?

Speaker 1 (19:45):
that is such a great question.
No, to this day, I have not.
I've had this aversion to doingit and I think it's like the
father son, like I don't want todo exactly what my dad does.
Yeah, yeah, you know, and I'mnever a gamer, so I never had a
real reason to build a laptopand especially as things come
towards the laptops, I haven't.
As things come towards, thelaptops?

Speaker 2 (20:04):
I haven't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, myson and I have that same thing
right, but the only reason itforced him because he wanted a
gaming computer.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
And then he was like I want a gaming computer.
I was like we're going to buildit from scratch.
I actually found something, aquick story.
I believe it was during theholiday times that I found
something on Offer up that thisguy was rebuilding computers.
They were like older computerswith gpus and stuff like that,
and I called the guy.
I was like yo, I want to.
You know cop this, you knowcomputer this, that and this,
but I want you to take it apart.
He was like, take it apart.
I was like, yeah, um, just sendme the picture that you can

(20:34):
boot it up and then take itapart, put it in a box, then I
come and scoop it up, type stuff.
And then he was like all right.
Then he was like but I'm notgoing to give you technical
support.
I was like, don't worry about it, I got it and then my son goes
with me to go pick it up andhe's like, but it's not put
together.
I was like, guess what we'regoing to do now?
Right, forcing his hand right,and we have a memorable
experience with that in terms ofme and him and actually my

(20:54):
nephew uh, jordan, big shout outto to jordan, uh, uh, because
he was there too and we wereactually able to build the
computer all together from allthe pieces laid out talking
about all the pieces, stack itup, press the button and it, you
know, loads the window prompt.
I was first of all, I was likeplease, please, please, please
please everything worked verywell, but it's like that same

(21:15):
situation that I've forced that,that opportunity for us to do
it.
Um, but it was because ofgaming.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah I love that.
Yeah, you created thatopportunity for your son to see
everything together.
But it's really about theintention yeah, I wanted him to
know that you can do this, andhe is going to, over time, see
the benefits of that experienceoh 100.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
He's already looking for upgrades.
He's like yo pops I want thebest buy.
I've seen that I was like yohold on first of all, bro who
you went with and why are yougoing to go look for computer
parts?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
without me.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
But big shout out to my son, big boy, I really do
appreciate him giving me theopportunity to go through that
and go through that experiencewith him.
But I know it's going to, likeyou said, level him up as you go
.
But back to your story.
So definitely like going tocollege, you know, pursuing that
magnificent degree, and I kindof feel like a historian,
african knowledge or Africanexperience, like, tell me a

(22:09):
little bit about that.
Like, because from the diaspora, you know, obviously my
ancestors, you know, flowed fromAfrica through the Caribbeans
and we find ourselves in theStates.
And big shout out to my mom andpops because they're the first
generation that came here, I'mthe first one born here, but
I've never really been able tofind, uh, like that connection
back to the, the continent, um,and I'm really want to be, you

(22:32):
know, hear, um, your experienceand you know developing and
going deep into there and thenalso you know, the connections
that you were able to make yeah,thank you so much for um for
that question, um, so I thinkit's pretty.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
It's a blessing to be able to know where my family
from, the exact town thatthey're from.
And when I had that experienceI think I was like around 10
years old of going to Nigeriafor the first time, my
grandfather my dad's dad, who'snow late lifted me up and said
he was so happy to see me.
He was so happy to see me andhe told me a couple of things.

(23:10):
One never remember where you'refrom.
You're from a town calledObaile, that means town of kings
.
You never remember where you'refrom.
And then he told me there's aphrase that Yoruba, my ethnic
group, always use, which isnever forget the father of whom
you are.
So that speaks to lineage.

(23:32):
Yes, and I grew up in thisNigerian household.
So, beyond just visiting a fewtimes my household, my parents
bring Nigerian values in thehouse.
Christian values first andforemost, but Nigerian values.
Parents bring Nigerian valuesin the house Christian values
first and foremost, but Nigerianvalues.
Then it's on me to do the extrawork to learn more about
Nigeria, learn more about myculture, learn more about how

(23:54):
the world works.
I think that really should beeveryone's focus in a broad way,
starting with your own worldand parts of your own experience
.
So, growing up in the Bronx, Ispent a hot second in South
Carolina as well.
Growing up in Oakland, I thinkit created this curiosity about
the black diaspora.
I grew up seeing so manydifferent people looking at each

(24:15):
other weird, like you know,african-americans looking at
Africans, nigerians or Africanslooking at African-Americans
Caribbeans.
It's just this.
I came to understand over timethat everybody's looking through
somebody else's lens.
Yeah, yeah, right.
So, and now I have the language, I want to know what God says

(24:36):
about me.
What does God say about all ofus?
And there's gold in all of thesecultures.
That's what I came tounderstand.
So in my Africana Studiesdegree it was very, as I
mentioned before, verymultifaceted.
We looked at public health so Igot to understand the social
determinants of health that haveresulted in really shorter

(25:00):
lifespans and things of thissort.
So it built my empathy, justcaring about other people and I
think that's the through line ofmy life, just learning how to
love and learning to serve.
So my curiosity is driven by mydesire to serve.
And Africana is again thediaspora, so African-American.
I remember taking a classlearning about African-American
history and realizing that a lotof people will never have this

(25:23):
opportunity to learn this.
So I became an ambassador forfolks, even just coming from the
Caribbean, coming from Africa,like hey, take some time to
learn this because you may belooking from another lens.
So that's been a great benefit,just being able to empathize,
just see the resilience, andthen I can speak to someone and

(25:43):
say, hey, do you know how muchresilience that we have?
Yeah, even as a connected blackdiaspora coming to the diaspora
, the, the resilience of peoplestill in Nigeria right now who
have no opportunity.
They're looking at us in the U?
S like, what are you going todo with your opportunity?
Because they don't have any?
Yeah, right, but they're stillsurviving, they're still showing

(26:04):
up, they're still buildingfamilies.
So when I think about the BlackDiaspora, I think about
resilience, I think about thegrace of God that gives us
another day.
I see culture.
We build stuff, we make stuff.
We have inventors Right, wehave the Bobby D's of the world.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'm out here.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
I'm out here, anthony Mays, the Latimers of the world
.
What's up, anthony?
We have so much to build, wehave so many problems to solve
and we are problem solvers.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
That's what's up.
Big shout out and big round ofapplause.
The reason why I'm tying thisback together into the
intersection of technologybecause the impact that I see
you making every time I see youmoving is you are recognizing
those that are from the diasporaand making connections.
So how has that early studieshelped influence you as a

(26:52):
technologist?

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Absolutely.
I think it's made mepeople-centered.
It's made me people-centeredand, I think, on a macro level.
So people are the center ofeverything.
And then you can also thinkabout different systems.
I mean, we have to be systemsthinkers, right?
So understanding the, thepeople systems, and how the
world works and how, um, some ofthe, the ravages of of history

(27:19):
took place and the, thereverberating effects, but also
the triumphs, I think has beenvery helpful.
I also did some coursework inbiology as well, and it's crazy
how that comes out.
Like classes in Java, yeah, itcomes from biology.
Yeah, because there's nothingthat's just created out of
nowhere.
They're using other models.

(27:39):
So, in my public health classwith Professor Okoro she's
actually Nigerianian and she hadcome probably towards the end
of my tenure, but we didresearch, we asked questions,
come to find out a couple ofyears later.
That is one of the core thingsyou do when you're building a
startup.
You're getting feedbackconstantly.
You're doing these needs,assessment, what do you need,

(28:01):
what is your?
You're doing surveys.
Right, you're doing research.
So that was very formative ingiving me a lot of the skills
and, of course, what I just didon the campus, which was as vice
president of multiculturalaffairs.
Vice president formulticultural affairs, I was in
the business of bringing peopletogether, so I would have events

(28:22):
, I would have forums, I wouldconstantly try to troubleshoot
issues and understand whyweren't people getting together.
I would constantly be building.
So by the end of, I think,around the time I graduated or
shortly after, I came up withthis ethos for myself Always be
building, always be connectingand always be learning.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Let's give that again .
Let's give that again One moretime Always be connecting as
first.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Always be building Always be learning.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Let's give that again .
Let's give that again One moretime Always be connecting as
first Always be, building,always be learning.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
So it starts with the people first.
Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Then you build in service of those people, and
learning happens in order tobuild Facts.
A lot of times, people putlearning first.
It's learning.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
And nothing is built.
You have to build, and you'renot just building in a vacuum,
you're building for people.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Facts, facts, big shout-outs to that.
And let me tell you, thatmindset that you're uh
displaying here today, uh is whyI'm seeing you out here, my guy
, um, because it definitelygives me, in my spirit, you know
, um hope that it's not just meout here pushing for the for,
for the, for the right reason,not for the reason that most

(29:29):
people think we're chasing right, because that that, that
mindset that you're settingright there, is going to help
change the next generation thatis tuned in so big shout out
that chair is on fire right nowand that's what's up.
And and the other thing that Ilike that you also brought up um
, because now we're going todive a little bit into tech, as
you were talking about bio andjava right is sometimes I think

(29:51):
a lot of you know those that aretuned in is like hey, I'm
pursuing'm pursuing this onething.
How does that even everintersect with tech or has some
basis behind it, right?
So let me know, in terms ofwhat technology has helped you,
or, I'm sorry, what in your past, in terms of your development,
has helped with your learningand development technology and
then some of the technologiesthat you've used.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
So when I think about my past, including my schooling
, my upbringing and how it ledinto technology, um, I think
that first, knowing thatanything is possible, like just
hearing stories from my dad,just like one moment, the bank
account not looking right, thereis an ad that's thrown up with

(30:34):
the tear-offs and um, they comeand call him in for a problem
that no one can solve and heprays, he doesn't know the
answer either.
Overnight God gives himsomething and the answer is
solved.
So knowing that everything ispossible has been with God.
Anything is possible.
The scripture says that's beena major key for me as a

(30:55):
technologist Working as asoftware engineer, seeing tough
problems for me anyway at thatstage um, and constantly
learning, seeing my dad with allthe books, constantly learning.
Um, when you learn in schoolthat you constantly are
referencing different sources,um, I think seeing great
technologists, just readingabout them, uh, seeing their

(31:17):
examples, has been reallyhelpful.
You mentioned the biology aspectwhen I studied biology.
Of course, everybody hasbiological systems, but even
just like that practice ofstudying a complex system and
understanding how the parts work, diagramming them, when you
come into software engineeringyou're doing the same thing in a

(31:39):
different way and then you findthat many of these systems that
we make as man are actuallyreflections of the systems that
God made.
So when you study biology,you're studying humans are
understanding how things are puttogether, and then we kind of
mimic that technology.
So that helps me understandclasses and object-oriented

(31:59):
programming.
Um, even thinking aboutautomation as a way to reduce
toil right, you talk about thatin devops.
Um, you reduce toil so you canget to the stuff that matters
the most.
Facts.
Get to your family.
Uh, get to more interestingtechnology problems.
Yeah, get to more interestingbusiness problems yeah, yeah,

(32:19):
you talk about language now.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
When you say toil, right, and then being a reason
why you focus on getting rid oftoil so that you can do more
interesting work, right, um, Ihave a mantra that I always
mention to my mentees and everytime I say they're like what my
goal has always been to automatemyself out of a job, right, the
job that I don't want.
Like, I want to go do some moreinteresting things, and during

(32:41):
my time at Twitter, I wasactually able to really
accomplish that, but also seehow much it opened me up to even
do more right.
So big shout-outs to you.
Bringing you know the conceptsfrom where you first started,
the experience you had with yourfather, seeing that frameworks,
like you said, first principles, principles, and then get into
a point where you're actuallyable to put into practice.
Uh, big, big, big shout outsbecause, uh, it's not.

(33:02):
It's not many of us that have achance to come back and talk
about this type of stuff, right,and then when, when we have
individuals that are lookinginto tech, they they have a
whole misconception of what itis, right.
Um, and when you're able tobreak it down in terms of skill
sets, like that, a big shout outto you on that.
So talk about DevOps.
So tell me, like the concept ofDevOps I know it's probably

(33:24):
like five or six years oldBefore when I was in the
industry, they didn't even havethat title DevOps engineering
but tell me how DevOps hasreally like shown you the value
around you know the developer,the operation side and
ultimately creating a way foryou to have more free time to
develop more funner or biggerproblems or solve bigger
problems.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Oh, absolutely.
And I think it's helpful tojust think about it in a
historical context and thismental model that's emerging in
my mind of how we get to AI nowright, that's emerging in my
mind of how we get to AI now,right.
So if you think about the firstkind of tech boom in the late
90s, oh, we can use thetechnology to sell books, we can

(34:04):
use technology to do all thisstuff.
And then there was the bigburst in the early 2000s, and
then you still had many of thesame people who had built stuff
come back for another round inthe early, in the latter years
of the 2000s.
But I think the 2010s is whenthings really took off, things
really accelerated.

(34:25):
And then you saw an era wherethey're talking about Web 2.0,
where Web 2.0 is when you canactually do the things that you
thought, that you know peoplethought they could do in 1.0.
Like everything started to getput online and when things are
online now you can see ithappening.
Like a lot of things, ifthey're not connected to a

(34:46):
system where somebody's, it'slike taxes, right.
If somebody doesn't see thetransactions, it's as if it
doesn't happen right.
But when you digitize everythingnow, people can be gatekeepers,
they can be intermediaries,people can capture value, and
then you get have all this datawhere you can understand human
behavior.
So we get big data really blewup.
So you have people that had to,you know, really figure out

(35:09):
ways to manage large amounts ofdata.
Data warehousing, hadoop, sparkall these different things kind
of come into being and we gofrom waterfall.
During this process we go fromwaterfall to agile Facts.
Facts Right, because they needto build fast and break things.
Facts Right Mark Zuckerbergfamously said this at Meta,

(35:33):
formerly Facebook, and then atsome point he's like we are a
billion-dollar company.
We can't afford to.
Yeah, I know, we need to movefast and have stable infra.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
So we need to have our cake and eat it.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
And we're going to make it happen, right?
So then you see the need forthe rise of DevOps coming out of
Agile and bridging the gapbetween the mythical server
creature, right like thisbearded big white dude that
barely sees sunlight, and thissoftware engineer that is

(36:12):
constantly building, building,building, building.
So there had to be a bridgingof the gap and there had to be
building.
So there had to be a bridgingof the gap and there had to be
more shared responsibility.
There had to be a level ofteaching, right, the DevOps I'll
call it the infrastructureperson, because the term DevOps
engineer is also controversial.
But this infrastructure-mindedperson is also thinking about

(36:34):
how the software works.
The infrastructure person isactually learning software.
Learning software is actuallygetting into automation.
The infrastructure person iseducating the engineer, the
software engineer, on how theinfo works and the
infrastructure engineer is, asyou said, automating himself out
of a job.
He's saying, hey, you are theinfrastructure engineer now

(36:57):
because I've given you thetooling to be able to do that
Facts, so that you can movefaster.
Yeah, so I mean, I canarticulate it now, but I know
that when the process, when Ifirst started getting into it,
the kind of definitions I wasseeing were very simplistic.
Yeah, devops is a combinationof development operations, and I
found that to be one of themost meaningless definitions.

(37:20):
So I got to the heart of whatit is by talking to DevOps
engineers, sres, understandingwhat are the differentiations,
knowing that something can becalled one thing in one place
and mean something completelydifferent.
But to get to the heart of thematter, one of the principles
that really stuck out to me iscalms right, and it starts with
culture, and I know that'ssomething that is you, that's

(37:43):
very important to you as well.
Culture as this, uh, I think onan individual level, it's
actually character yeah right,what do you care about?
what are your values?
Are you here to serve?
Are you just here to extract?
Are you willing to take yourtime?
So all these values, if youwill, I think are such a core
part of DevOps and should be acore part of everybody's work.

(38:03):
And then you talk aboutautomation right, why are we
automating?
To reduce tolls?
So we can do more interestingwork, so we can get home to our
families, so that our customerscan have a great experience.
Then you have lean reducingwaste.
You have measurement.
You can't manage what you can'tmeasure.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
I used to say if there's no metrics, then that
means it's broken.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Right.
And then the last one isabsolutely, and it's sharing
yeah Right, which almost is aloop back to culture, but a
culture of sharing and gooddocumentation.
I mean, these are life skills.
I'm like reading about thisDevOps stuff and helping folks
get up in DevOps.
Of course we're teaching AWS.
I taught Python.
Teaching is hard, y'all.
But, it's so rewarding, butsharing right.

(38:49):
That's why it's so importantfor us to be writing right, even
outside of documentation in thetradition sense.
When you write and I see your30 days that you're doing you're
putting things out there toserve people and they can come
back to that and that's actuallyan extension of yourself too.
So sharing as one of those coreprinciples is really exciting.
So DevOps in general now thingsare moving towards more AI, but

(39:13):
it's still the same automationand there's still the question
of what are your goals and howare you approaching it.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, and I think you hit the
nail right on its head in termsof being able to describe DevOps
in a way that's just notsurface level but actually
really give you somefoundational understanding,
because you are right in termsof the gap from dev and
operations and closing that gapso that now the software
engineer is almost theinfrastructure engineer.

(39:40):
Right, that's the interface andit's interfacing at a
programming level where there'snot a person in the loop, and it
just changes how we operate.
It changes how we scale.
One thing that I definitelyfeel you're calling out is
culture.
Right, I definitely lean onthat.
That's something that I pickedup working at Twitter.
It's like I used to go in theoffice and you know I'm buttoned
up, whatever, and my manager'slike Bobby, when are you just

(40:02):
going to come in and be you,type stuff.
I was like you sure y'all wantBobby D to pull up and I was
like all right, then you'll see.
And then eventually, what itreally did is empower me in an
environment that allowed me tohave myself, and when I came in,
I came in as myself rather thanputting up a front or flexing,
right, and as soon as I had that, it actually has a trigger for

(40:23):
me to be even more innovative,right, because now it's like,
hey, I don't have to put up afront when I'm coming off.
Actually, I'm feeling goodcoming into the office.
You know what?
It's Friday, it's 4 o'clock,let me turn this up so everybody
can feel this type of culturetype stuff.
And then, soon as I started tocreate that, you actually
started to see other peoplebeing more innovative and also
all the other things that comeswith being a and I call myself a

(40:45):
diplomat for the customer, asan sre, because I'm the one that
represents the customer, right,and we have slas, we have
defined up times and if we'renot meeting that, you got to
come talk to me because you'reaffecting my I'm diplomat.
I'm diplomat for them, right,that I'm representing them, and
it just changes the way that youoperate as soon as you put
these practices into play um,actually into put these theories

(41:06):
into practice.
But the value system around itis so massive and the thing
that's really good about whereyou're at right now is that I'm
behind this big old thing typecompany trying to orchestrate
this stuff and you're able toarticulate in a way that's very
receptive.
You don't have to go to thatthing level to get that, because
that was always the barrier.
Oh sre is google or these bigold companies, but the concept

(41:29):
and way that you broke that down, big round of applause get my
guy I told you I told y'allbetter be ready to tune in.
I told you I better be ready totune in.
I think, in terms of next pointin the conversation is I cannot
, we cannot, end ourconversation without talking
about AI, because you mentionedsomething about there's.

(41:49):
This thing that we've beendoing in engineering and
technology is almost mimickingwhat has been created right, a
mind right or consciousness, orthe way that we learn and
thought process, and now it'ssomewhat developing a computing,
um, you know, resource or toolcalled ai.
But I want to see what youthought about ai, oh, how you
feel about this wave, here we go, here we go um, and definitely

(42:09):
some advice for you know, thenext generation, because that
that's who's tuning in give hima little breath, take some water
.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
He said I got it.
I got it.
Take some water real quick.
You know when you get thateight.
That's the question of themoment, I know, and it's only
two letters too AI bro, it'swild, it's wild.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
There he goes, take one more for the culture.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
You see, I told you.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
D got.
Shout out to the Bronx.
Out there, bronx Bombers, let'sgo.
But how do you feel about AI?
One of the best I just saw thisrecently.
Ai is amplified intent.
So the question is what is beingautomated, what and from what
intent?
From what data set?
Right, because AI comes down todata that is being essentially

(43:03):
fitted on a graph, as you said,oversimplification, right?
So AI is basically going to.
These AI LLMs have a ton ofdata that are fed into them and
they are approximating andthey're, you know, all right,
they visibly look as if they are, they're thinking, yeah, but
they're really just going basedoff of the data that's provided.

(43:24):
Right, so enter that problemalready.
What was the intent of thosefolks that you know the the what
, what was the intent of thosefolks that were essentially
created that data?
Yeah, not that it was createdout of thin air, but, um, what
processes led to the intent ofthose folks that were
essentially created that data?
Yeah, Not that it was createdout of thin air, but what
processes led to the creation ofthat data?
What realities in the world ledto that data?
Without having to talk about,we know about algorithmic bias.

(43:46):
If you don't, please look it upFor sure.
There are biased data sets outthere that could be essentially
automating decisions that arenot good for many people,
especially black and browncommunities, marginalized
communities.
So I think about that.
That's a place that I go, butfrom a place of love.
I believe that we can eitherthink of from a place of fear or

(44:07):
a place of love, and from aplace of fear you can stick your
head in the sand and run awayand just be like, oh, I'm going
to live in an island, I'm notgoing to touch this, I hate AI,
I'm not going to do anythingwith it.
But that only makes the folkswith negative intent and simply
just a money-focused intent.
The Bible says the love ofmoney is the root of all evil.
So there's some people whoreally love money that will do

(44:30):
evil things to get money that'sa fact or they'll make it look
good.
So I have a lot of hot takes Ican give you about something
that's coming out these digitaltwins, where people are in
relationships with AI.
I think that's just weird.
God put us here to love him andto love each other.
So if you're spending your timenot doing either of those,

(44:52):
you're just loving on AIs.
Somebody actually just sawtoday.
Somebody said that's a self-ownof humanity, because we're
supposed to hear and buildfamilies.
So some people are not going tobuild families.
Oh, that's too hard, that'smoney I have to give up myself.
I could just have arelationship with this AI, and
then it's going to be robots too.
So we have to get back tobasics.

(45:19):
Our intent is so important.
That's why I started a groupcalled Christians Innovate to
empower builder believers tobuild for the next 550 and 500
years, because what's in us iswhat's most important.
So if I'm in the word of God, Iunderstand.
What does God say about me?
What does God say about how torelate to each other?
I can draw from these timelessprinciples and I can build good.
Well, as opposed to, what can Ibuild so I can make some money?

(45:40):
You can build a lot of things.
So I think our intent is moreimportant than ever before.
We need to be connected to eachother more than ever before.
If you look at the trend and ifyou talk about I talked about
the rise of big data becausethey got the data, yeah, and
they want to monetize that dataum, it's actually about
extraction.
That's why they said data is anew oil.
To get oil, you must extractright.

(46:03):
So if data is a new oil,they're taking data from us and
using that to connect us tosystems that feed our flesh.
So you look at gaming.
There's like this immense focuson gaming.
People are spending all theirtime on games.
That's their life now.
That's their reward system.
Same thing with social mediathe endless scroll, doom,

(46:24):
scrolling, right.
So all of those things actuallytake us away.
Even before AI, these thingswere being built.
Ai is just the.
I don't want to call it aconclusion because it should not
be the end of the story, but itis very Matrix-like in that we
are hooked up to a machine,we're powering this machine, our
time is being taken and usedand extracted and monetized.

(46:45):
So we have to get back tobasics.
How am I solving problems for myfamily?
How am I spending time with myfamily?
How am I loving my family?
How am I getting closer to God?
Am I building things that serve?
So I think there's tons ofopportunities For me right now.
I'm really passionate aboutcommunication skills as a
baseline, for how do we connectwith each other?
How do we put out messagesright?

(47:07):
So I want to see people who aregreat with technology but are
also great at communicatingideas, because that's how we
build and we solve problems.
I want to see a generation ofproblem solvers, people that
have identified.
I like to say I'm from theBronx and I live in Jersey City
and I'm in Newark a lot.
These are problem-richenvironments.
I just did the keynote atWellFest for Counter, an

(47:29):
organization called Counter, andyou see so many problems.
If we trained ourselves onthose problems and we saw AI as
a tool to solve those problems,that love that we have for our
communities, that's what's goingto make us go learn the
calculus.
That's what's going to make uslearn the programming.
And it's because it's directedat solving a problem, not just

(47:51):
to have the tools, just to havethe tools, just so I can have
some money, so I can flex.
It's because there's people Iwant to serve.
Even folks who hate AI.
Go to law school right.
And be one of those people thathelps to mitigate the negative
effects and amplify the positiveeffects.
Right, go and study businessand understand how the economy

(48:13):
works, right.
So what we can't do is nothing.
We must build, we must build.
We must build for ourcommunities.
We must learn how to be bettercommunicators.
I am working on helping peopleconnect with each other better
and get out of their heads Oneof the big secrets out there is
that improv is really great forthat.
Improv right.

(48:35):
So getting people out of theirhead, talking to folks.
So I'm looking at how can I useAI to approximate that
experience.
But also, in addition to that,how do I bring people into
physical spaces engaging inimprov exercises so we can grow
as communicators.
And we know that even just toget a job in these days, it's a

(48:56):
tough economy.
It's all about relationships.
It's all about can you connectwith people.
So we need to focus on thatskill.
So the irony of it is that therobots are better than ever at
being robots, so we need to getbetter at being human.
We need to learn how to connectwith each other.
We need to learn how to loveone another.

(49:17):
We need to learn how to loveone another and we need to learn
how to build for one another.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Yeah, that's what's up, daniel, and big shout outs
to you on that, because I thinksometimes the perspectives of AI
sometimes get so clouded andall of these big shiny you know,
two new toys, this new bag thatyou think you're going to get,
and stuff like that versus theactual underlining impact that
could happen if we all reallyunderstand what's happening.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
You get what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
That's where I'm grateful to hear you have this
mindset, and I know that you'reshouting from the mountaintop,
so keep pushing, and actuallythat actually draws in.
Another question here is publicspeaking.
So I noticed that TED Talk hasdefinitely been something that
you've hit up.
You've hit up a TED Talk stageand you're also writing a book
also, and you also provide aspace at your tea shop or is it

(50:02):
a coffee shop?
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yes, we have a coffee shop.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
But how has public speaking, like utilizing that
platform, really, you know,allow your voice to be, you know
, broader and reach the audiencethat you're looking for?

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Yeah, it's such a great question.
I think, if we just start atthe point of speaking in general
, that has opened up so manydoors for me and I really credit
that to the opportunity thatI've been given to speak.
So, just growing up in thechurch, youth Sundays, youth
ministry, going to differentchurches and speaking, and even
in high school, my senior year,when we started rapping, I felt

(50:40):
like I was too shy.
I I'll rephrase that I knewthat who I was was not who I
needed to be in terms of justbeing able to communicate with
people.
So a lot of times we think, oh,this is how I am, I'm just shy.
Oh, I don't like to talk much,you know what I mean?
Mean, like, I like to be behindthe scenes, and a lot of times

(51:00):
that actually prevents ourgrowth.
How can people hire us, workwith us, collaborate with us, if
they don't know who we are?
Yeah, if we don't leave animpression, even one-to-one, not
to speak of public speaking.
So God has really empowered me,through these looks that he's
given me, to be able to to, tostand up and to speak, even just

(51:21):
in the classroom.
My heart used to palpitate, butI knew I didn't want that.
So I would go against that.
And then I came to know thepsychology of it, like it's a
fight or flight response and theright response is the fight and
not to run away.
So I chased that fear away andgrew in confidence in speaking.

(51:43):
And then I saw the power ofevery time that I'm able to
speak.
So even I go to a networkingevent and ask a question, so
many people see me and theywould come up to me.
When I'm at work, when there'san event, I'm able to articulate
something.
So many people are appreciativeand I found that speaking is
actually service.
People think it's about you,it's not about you.

(52:04):
And that's actually where yourheart rate goes up, because you
start getting really pridefuland you're thinking about oh,
what are people going to thinkof me?
Even here, before, before westart this, I prayed.
I said God, allow this to meetthe point of everyone's needs.
I met a brother on the subwaycoming here and right before he
got off the train I waited toolong.

(52:25):
It was a brother and I was justlike, what do you do for work?
He's like I'm about to go toMacy's.
I was like, oh, I used to be asoftware engineer there.
So, coming here, I'm like Ihope he can hear this.
What?
Coming here, I'm like I hope hecan hear this.
Yeah, what does he need to heartoday?
Yeah, so the key to publicspeaking is the heart posture of
service and, like anything thatwe want to get good at, it's
doing it over and over and overagain, but it starts at the

(52:47):
heart posture and that's what Icoach folks on right now as a
coach, as part of my business.
How do you identify the problemyou want to solve?
How do you come up with amessage that solved that that
problem?
How do you identify the problemyou want to solve?
How do you come up with amessage that solved that problem
?
How do you find opportunitiesto keep spreading that message?
And that's put me on stages inNewark.
I've spoken at companies likePayPal, I've spoken on panels

(53:11):
for ERGs.
I've spoken, of course, at TEDx, and that's given me a big
platform as well.
So I'm really grateful for theopportunity to be able to speak
into people's life.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
That's what I do I speak life big shout outs to you
and thanks D for that round ofapplause.
Daniel, this is the thing, man,it's like.
The first time I ran into youyou were like yo, connect,
connect, connect.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
I was like alright, we can connect it, and then I go
and check your page.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
I'm like yo you, I'm over and then I go go somewhere
else and you're there and I waslike yo, what's up, daffy up I
go this over here and you'rethere, I'll daff you up and then
just that, that presence thatyou have and and the impact that
you're having, I I can see howpublic speaking um, in terms of
just developing but executing onit has really allowed you to be
in the right place so thatpeople can receive what you are

(53:58):
pouring, because it's all comingfrom that center, that place of
like pureness you know what I'msaying Like there's no front or
, you know, you run intosomebody and they'd be like yo,
can you get me a job tomorrow?
I'm like, hold on a second,let's just talk about life.
Yeah, I just want to see what'sgoing on with you, right?
And then when I run into peoplethat really can see what I'm
doing, and then I can see whatthey're doing.

(54:20):
That's why we're crossing thesepaths as we're on this time.
So I want to say, first of all,thank you so much for your time
today.
We're not done yet, because Ihave one more question, and this
is more or less for theaudiences what would be some of
the closing mindset, tips oradvice that you have for the
next generation coming up,especially here in the field of

(54:41):
engineering and technology thatwill service the next five to
ten years going forward?

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Oh, that's a great question.
So I'm going to answer that intwo ways.
One is think ahead of thetrends to come, since you're
talking about technology.
So, yes, you're a computerscience major, yes, you are a
society and technology major,but what are you doing about
quantum?
So, you can be the expert inquantum before it even comes out

(55:07):
.
There's programs right nowwhere you can learn the cutting
edge.
The government has an interestin you learning, so go for the
future.
Robotics Go build some robots,go program.
Some robots, go rock with somedrones.
Get into the habit ofautomating away toil, making

(55:28):
things easier for people usingthe technology skills that
you're learning.
The second, my four P pieceframework is people, projects,
problem solving and packagingthat's what I did my tedx talk
on so people first.
So fall in love with people, getdevelop those people skills,
learn some psychology, learnsome economics.
Um, that's a little tangent interms of business, like how the

(55:50):
business system works andeconomics works and then there's
the um.
There's the behavioraleconomics of how people work
with incentives and just get outthere and just love people and
serve them.
One of the best questions youcan ask somebody instead of
asking can I get a job?
I hate that.
I hate that Because it's kindof an automated thing that
people learn.

(56:10):
Because you know closed mouthsdon't get fed.
But there's something aboutbuilding a relationship and
serving.
How can I serve you?
Bobby D is working on so manydifferent things.
If you're an intern, if you area high school student, you have
a college student, you have thegift of time, if you can
contribute something, if you canfind an opportunity for him.
I've used that.
Yeah and and, uh it's.

(56:32):
It's opened up doors.
So people first build forpeople.
So think about what projects youcan build to do that and
identify what problem you wantto solve and then, last
packaging, be able to tell yourstory.
So, if you can, I would centerjust to close out.
I would center identify aproblem to solve.
It doesn't have to be a finalproblem.

(56:52):
I'm going to follow thisproblem for the rest of my life.
People put so much weight on it, but do some thinking what
problem do I want to solve rightnow and get to solving it.
Then, if you feel sufficientlythat you saw the problem or that
you want to move on tosomething else, move on to

(57:13):
another problem, the skills youlearned solving the previous
problems will transfer over veryseamlessly to future problems.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
You solve, roger, that.
My guy, daniel Cue that musicup D.
Oh, he tried to take it all theway back.
Cue it up, cue it up, daniel.
I appreciate you my brother,Thank you so much for pulling up
you, my guy man.
I'm going to see you in thesestreets as we move in and we're
going to be connecting even more.
And we're going to beconnecting even more because I
think moments like this allowsme to really build a bond,

(57:39):
because we had a chance to breakbread in the conversations like
this.
You know what I'm saying.
So we're going to be chattingup some more Now for you
audience.
Where's the best way for themto get connected with you and
find out more about your journey?

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Absolutely so one.
You can find me on LinkedIn,daniel Adiyanju.
That's A-D-E-Y-A-N-J-U.
I'm sure you can find that inthe show notes On Instagram.
I am at BGreat and I have alittle community there.
I would love for you to join AtBGreat, bgreat.
Yeah, yeah Is my message to you.
My company is called BGreat.
Today that is my assignment foryou.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Facts I love it.
I love it.
So, just like you said, checkthe show notes in the
descriptions below.
We'll have all the links andall the ways that you can access
my guy daniel.
Again, thank you so much fortuning in, or actually coming in
and definitely having them tunein to see you right, my guy d
hustle, you got any last wordsplayer.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
I'm speechless, I know right this is fire, right,
yeah, that's that's the move.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
He's usually never speechless, right but I will
have a lot to say I will say DHustle helped mark the episode
with a special sound.
Give him the special sound.
So if you had heard this soundthroughout the conversation,
there's a button that's called arewind button.
Press that back a little bitand listen in, because we are
definitely, definitely got somegems that were dropped today by
my guy, daniel Tune, in Keepfollowing.

(58:58):
Let your friends know about it.
Check my guy out if you're herein Jersey City and you need a
coffee spot to pull up and chillfor a little bit.
But, as always, I want to saythank you so much for tuning in
to Backstage with Bobby D Hollaat your boy.