May 10, 2024 • 61 mins
In this conversation, the hosts celebrate Toni Benson's birthday and introduce her as a guest. Toni shares her background, including growing up in Dover, Delaware, and attending Delaware State University. She explains how she initially pursued computer science but switched to management information systems. Toni then discusses her decision to join the United States Air Force and her experience as a communications officer. She highlights the leadership skills she gained during her time in the military. In this part of the conversation, Toni Benson discusses the lack of representation she experienced in the Air Force and the workforce. She also shares her journey of becoming a speaker and the importance of authenticity and not conforming to fit in. Toni encourages women to enter the tech field and provides resources and networks to support their journey. She emphasizes the significance of mentors, coaches, and advocates in personal and professional growth. Finally, Toni introduces her consulting company, Envision, which focuses on leadership training and supporting young people in becoming leaders. In this conversation, the hosts and guest discuss various topics related to diversity in tech, the impact of conferences, investing in the next generation, the role of AI, security concerns with AI, big tech and security, individual responsibility and social media, and finding balance and decompressing. They also touch on imposter syndrome and the importance of taking responsibility.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Now you're you're extra whimsical tonight.Extra is the key word. I am
also six shots in and I putthis lippop on for Tony. I made
it. I made my face up, made my face up. I was
like, Oh, she ain't gonnabe out here shining by myself. Yeah
you should. It looks greasy.You can't be out here looking. You
(00:22):
should see that. You should seeher hair when she on the phone with
me and Rico, just about usalone, what we're doing. Reggie,
I like it. I like,I'm just saying I like that. The
combs go hid in the drawer.I'm just saying I like, I like
that. Get it, and that'swhat you want. That's what I don't
mean to say. Only like I'mbad with adjectives. Look, I'm mad
(00:51):
with adjectives. Adjectives adgives you lookamazing you M. I think we've already
started. I feel we lose M. I can't take no lost. I
(01:23):
don't even know what they cost.Hit the ground, then to go off
chance, hit the ground, thento go off champ. I can't take
no lost. Jeff, what's up? Good people? I'm Tony Benson,
Rico, thank you for having me. Ebony. Thank you for putting me
on. Reginald. Nice to meetyou, even with the scruff. I
like it. It's cool that you'realready here. You don't have to lie
(01:46):
you're already here. Don't do that. We gotta each other at all endeavors.
I'm Tony Benson, happy to behere. A little bit of my
background. I'm from Dover, Delaware. I know you know tons of people
from Dover, Delaware, just sayingthat the other day. I met my
boy from my from Dover just theother day. That's what I'm talking about.
(02:12):
So anyway, from from Dover,Delaware, great family. I went
to school there. I also wentto college there, went to the HBCU
State. For all my state fansout there, all my state people out
there, I graduated from Delaware StateUniversity. I didn't just go to Nolwhen
State University. There's a distinction,right. I'm a proud member of the
(02:34):
Stigma Data Sorority Incorporated, because youknow, you got to get that out
there for all my soul wars.But yeah, no, I grew up
and grew up in Dover, Delaware. Again, it was a very multicultural
upbringing. There were a lot ofdifferent people got to meet a lot of
different types of people, especially withthe military and the Air Force coming in
(02:54):
and out. And then after that, after I left Delaware State University,
I went into the United States AirForce. I was a commissioned officer in
the Air Force. I was acommunications officer. You would think communications really
means like, uh, we're goingto be doing it stuff. Not it
could be a little bit of everything. But that's kind of how I got
(03:16):
introduced into it in college when Imajored in first computer science. And let
me tell you, I did amajor switch because you coding. I was
like, this is a lot.Yeah, that c plus plus it wasn't
my thing, so I didn't managementinformation systems. But it still led me
down a tech route. And Ireally just picked that major. I literally
(03:38):
said, what are going to bethe most lucrative careers? It wasn't Google
back then. It was like bing, I'm probably telling my age now,
Tony. I myself went down themanagement systems route, so I definitely I'm
there with you. Forget the restof the haters. I personally went down
(04:01):
this computer science route. So Imean, you would have been a good
company. But I mean so Marcoin the chat says it was like us.
I remember, like us, Well, I don't want to date myself,
but I got a question for you, Tony. Right. First off,
did I call you Tony Braxton somebodyin chat? Okay, okay,
(04:24):
somebody in chat line? Somebody inchat SI Tony Braxton? All right,
because I know I mess up,but I would have remembered that one.
So you went to you you graduately, you went to college first, and
then you got commissioned? Right?What made you go into the air Force?
Right? And you you went intocollege and got this degree, it's
(04:47):
ut degree, Like, what madeyou decide to use that in the Air
Force? First? So, firstI was in school. I had no
plans of doing the military at all. I really saw my life from my
mind. I was gonna be onWall Street somewhere. I was gonna be
somewhere in New York doing my powerwalk from the subway with my sneakers on,
(05:08):
with my my heels in my hands. I don't even wear heels anymore.
I had a whole vision of whatit was gonna be. And you
know, sometimes your plans don't workout the way you want to what they
say you make plans God laughs atyou or something like that. So,
uh, the way my plans workedout, I did ROTC in college for
my last three years. It paidfor school. And then I went to
(05:30):
the Air Force because what other branchwhen I go in. For all my
Air Force people out there, weknow that's where the smart people live.
I feel like I don't even haveglasses that what well, I cann't say
anything because I never actually was inthe military, so I'm gonna keep quiet.
But you know, thanks for yourservice. I feel like you ain't
(05:51):
mean that retinal it did have likesome untell. I really do. Thank
you for your service, not justyour military service, but your civilian service.
Now, thank you, we appreciateit. You're serving as a civilian.
(06:15):
Well, yeah, I'm in thefederal government. We'll talk about that
later. Oh yeah, by theway, let me throw my disclaimer out.
Real quicks and ideas and things Isay today are the opinions and ideas
of Tony Benson, not of thefederal government. My disclaimer out there asked
me questions later, yea, likesomebody wanted a solo from you still,
(06:39):
do you see? No, that'snot my ministry. Now if you go
as it's not their ministry either.I will say that I can harmonize.
So you throw me in with agroup. I ain't gonna mess it up
for everybody. See the background inthe choir, in the choir. If
(07:02):
you can do that, If youcan do that, you can have your
flowers today for me. That's allI'm saying. I would like one,
but but I get what I canget. Okay, waiting I was waiting
for somebody to job back all that. I'm sorry, that's not what this
(07:27):
is about. But you know youcould catch me on the karaoke anytime.
You will do karaoke when you comedown, we will, all right.
So, so you went into theAir Force as an aim high officer right
doing your thing. Thank you foryour service. What was that experience?
Like? Wow? It was mixedright? Uh? The Air Force I
(07:54):
think taught me everything. I won'tsay everything, but a lot about what
I know about leadership, right.And as my career has evolved, I
do less and less hands on keyboardthings and I do more leading. And
I attribute a lot of that thatI learned in the Air Force to me
being successful, or I think I'msuccessful. I mean people, people,
(08:15):
can you know give their opinion,but I think I think I'm successful at
it. And I really say thatthe Air Force helped kind of cultivate that
in me. The one thing,and this probably leads into a little bit
more of my story, the onething that I didn't see in the Air
Force were people that look like me. You know, they really talk about
(08:37):
it's a it's a real thing whenthey say you if you see it,
you can believe it, you canbe it. And I think that's one
of the reasons why I got outright. I didn't see many, if
any women at the highest levels ofthe Air Force are black women, and
so for me, it was discouraging. Uh. It led me down a
path to say, you know what, I did my part, I got
(08:58):
what I from it, and I'mgoing to go seek other opportunities. So,
like I said, taught me alot. I learned a lot about
working together with teams. I learneda lot about working with teams multi generational
or from different backgrounds, and howdo you get all those people to come
together and work together. But italso taught me, I guess my first
(09:20):
kind of dose and lesson that I'mgoing to be in a lot of spaces
where there's people that don't look likeme. And if I if I could
do it all over again, Iprobably would do it differently. But that's
you know, twenty how many yearslater that knowledge so so so seeing and
experiencing that and while ending your serviceright to the country you got out.
(09:43):
Was there was there a significant contrastto that or was there pretty Was it
pretty similar in the in the inthe workforce? You know it? I
would say it's pretty similar, right, because I think that even though I
know, you know, diverse,I guess it's getting a little bit better
in the spaces of tech. Oneof the things that you will see is
(10:05):
that where the diversity is increasing insome of the entry level levels, you
don't see it still in the Csuite as much. You don't see it
in all these other places, andthose are the people that are influencing what
the next generation of things are goingto look like. Right and so again,
if you can't see yourself and youcan't imagine it, it just becomes
(10:26):
more and more difficult to be ableto see or chart a pathway. It
becomes more and more difficult to findthose mentors that can really kind of understand
the same way And I'm not sayingthat you have to only have black I
have more than black women mentors.I have you know, white male I
have black men all across the spectrum, right. But I'm just saying,
(10:48):
sometimes it's good to talk to somebodywho understands the plight. And so it's
funny that you say that, becausethat actually happens to be how we met
because we were at a conference.We're at a leadership conference in New Orleans
and Tony walked past me and shehad this deafcom backpack on, and I
(11:09):
was like, oh, wait aminute, you didn't just come from Vegas
last week too, And initially shethought that I was being a stalker,
and then she turned around. Itwas very nice and introduce herself. I
can see the stalker piece. Icould. I could definitely understand that lurk
behind me for what like two weeksor something. Okay, relax, it
(11:33):
was like two minutes. And shesaid she took your last money too.
So anyway, after after that conversation, we had started to discuss all of
the different places where we had beenand it was a basic lack of representation
(11:58):
between the two of us. Andnow we share a lot of the similar
opportunities in terms of increasing that leadershipstyle across different organizations, finding ways for
exposure. I think that you wereat Defcon last year and you're at new
Conference last year given a talk,right, Yeah, so squad Con shout
(12:22):
out to Tanisha Martin and all ofthe all of the black women in tech
that are really just doing their thing. But yeah, there's just opportunities out
there that weren't there when Ebity andI first met, right, And I
think that they will continue to grow, but there just needs to be more.
Again, when we talk about diversityand some of the things that we
(12:43):
hear, you know, one administration, you might be trying to increase it,
the next administration you're trying to cutit within the same you know all
of the things. Right, there'snot a devoted effort to make workspaces look
like what this country looks like canbe a reflection of that, and that's
a problem. And so I thinkthe more people that can step up,
(13:05):
the more people who can step outkind of be a voice for those It's
something that for the for the industryin general, but beyond tech, right,
we need to get this right andwe need to create those opportunities for
people. That's dope. I knowEbany is uh, she's an ambassador for
conferences, speaks at conferences, Andthat was a story in itself, right,
(13:31):
listen back to that if you guysmissed that story. But for you,
how did how did how did youbecome a speaker? I mean,
did you speak at your very firstconference? Hey? You an audience,
you look like you know something abouttech or how that whole process come about?
No, I'm gonna give credit tomy mom. Right. First of
all, I had a problem talkingin class all the time anyway, Like
(13:56):
I was just bored because I alreadyknew it was kind of going on.
And once I got it, I'mready to talk and let's talk about something
else, which is not the spacefor that. But my mom put me
in pageants when I was a kid, right, and I'm a timeboy,
like, don't. I didn't wantto be in pageants. I didn't want
to do it. But what itdid, and what I didn't realize it
was doing, was it got ridof any fear that I have to kind
(14:20):
of go in front of people anddo things right, speak, walk,
whatever it had, it afforded mean opportunity to be in spaces where there
weren't many people that look like me. These are all things that, like
you know, at nine ten,you don't really realize that you're picking up
on and again it it just gaveinstilled confidence to kind of talk to anyone
(14:43):
and do anything, and be inspaces, like I said, where people
don't necessarily look like you, andbe successful in those spaces too, because
you're just kind of showing up andagain just kind of being who I am.
It's all I can be. Andso I think that that's really kind
of what's started started me down thatpath. But I love public speaking.
(15:03):
It's a it's a great opportunity toreach the masses. I am an introvert.
And so I'm gonna tell you rightnow, you see me at a
conference, this is so this isthis is kind of like you see me
at a conference. If I'm speaking, I'll speak, I'll do the things,
I'll shake the hands, I'll spaky. But when you see me outside
(15:24):
of that conference, three or fourwords from me, because now I need
to like rejuvenate myself. I needto like pour back into my cup.
So I'm not rude, I'm justyou know, I'm tired. We going
all the way off the strip toeat some food. I'm an introvert too,
and it takes a lot of energyfrom you if you're an introvert,
(15:46):
to go out into and to talkto people and stuff like that. So
I'm curious you said that you kindof like went through and you you did
a lot of you know, minglingwith people in diverse cultures. So I
know in the past conversation we had, we talked about code switching. So
(16:06):
is that something that you find yourselfhaving to do or you just like continue
to be authentic self whenever you talk. I first of all, I want
to suggest that just because there isa perception of code switching, it's not
to suggest that it's not your authenticself, but go ahead and tell it.
No, I agree with that.I agree with that. And he
(16:26):
said, I think that when Iwas younger, I used to try a
lot harder to fit in because inthe military, like I said, you're
while I was predominantly around white males. You just try to fit in,
right, because you don't want tomake quote unquote a situation uncomfortable. The
older I get, the less Iget I don't really care what you think
(16:52):
I know what I know. Youknow what I mean. It's just a
level of confidence you have when you'reconfident in what you know, and so
you can't take that from me.So I'm gonna show up in spaces I
know what I'm talking about. Iusually don't step up and open my mouth
if I don't really know what I'mtalking about. But don't get me on
a topic that I'm passionate about,and I go tooth and nail with you
(17:14):
like theaters out this joint. Butbut yeah, anyway, Yeah, I
try I show up as my authenticself because that's when I am the best
version of myself. If I tryto be something else, I'm not going
to be successful at that. SoI really found myself wanting to push back
on what Ebony just said. Butwhen you really think about it, it
makes sense, you know, becauseyou're multifaceted people were multi fasted people.
(17:38):
You know, you you you findyourself just change and allowing yourself to fit
in with whatever space you're in.But the thing that made me want to
push back on it is that thateffort. Well aside from there, that's
why you want to push back on. Let me have my flowers. Now
(18:03):
aside from that is that you knowit requires effort, you know, like
like Tony was just saying, it'sexhausting doing that, and you get to
the point where you just don't careand you don't care to expand this extra
energy that that's required for you toassimilate to this this environment. Right,
And I think that's an important thing, right, we should be we should
be comfortable enough to be the selfthat requires less effort. Right. So
(18:30):
it's not that you're not your authenticself, probably not your most comfortable and
ideal. So you have remember toothat well I always said this, I'm
not for everybody, and I'm goodwith that, you know what I mean,
Be good with not being for everybody. It's just not everybody's cup of
tea. That's cool, keep youknow what I mean. There's somebody,
(18:51):
there's somebody that is that fits themold that you want or whatever. So
just got to be comfortable in that. And I do appreciate a few a
few tickes ago when you were seeinghow you know, showing up and we
were talking about you presenting it ata conference and such. It's good to
be seen, right, seeing peoplethat look like you but for people to
(19:15):
see people that look like them,they got to have somebody out there.
So you know, Tony's doing it, Evan, he's doing it. I
do a good deal of it inmy circles in my role at Red Hat.
And disclaimer, none of these viewsare Red Hats and they don't sponsor
doing any of that kind of stuffthe show. These are all my cookie
(19:36):
ideas and bad jokes. But alot of what what I got exposed to
when I started was they really harpon building your brand. So when I
have mentees or people that I coach, some of the most some of the
some of the things that I harpon most aside from the technical learning,
the technical stuff is building your socialcapital and building your brand. Your brain
(20:00):
is crucial, you know, Soif you have it in you to go
out and do a talk or haveconversations with people that are doing talk,
to do that, let let peopleknow who you are, and just get
outside of yourself. Because I believeit or not, I'm an introvert.
Evan is an introvert. Tony justsays she's an introvert. I don't know
(20:23):
if Reggie is an introvert. Hedid say he was an introvert. You
just ignored that. Yeah, sohe left me out of the whole conversation.
But it's like I just picked youup and dragged you back in.
All right, you want to comeback in? No, I'm saying I
was just saying I was an introvert. I'm you know, I do a
lot of stuff too, man,just like Reggie. And we got a
(20:48):
question for you, Tony, howwould you encourage women to get into tech
when some would think it's something heavyfor you? Oh? Right, from
the chat exactly, that's exactly whatappreciate that yet welcome was like I was
on that one. So I thinkthere's a couple of things, right,
(21:11):
There's a there's a couple of freeresources that I'll say that are out there
right, So, not to promotemy my day job, but uh,
there's some challenges that we've put outthere that's called try cyber I think it's
try cyber dot us. It justkind of gets your feet wet and what
you think is interesting out there orwhat you might be interested in in cyber
(21:32):
There's a couple of other things onthe syste dot gov website that you can
go to. The c I sA dot g o V that talks about
career pathways. So there's different thingsthat are out there and tools that are
out there. I always tell peoplebefore you start investing a whole bunch of
money in tech, because it canget expensive. Make sure it's something that
you really want to do, don'tdo don't let money just be the motivator.
(21:56):
That's with anything, right, Like, have some passion behind. I
mean, the money can be good, right, I think we all know
that, But at what cost?Right if you don't really want to do
that, and it's not something thatyou want to get up out of bed
every day and do. And soI also encourage people to find those different
professional networks. I'll promote the couplethat I'm a part of Women's Cybersecurity.
(22:19):
By the way, I'll be speakingat that event again with some of my
peers on a panel. There's alsooh sorry, that's April, I want
to say ninth through the thirteenth inNashville, Tennessee. There's also women's society
(22:42):
inside Brijitsu, Black Girls Hack,Black Girls, Code Girls, Security Girls
who Code. I do a lotof like obviously a lot of women involved
or black women led kind of organizations, but there's a ton of organizations out
there, right, and so Ithink that finding a finding your tribe is
what I like to say. Butfinding your people, finding your network is
(23:04):
really really important because when you're confused, you want to you feel more comfortable
with people that you know kind ofasking those questions. And so I've always
welcome to Now I might not getright back to you, So I'm gonna
just put that out there now.But if people have questions, you can
reach out to me on LinkedIn toI try to answer as many questions as
I can. I do not havea hookup on any jobs. I can
(23:27):
tell you when jobs are getting putout there. I don't necessarily have the
hookup though, when really I don'tever have the hookup, I can tell
yeah, so I look at yourLinkedIn page, and you did post a
lot of jobs on your LinkedIn page. That's mainly what I do. I
try to like because I always say, right, my network, I know
(23:48):
what my network looks like, right, and I know my network may not
look like somebody else's network, Solet me make sure my network is getting
these resources as well, because ifthe same people are posting these jobs and
the same people are going to gethired for these jobs because of the only
ones that know about them. SoI try to force multiply as much as
I can when I see opportunities outthere, whether it be internships or jobs
(24:11):
that people can pursue. Reggie,Reggie, I felt like you no,
no, no, Well I alwayslook like this because I'm always listening and
paying attention and I'm always intensive.I had to give a pregnant pause because
(24:33):
last time I left Reggie and thedust, and I don't want him feeling
excluded, not about but I wasjust no, I'm just I'm giving you
a hard time. Bro. Youjust sit here, you know you look
man, you pressure Bro. Wedon't want you to you know, re
excluded. Hey man, it's allthat back and forth. It makes you
show fun man, no doubt,no doubt, no doubt. Rico go
(24:55):
back like stocking capsin ways man,two thousand and three. I think,
so we're all doing great things outhere. I think that's what makes it
real, Dope. I think that'sI think that there's the more the more
we get out and we go indifferent pathways, the more we can share
our experiences, the more people wecan motivate to come into these spaces and
(25:15):
help kind of cultivate what these spaceslook like. You So, you talked
about, you know, earlier,about having what I would assume is formal
mentorship that you receive, and thenyou've recently just you know, spoke of
having people reach out to you andeven though you're not going to reach back
in the timely matter, maybe maybedo you do you have any formal you
(25:37):
know, mentees that you kind ofgroom personally, is that you're engaging in
for sure? So and when youwhen you when you when you when you
speak on that, can you followup with you know, how you feel
how important you feel mentorship is fora person's growth. Oh yes, I
(26:00):
think there's I think there's really kindof three areas or three types of people
you need in your career, right, I think, or maybe maybe it's
really two. But I think amentor is great. A mentor is to
me is someone who's probably been theplaces that you want to go and can
kind of tell you about the experience. So, if people were interested in
the military or the federal government.I work in the private sector too,
(26:22):
but most of my time has beenspending the government, I could be a
good resource, right, because Ihave some knowledge and background about those things.
Someone with a private sector they cantalk Tony been everywhere else. So
okay, relax again. Everywhere here, every You're wanted by everyone. That's
really what it is. So thething is flowers, they ain't even trying
(26:48):
to. But I think a mentora mentor, is that right? I
think a coach of someone who kindof understands where you want to go and
helps you kind to guide your pathto get there. But I think the
third person that you really need isan advocate or someone who is willing to
(27:10):
say I put my name on soand so that they will do a good
job. And I'm not I'm tellingpeople right now, I'm not that for
everybody. I'm just I can't putmy name on everybody. Yeah, friends,
family, and don't matter who itis. I can't put my name
on everybody. But there are peoplewho I have seen kind of do the
(27:30):
work. And that's what it reallyis for me, Like, let me
see you demonstrate how bad you wantit. How often do you reach out
to me even if I'm slow toreach back. And I'm not that bad
most of the time. Crazy,but it'll be a lot of people reach
out. I signed out for yourmentorship program, Deny. I think we
(28:00):
definitely have to have those types ofpeople though, somebody who's been to where
you want to go, Somebody thatcan help guide you just from like a
higher level perspective and really maybe evenchallenge you to challenge yourself essentially to do
higher things. And then somebody's gonnaput the name on you, like somebody
that really is just going to saywe need to put this person in this
position because a lot of things happenthat way. It's really about who knows
(28:23):
you, not who you know.I really appreciate you for breaking down the
distinctions between mentors, coaches, andadvocates. A lot of people they blur
those lines. They don't really understandthat those even though that could be a
person that holds to a more ofthose roles, a lot of times it
(28:44):
will be one person that's each ofthose things. And then I can also
appreciate that you don't just take riffraff mentee. Okay, realize, like
two words before that, she saidI was wanted and then she told me
I couldn't be on leadership fro myMan went back to the twenties riff raff,
(29:10):
this tom foolery that we're dealing withon the phone there. So now
I couldn't agree more like I.That's why I got excited when you said
that, because I was literally havinga discussion on a panel about the difference
between coaching and mentoring. People don'tknow the difference. So the fact that
you brought that up is really amazing, and I really take my hats off
to you for understanding the role thatyou play in people's lives. That's awesome
(29:36):
your flowers, Thank you appreciated.I just started my own LLC Envision and
so with that, I want todo some I want to be doing.
Consulting. Coaching is one of thethings I want to do as well,
though, because I think it goesback to my philosophy again. I think
you can learn from any and everybody, but I think when it comes from
(29:57):
somebody that looks like you. Andthat's not to say that we're a monolith,
because I really it really disturbs mewhen people want to just bucket every
black woman in one bucket, orevery black man or black people. We
are non monolithic. We're all verydifferent, but I do think there are
some shared experiences, right, andI think that there's an opportunity there for
(30:21):
me to be able to kind ofpour back into some people with the leadership
skills that I've learned along the way. And so more to come on that,
but that will be something I'll definitelykeep it posted up on my LinkedIn
page, some of the things thatI'm trying to do post career, because
you know, we got to havemultiple streams of income out here. We
can't be out here just on onepaycheck. And if we out here on
one paycheck, it's okay. ButI'm telling you right now, today is
(30:44):
the day to start thinking about whatthose multiple streams and income are going to
be. Probably should have a separatestream of income for each of the activities
you engage in. I'll just tellyou. I'm just tell you right now,
I got a side business right nowthat just supports my travel. Are
you a travel agent? Ane?No? But I have considered it.
(31:08):
That's most people who like to travelbecome travel agents. No, no,
No, I think I'm gonna bea content creator any travel ebony on the
road, eveny worldwide, it's calledthe road last travel. Come on,
keep up, Regie, Okay,I mean I'm sorry, is this your
(31:33):
current passion project? Here? Yourenvision? Are you looking for a mintees?
And uh coaches? I mean notme personally, but I got some
people because you know, I can'ttalk to everybody. You talk about what
what envision is about? Yeah?So really really envision. Really it's about,
and in this name itself, isthat I want you to envision yourself
and where you want to be,right So if you can't see yourself there,
(31:57):
it's not going to be. AndI think a lot of times we
don't take the time to actually envisionourselves in where we want to be and
then start to set the milestones todo that. We start marching out to
something and we don't really know whatthe end goal is. So my thought
process is is to go into organizationsand help leaders one be better leaders,
because everybody that is given the titleis not really a leader, So to
(32:22):
provide training and then to also provideconsulting to help them get to that place
that they need to be to beable to run their organizations. The other
piece of that is I want todo leadership trainings really for young people.
That's really my end goal, mywhole passion in life. I don't have
kids, And I think part ofthe reason why I don't have kids is
(32:43):
because I'm supposed to be able tobe there for kids in the masses,
and I think when you have kids, it's probably a little harder to do
right, because you got to focuson your own kids first. And so
I want to teach young people ofcolor really how they need, how they
can be a leaders and not justfollowers, and so it start to instill
(33:04):
those skills in them at an earlyage, so then when they walk into
spaces, they walk into the spaceswith that confidence already that I might just
here, I might start off here, but this is not where I'm going
to end up. And so mywhole goal is to get the streams of
income, to get the profits soI can do these types of things for
free for young people. I lovethat I actually do a lot of volunteering.
(33:28):
Me and my brother Nay in theChat, we volunteer at the Boys
and Girls Club teaching stem. Butyeah, I feel I feel very strongly
that's the way to go. Youknow, we do have to go with
the kids. Adults definitely need tosupport, but I feel like there's a
(33:49):
lot of bang for your buck whenyou're dealing with the kids, because they
could be so milleable, you know, in there figuring it out. A
lot of us we go through lifeis adults and we already think we already
got to figure it out. It'skind of hard to get people to understand
there's a different way, of differentperspective, you can take different options.
(34:12):
So yeah, I definitely appreciate that. Have any original you guys do anything
with kids? I don't like thephrasing of that question. That was that
was wild? That was wild?All right, it was great. Have
you guys here good night? Thatwas wild? Thing quick? I know
(34:35):
right, We're to cut that off. Let's start with that. Try to
get try to get it, tryto get Yeah. I support multiple children's
organizations in a variety of ways,including mentorship. This is a probationary cold
(35:00):
that she's doing right now. Soyeah, and uh yeah, so I
do. I do lots of thingssometimes. Well, previously, much like
you and your brother, I wasteaching soldering and uh software development programming to
(35:22):
kids, making robots and stuff likethat. I don't know if I want
to do that now. It takesup a lot of time, totally.
I'm here to support anyway on thesidelines. It's very challenging. I mean,
these kids, they're like squirrel,you know, mister Rico, can
(35:42):
I touch your hair? Like?No, put the thing up in ponytail.
You should have known by the wayyou showed up. They're they definitely
teach you sapacious. They definitely teachyou supacious. Oh what about you?
Ready you do anything with children organizations? Yeah? So, uh, I
just recently did the second year wedid the I T Export at Orange Technical
(36:02):
College. On the thirtieth, wehave the one hundred Girls Conference I'm doing
with Blacks of Microsoft Florida, Sothat's I'm going to be speaking there.
There's also Microsoft Blacks of Microsoft.That's an organization I'm a part of.
So also we have something called bikeCoon, which is going to be in
(36:22):
the chem Festival, which is goingto be kind of like a black comic
con. A lot of kids aregoing to be there talking about comic con
stuff, and byke Con, I'llbe doing a panel talking about AI and
the role of is playing. Andyes, it's a lot of different things,
but I don't want to get intoall of it. But yeah,
I do a lot, not onlywith my company, but outside the company.
(36:45):
So to me, I think theguidance that she's I mean, like
it's it's amazing. Right. SoI was talking to a girl the other
day and she's she went to herfirst conference right as a child, and
you know, she was just kindof looking around like, oh my gosh,
(37:06):
Oh my gosh. And then oneof the girls that I work one
of the women that I work with, she said, I went to my
first conference when I was young,and that's the thing that got me into
it. She was like, Iwent to my first conference, and I
was like, this is what Iwant to do with my life. And
I mean the company. She worksfor a major company now, right,
you know Microsoft, So I don'twant to, like I said, just
(37:29):
like we gooing red hat same thingwith me and Microsoft. Right, so
but yeah, just yeah, disclaimers, disclaimers, disclaimer. So but yeah,
that just changed her life going toa conference when she was when she
was she actually wanted in a contesta ticket. It was like two thousand
dollars tickets to a conference, aready commress or something like that, and
(37:49):
it changed her life. And nowshe's an up and coming rising star.
She's young, came came round ofcollege, you know, joined the company
and just aspire hires what they callthem, and she's just been like taking
off. But that's that's that startedher whole path, right, it feels
it feels like an investment, likeyou invest in these like kids, and
(38:10):
you don't know what's going to happen. Right, The market could go either
way with their lives. But likefor me, I just it would be
worth it if if one of them, like twenty years from now, right,
if I can make it that long, keep that health up twenty years
from now. I'm watching TV andthen there's a you know, you know
(38:32):
Bill Gates version of this This NewTime and it's like, oh, yeah,
you know, I got into itbecause you know, mister Rico and
mister Marco, they used to cometo the boys like that would make it
worth it for me, Like justone of them, or if they you
know, just came back and said, yeah, I really appreciate what you
did. You know that got meinterested in tech? Shut up? This
(38:58):
is your last This is your lastshow. This is the last show.
I don't know if you notice itnot. Sometimes your facial expressions while you
I already told you I shouldn't beon camera. You're definitely making the case
that at least you know your strengths. I do if I didn't have to
(39:22):
talk. That's so sweet. Didyou say that you're gonna be like after
this episode, people are gonna belike, who that girl with a bag
on our face? That's like thatjust for the smileing face on it.
Yeah, because we're gonna we're gonnanot have enough time for that solo at
(39:45):
the end. We're gonna have time. We're gonna have time. Yeah,
Okay, let's shift, all right. So we talked about your background on
what you're currently doing, what's yourwhat's your what's your what's your thoughts on
AI? Right? Is that affectingwhat you're doing or what you're looking to
(40:06):
be doing, or like, howis AI affecting what you're thinking about right
now? Yeah? I think sofor those that are artificial intelligence, I
think I'll give my real quick thoughtson artificial intelligence. One. Anything that
happens as advancements in tech that goesunchecked is going to be a problem.
(40:28):
And so I think that you don'tneed to bog it down with a whole
bunch of things to prevent creativity.But you do need to have some checks
and balances. The other thing thatmakes me a little fearful about it.
Fearful is not the right word.Cautious about it is that I'm not confident
(40:49):
that the people in the rooms makingthe decisions are reflective of what this country
looks like. And so if thosepeople who are in seeing how things are
being written, how uh the moneyflows for it, how just all of
the things, I think it's justagain going to cut people out that will
(41:14):
probably have the greatest dependency on it, or will it will impact their lives
the most, And so I thinkwe just have to be really I think
we have to think about the securityof it all. That's all. I'll
just believe it at that. Youknow, it's gonna it's gonna evolve,
it's gonna be here, it makesmoney, it's all the things. So
the minute something the money, allthe rules start to go out the door.
(41:37):
So that that's just a little bitof my caution around AI. I
think though, that a lot oftimes in these conversations we skip directly to
artificial intelligence, and we don't acknowledgethat it's a transition from an augmented intelligence
to an artificial intelligence. And whenwe are discussing at our official intelligence,
(42:00):
like you said, the people thatare in the rooms that are making some
of these decisions aren't necessarily reflective ofall the people that will be impacted from
these decisions. However, when we'relooking at the bridge between where we are
and where we are thinking that artificialintelligence will be, we have a lot
of opportunities in between to impact andcontribute to the way that augmented intelligence is
(42:23):
leveraged. As artificial intelligence continues toexpand en biomentation, Are you seeing an
augmentation of the of the humans intelligenceor no? No. When I'm referencing
and a augmented intelligence, I'm referencingthe computer still requiring active interaction from a
(42:52):
human, but the computer is simplyproviding amount of data that humans would necessarily
be able together or obtained in thetime frame that they that the computer provides
it. Okay, got you.Thank you for clarifying that, and I
agree with you, Tony, it'simportant that we have a strong consideration for
(43:15):
security. It took years for usto start baking security in our current products
and platforms. Now it's it's acommon practice, it's a common conversation I
mean, we agree with you.You're right, You're right. I agree
(43:37):
with you. I agree with you. No cut me off. This is
your birthday, birthday. I justdid that. It works, it works,
it works, it works, doeswork. Let it work. I
thought that maybe feel dainty work takethe wind, brother, But yeah,
(44:00):
like to your point, it isvery much more of a conversation than it
is a reality in most cases.And and not agree with that. But
the good thing is that it isa good It is a conversation. That's
that's that's a step. The thingthat's that's disheartening to me is that I
was I was attendant of virtual conferenceat one of the local universities where it
(44:21):
was businesses, a couple of companiestalking about AI. And there's one guy,
you know, he he made thecomment that he pretty much wanted to
put regulation on the background. Onthe background. You know, it's like,
you need to put that up front. You need to start considering how
you're gonna you know, regulate andand and you know, put policies around
(44:46):
the stuff upfront while you're in theimplementation phase, and not do it when
you're trying to solve some issue orclose some whole you have to be more.
You'll be very intentional when you're doingthings like this, because it could
(45:06):
be some pretty serious consequences if youdon't, if you're not considerate of all
things, because it all, itall matters to me. That's while we're
in the shape that we're in todaywith the Internet. I mean, I'm
not gonna go down this whole youknow, stand on my my soapbox,
but I just box girl. TheInternet today is it was money was never
(45:29):
meant to uh, it was nevermeant to be what it is today,
right But as soon as someone sawthey can make money off of it,
they were like, oh okay,we can make money, and nobody really
thought about like let's stop because itwasn't intended to do this, and so
we should think about the security ofit all the minute dollars signs get involved
security and all those things like we'llfigure that out on the back end,
(45:51):
Like that's not we can't operate thatway. And I'm just fearful that money
and the money that can be madeand it's being me is going to quiet
the voices of those who really understandhow we need to have security put in
place up front. So the chatsays, they're saying a lot right now,
(46:15):
Happy birthday. Security slows you're down. That's why they say, don't
run with scissors. What okay?Somebody asked, what are your thoughts on
big tech like TikTok, building brandversus voice versus security? Uh? Any
(46:42):
thoughts on big tech like TikTok,building brand versus voice versus security? And
you can you can take a takea quick pause to kind of digest that.
Yeah, yeah, there's TikTok.You know it was back in the
news again or maybe I never left. We have to be there's like a
(47:07):
level of caution that has to betaken when we start to kind of regulate
things based off of whims maybe Idon't know, you know of the way
our government is feeling that day.So you just you do have to be
careful with that. I will saythat I understand that TikTok in China looks
(47:29):
very different than the TikTok that ourour people get, right, And I
do think that misinformation and all ofthose things because we as a culture,
not so much Tony, but weas a culture in general, are so
heavily reliant on social media that wetake that as our news. We take
(47:51):
that as the gospel, like thisis what it is. I heard this
on TikTok, Like, yeah,but the person who say it were they
informed about what they were talking about. And so I think my thoughts on
big my thoughts. I have alot of thoughts on big tech. Big
tech. I just kind of talkedabout my thoughts about it's about money and
not about security affront and that's aproblem for me because they just need to
(48:12):
slow down put in product product toUH to the streets until they've built in
the security that it requires. Butbut on the TikTok idea, I think
we just have to be I thinkit's just a slippery slope when you start
to just single out and pick certainplatforms, are certain things that can and
(48:35):
cannot be used. And I alsothink that people need to be more informed
themselves and not be so heavily relianton social media to provide them with all
of their news. I mean,and also the big media, the big
media in this country aren't always asaccurate in our bias as well. So
I think you just have to doyour research and know things for yourself and
(48:59):
not be so reliant on everything.Because there's a lot of there's a lot
of conversation about it, right,a lot of talking points. Some some
people are looking at, you know, the children and how you know children
are being you know molded you knowby by by the platform. Some people
looking at the security implications right openingattack vectors and such. So there's other
(49:23):
ways to deal with that aside fromthrowing you know, regulation at it.
And I don't I don't know.I don't proclaim to know the answer,
but what I do know is thatif you have a way of answering the
problem, you do it with theway with the with the you do it
(49:44):
with the answers that are readily athand. And if you're concerned with you
know, kids and education, youknow, locking those those systems down if
you have your own kids and you'reyou're worried about that risk of that threat.
But yeah, I mean, dosome due diligence, get yourself educated
(50:06):
on these on these topics, andyeah, you guys have anything to add
to that, Avenue or Reggie,I was just going to what is this
face, Tony? What is thisface? Okay? I was just going
to say that you're absolutely right,people do need to be informed and that
(50:30):
there are a lot of seemingly kneejerk reactions from a law and policy perspective,
and I think that one of thechallenges that we often experience is that
people that understand the technical and securityaspects of the decisions and how they impact
(50:53):
the masses aren't the people that area part of the decision policy and law
making. And that is something thathas to definitively shift because we have a
lot of really smart people that thinkthat their time is wasted in crafting the
policies, the laws, and theregulations that will be on the books for
(51:17):
years and years and years, andthere's also an opportunity to dictate how they're
implemented and where they're implemented. AndI don't think that we have enough knowledgeable
people and enough diversity in those spacesto make the impact that's really going to
be necessary for us to see itat the levels where we presently reside.
(51:40):
Right after the runt with scissors comment, Marco says that what about stifling a
speech a free speech by Facebook andInstagram. It also goes on to say
the government is too involved in personallives and there's too much propaganda. Whiche
definitely don't disagree with that. Sothat's why I said, it's tricky,
(52:01):
right because in a political system thatis very polarized right now, we have
to be careful when we when thegovernment has the authority to silence voices,
and so this administration, it maybe the voices that you want silence.
The next administration may be your voice. So I think we just got to
(52:23):
be careful about being too quick tobe like, yeah, we should ban
this, because it may be banningthe books later. Let me be quiet.
Let okay, wait a minute,All right, that's because you know
what, we're gonna talk about thislater. I'm staying quiet on this one.
(52:44):
This is too we gonna talk aboutthis later. Yeah, all yeah,
It's just it's just it it's sopolarized. We just have to be
careful, you know what I mean, because laws can apply both ways,
right in your favor and against you, and so we just have to be
careful about what that what that lookslike, you know what I mean.
(53:06):
But I think, as and I'mnot a parent, but I have a
ton of God children. I thinkthat we have to also as protectors of
our young people, be all intheir business, make it uncomfortable for them.
We're doing it for their protection,and we need to be monitoring.
You can't be from twenty four byseven, I know, but we need
(53:29):
to monitor and make sure we're talkingto them about the things that they can
be exposed to. I know sometimesin our community there's a culture of we
won't really talk about a lot ofthings, but I think we need to
be These are the times we needto be extra vocal and making sure that
we're instilling in them what they needto know when we're not with them.
Yep, we definitely need to talkabout Bruno. So yeah, you gotta
(53:51):
break down that. Well you say, godchildren or children guys or whatever.
Got to break God children, ohGod? Okay, call you my bad,
my bad. Yeah, I'm aware. You don't have to talking to
teacher voice. I'm okay. Soso yeah, it's so again, these
(54:15):
conversations get really, they get really, they go they can go sidews real
quick. So I'll just think thismhmm. Individual responsibility. In a lot
of ways, it's kind of whatthe main point I think you guys are
trying to make take an individual responsibility, whether it be for yourself or your
(54:36):
child or something like that. Andmy favorite quote was from I don't know
a radio host, So he says, nobody wants to believe the truth.
When the live is more entertaining thepeople, these things wouldn't be making money
or gain the steament. People didn'twant that sensationalism. They didn't want It's
kind of like it's almost like somebodysaid, you know, from a health
(55:00):
food perspective, right, like youknow you eat healthy and stuff like that,
but then you listen to this andsacialism and all the garbage that's like
McDonald's for your brain, right,a jump food for the brain. People
love that jump food for the brain. And until we start taking individual responsibility,
we're going to continue to have thisproblem because the only way that the
only reason they're doing this for themoney. It gets clicks, It makes
(55:22):
money, people watch it, peopleconsume it, and that lead and that's
money. And until we take individualresponsibilities, we're going to see a lot
of the same stuff repeat over andover again. So Tony and then that's
it for me, Tony shaking herhead though. But I did a whole
lot of you got to keep thatstraight face, Abny for real, all
(55:46):
right, we did a whole lotto talk about work and stuff. I'm
interested to know before we close thisthing out, like what do you what
do you do? How do youhow do you decompress? Like what do
you do to kind of get awayfrom get away from things and find yourself
again? For sure? So I'mlearning. First of all, let me
(56:07):
tell, let me tell everybody,therapy is a blessing. If you haven't
tried it, you should get yourdose. It's really really good. But
I what I what I've learned fromthat is I have to establish boundaries.
So whether that's family, friends,whoever, it's okay to say no.
No is a complete sentence. Youdon't have to explain why and all of
(56:29):
the things. And I try totake the time to do the things I
like to do, like read.I've been writing a lot more lately.
I also, you know, liketo just sit and chill and be in
silence. It's okay to be insilence too, or just listen to some
music. Just the things that helpme kind of get back and kind of
center myself. But I'm also verycompetitive, So I like to play tennis
(56:53):
and I like to and I'm I'mthat person on the peloton leader boor high
five and you as I go pastyou, because I'm paying and like nobody
even knows that I'm doing this,and I'm just doing it, but because
I know that I my greatest competition. But I think like at the end
of the day, I try tofind those outlets and those things that allow
(57:15):
me to get back to my centerbase. And so, like I said,
after speaking engagements and things like that, I might take a couple of
days and really just kind of nottalk on the phone a lot or whatever,
just to kind of get myself backbecause it's a lot of I'm real
big on energies, and it's alot of energy that people are pulling on
your energy. And also everybody's energyisn't good energy, and so you're having
(57:38):
to deal with all of that rightevery day at work or whatever. So
me, I love this hybrid environment. I love it because it gives me
enough time to do both to havethe interaction with people, but also to
have the time tell myself, doyou have a buddy or someone close to
you that can kind of like,you know, check yourself when you're not
(57:58):
checking yourself well, like look totake a break, you know, you
happy looking face that is my regularface. A minute when you said,
my buddy, I started thinking aboutthe remember a little cartoon thing. I
(58:24):
don't know why, but that's whatI thought about. If you have one,
I have a squad of people.I mean I have, of course,
my family, I have my sororitysisters. I have my my friends,
work friends. I mean I havea whole tribe of people. There
are some people that are a littlemore in the inner circle that probably can
(58:47):
check me in, you know,all kinds of ways, right, But
but yeah, no, I havemy people. I think that's important to
have your people around you who canlift you you up when you're down,
and who can also celebrate you whenyou up. So what was that black
(59:07):
panther? Cats can times? Wow, I did mark the time, my
business man, it is, itis, it is, And I didn't
I didn't stop her. I justshoot her away. It's fine. Yeah.
(59:31):
I think we talked about something earlierabout kind of imposter syndrome and and
some of that type of stuff.Look, if you're there, you're meant
to be there. It's a no. One hundred percent of the times you
don't ask right, So just walkinto spaces with some confidence, do your
prep, do your work, walkinto the spaces, though, with some
confidence that you can do it.I find that women a lot of times,
(59:52):
has even been studied that women alot of times talk themselves out of
it because they don't have ten outof ten qualifications, where men will walk
in with two of the ten andbe like, I'll learn it on the
job. And so I think thatyou know, as women, you need
to get a little bit more ofthat right, Just be confident in who
we are and that we can getit done. And my favorite quote right
(01:00:13):
now is you've been through one hundredpercent of your worst days. So just
remember that you made it through onehundred percent of your worst days. You
got this. Life is good everytime you get an opportunity to wake up
and try again. So thank youso much for that. And just looking
at the chat, best boss ever, Tony is impressive, amazing person overall,
(01:00:34):
et cetera, et cetera. Peoplehave nothing of great things to say
about you, and that's that that'sa testment to itself. I looked at
your your profile and some of youryour accolades before the show and some days
and some days ago, and I'mthoroughly impressed. And I was definitely looking
forward to having this conversation. Thankyou so much for joining us. Thank
(01:00:54):
you guys that are in the chatfor joining us. If you're if you
didn't know, and you're listening rightnow. We do have a live chat,
So check out the website don't techpostsdot com, or we can go
to develop everymind dot com and findus and you can join us. We
come here every person thirty Tuesday othermonth and we'll have a new guest or
(01:01:16):
we'll have a new topic that we'llbe discussing.
Now you're you're extra whimsical tonight.Extra is the key word. I am
also six shots in and I putthis lippop on for Tony. I made
it. I made my face up, made my face up. I was
like, Oh, she ain't gonnabe out here shining by myself. Yeah
you should. It looks greasy.You can't be out here looking. You
(00:22):
should see that. You should seeher hair when she on the phone with
me and Rico, just about usalone, what we're doing. Reggie,
I like it. I like,I'm just saying I like that. The
combs go hid in the drawer.I'm just saying I like, I like
that. Get it, and that'swhat you want. That's what I don't
mean to say. Only like I'mbad with adjectives. Look, I'm mad
(00:51):
with adjectives. Adjectives adgives you lookamazing you M. I think we've already
started. I feel we lose M. I can't take no lost. I
(01:23):
don't even know what they cost.Hit the ground, then to go off
chance, hit the ground, thento go off champ. I can't take
no lost. Jeff, what's up? Good people? I'm Tony Benson,
Rico, thank you for having me. Ebony. Thank you for putting me
on. Reginald. Nice to meetyou, even with the scruff. I
like it. It's cool that you'realready here. You don't have to lie
(01:46):
you're already here. Don't do that. We gotta each other at all endeavors.
I'm Tony Benson, happy to behere. A little bit of my
background. I'm from Dover, Delaware. I know you know tons of people
from Dover, Delaware, just sayingthat the other day. I met my
boy from my from Dover just theother day. That's what I'm talking about.
(02:12):
So anyway, from from Dover,Delaware, great family. I went
to school there. I also wentto college there, went to the HBCU
State. For all my state fansout there, all my state people out
there, I graduated from Delaware StateUniversity. I didn't just go to Nolwhen
State University. There's a distinction,right. I'm a proud member of the
(02:34):
Stigma Data Sorority Incorporated, because youknow, you got to get that out
there for all my soul wars.But yeah, no, I grew up
and grew up in Dover, Delaware. Again, it was a very multicultural
upbringing. There were a lot ofdifferent people got to meet a lot of
different types of people, especially withthe military and the Air Force coming in
(02:54):
and out. And then after that, after I left Delaware State University,
I went into the United States AirForce. I was a commissioned officer in
the Air Force. I was acommunications officer. You would think communications really
means like, uh, we're goingto be doing it stuff. Not it
could be a little bit of everything. But that's kind of how I got
(03:16):
introduced into it in college when Imajored in first computer science. And let
me tell you, I did amajor switch because you coding. I was
like, this is a lot.Yeah, that c plus plus it wasn't
my thing, so I didn't managementinformation systems. But it still led me
down a tech route. And Ireally just picked that major. I literally
(03:38):
said, what are going to bethe most lucrative careers? It wasn't Google
back then. It was like bing, I'm probably telling my age now,
Tony. I myself went down themanagement systems route, so I definitely I'm
there with you. Forget the restof the haters. I personally went down
(04:01):
this computer science route. So Imean, you would have been a good
company. But I mean so Marcoin the chat says it was like us.
I remember, like us, Well, I don't want to date myself,
but I got a question for you, Tony. Right. First off,
did I call you Tony Braxton somebodyin chat? Okay, okay,
(04:24):
somebody in chat line? Somebody inchat SI Tony Braxton? All right,
because I know I mess up,but I would have remembered that one.
So you went to you you graduately, you went to college first, and
then you got commissioned? Right?What made you go into the air Force?
Right? And you you went intocollege and got this degree, it's
(04:47):
ut degree, Like, what madeyou decide to use that in the Air
Force? First? So, firstI was in school. I had no
plans of doing the military at all. I really saw my life from my
mind. I was gonna be onWall Street somewhere. I was gonna be
somewhere in New York doing my powerwalk from the subway with my sneakers on,
(05:08):
with my my heels in my hands. I don't even wear heels anymore.
I had a whole vision of whatit was gonna be. And you
know, sometimes your plans don't workout the way you want to what they
say you make plans God laughs atyou or something like that. So,
uh, the way my plans workedout, I did ROTC in college for
my last three years. It paidfor school. And then I went to
(05:30):
the Air Force because what other branchwhen I go in. For all my
Air Force people out there, weknow that's where the smart people live.
I feel like I don't even haveglasses that what well, I cann't say
anything because I never actually was inthe military, so I'm gonna keep quiet.
But you know, thanks for yourservice. I feel like you ain't
(05:51):
mean that retinal it did have likesome untell. I really do. Thank
you for your service, not justyour military service, but your civilian service.
Now, thank you, we appreciateit. You're serving as a civilian.
(06:15):
Well, yeah, I'm in thefederal government. We'll talk about that
later. Oh yeah, by theway, let me throw my disclaimer out.
Real quicks and ideas and things Isay today are the opinions and ideas
of Tony Benson, not of thefederal government. My disclaimer out there asked
me questions later, yea, likesomebody wanted a solo from you still,
(06:39):
do you see? No, that'snot my ministry. Now if you go
as it's not their ministry either.I will say that I can harmonize.
So you throw me in with agroup. I ain't gonna mess it up
for everybody. See the background inthe choir, in the choir. If
(07:02):
you can do that, If youcan do that, you can have your
flowers today for me. That's allI'm saying. I would like one,
but but I get what I canget. Okay, waiting I was waiting
for somebody to job back all that. I'm sorry, that's not what this
(07:27):
is about. But you know youcould catch me on the karaoke anytime.
You will do karaoke when you comedown, we will, all right.
So, so you went into theAir Force as an aim high officer right
doing your thing. Thank you foryour service. What was that experience?
Like? Wow? It was mixedright? Uh? The Air Force I
(07:54):
think taught me everything. I won'tsay everything, but a lot about what
I know about leadership, right.And as my career has evolved, I
do less and less hands on keyboardthings and I do more leading. And
I attribute a lot of that thatI learned in the Air Force to me
being successful, or I think I'msuccessful. I mean people, people,
(08:15):
can you know give their opinion,but I think I think I'm successful at
it. And I really say thatthe Air Force helped kind of cultivate that
in me. The one thing,and this probably leads into a little bit
more of my story, the onething that I didn't see in the Air
Force were people that look like me. You know, they really talk about
(08:37):
it's a it's a real thing whenthey say you if you see it,
you can believe it, you canbe it. And I think that's one
of the reasons why I got outright. I didn't see many, if
any women at the highest levels ofthe Air Force are black women, and
so for me, it was discouraging. Uh. It led me down a
path to say, you know what, I did my part, I got
(08:58):
what I from it, and I'mgoing to go seek other opportunities. So,
like I said, taught me alot. I learned a lot about
working together with teams. I learneda lot about working with teams multi generational
or from different backgrounds, and howdo you get all those people to come
together and work together. But italso taught me, I guess my first
(09:20):
kind of dose and lesson that I'mgoing to be in a lot of spaces
where there's people that don't look likeme. And if I if I could
do it all over again, Iprobably would do it differently. But that's
you know, twenty how many yearslater that knowledge so so so seeing and
experiencing that and while ending your serviceright to the country you got out.
(09:43):
Was there was there a significant contrastto that or was there pretty Was it
pretty similar in the in the inthe workforce? You know it? I
would say it's pretty similar, right, because I think that even though I
know, you know, diverse,I guess it's getting a little bit better
in the spaces of tech. Oneof the things that you will see is
(10:05):
that where the diversity is increasing insome of the entry level levels, you
don't see it still in the Csuite as much. You don't see it
in all these other places, andthose are the people that are influencing what
the next generation of things are goingto look like. Right and so again,
if you can't see yourself and youcan't imagine it, it just becomes
(10:26):
more and more difficult to be ableto see or chart a pathway. It
becomes more and more difficult to findthose mentors that can really kind of understand
the same way And I'm not sayingthat you have to only have black I
have more than black women mentors.I have you know, white male I
have black men all across the spectrum, right. But I'm just saying,
(10:48):
sometimes it's good to talk to somebodywho understands the plight. And so it's
funny that you say that, becausethat actually happens to be how we met
because we were at a conference.We're at a leadership conference in New Orleans
and Tony walked past me and shehad this deafcom backpack on, and I
(11:09):
was like, oh, wait aminute, you didn't just come from Vegas
last week too, And initially shethought that I was being a stalker,
and then she turned around. Itwas very nice and introduce herself. I
can see the stalker piece. Icould. I could definitely understand that lurk
behind me for what like two weeksor something. Okay, relax, it
(11:33):
was like two minutes. And shesaid she took your last money too.
So anyway, after after that conversation, we had started to discuss all of
the different places where we had beenand it was a basic lack of representation
(11:58):
between the two of us. Andnow we share a lot of the similar
opportunities in terms of increasing that leadershipstyle across different organizations, finding ways for
exposure. I think that you wereat Defcon last year and you're at new
Conference last year given a talk,right, Yeah, so squad Con shout
(12:22):
out to Tanisha Martin and all ofthe all of the black women in tech
that are really just doing their thing. But yeah, there's just opportunities out
there that weren't there when Ebity andI first met, right, And I
think that they will continue to grow, but there just needs to be more.
Again, when we talk about diversityand some of the things that we
(12:43):
hear, you know, one administration, you might be trying to increase it,
the next administration you're trying to cutit within the same you know all
of the things. Right, there'snot a devoted effort to make workspaces look
like what this country looks like canbe a reflection of that, and that's
a problem. And so I thinkthe more people that can step up,
(13:05):
the more people who can step outkind of be a voice for those It's
something that for the for the industryin general, but beyond tech, right,
we need to get this right andwe need to create those opportunities for
people. That's dope. I knowEbany is uh, she's an ambassador for
conferences, speaks at conferences, Andthat was a story in itself, right,
(13:31):
listen back to that if you guysmissed that story. But for you,
how did how did how did youbecome a speaker? I mean,
did you speak at your very firstconference? Hey? You an audience,
you look like you know something abouttech or how that whole process come about?
No, I'm gonna give credit tomy mom. Right. First of
all, I had a problem talkingin class all the time anyway, Like
(13:56):
I was just bored because I alreadyknew it was kind of going on.
And once I got it, I'mready to talk and let's talk about something
else, which is not the spacefor that. But my mom put me
in pageants when I was a kid, right, and I'm a timeboy,
like, don't. I didn't wantto be in pageants. I didn't want
to do it. But what itdid, and what I didn't realize it
was doing, was it got ridof any fear that I have to kind
(14:20):
of go in front of people anddo things right, speak, walk,
whatever it had, it afforded mean opportunity to be in spaces where there
weren't many people that look like me. These are all things that, like
you know, at nine ten,you don't really realize that you're picking up
on and again it it just gaveinstilled confidence to kind of talk to anyone
(14:43):
and do anything, and be inspaces, like I said, where people
don't necessarily look like you, andbe successful in those spaces too, because
you're just kind of showing up andagain just kind of being who I am.
It's all I can be. Andso I think that that's really kind
of what's started started me down thatpath. But I love public speaking.
(15:03):
It's a it's a great opportunity toreach the masses. I am an introvert.
And so I'm gonna tell you rightnow, you see me at a
conference, this is so this isthis is kind of like you see me
at a conference. If I'm speaking, I'll speak, I'll do the things,
I'll shake the hands, I'll spaky. But when you see me outside
(15:24):
of that conference, three or fourwords from me, because now I need
to like rejuvenate myself. I needto like pour back into my cup.
So I'm not rude, I'm justyou know, I'm tired. We going
all the way off the strip toeat some food. I'm an introvert too,
and it takes a lot of energyfrom you if you're an introvert,
(15:46):
to go out into and to talkto people and stuff like that. So
I'm curious you said that you kindof like went through and you you did
a lot of you know, minglingwith people in diverse cultures. So I
know in the past conversation we had, we talked about code switching. So
(16:06):
is that something that you find yourselfhaving to do or you just like continue
to be authentic self whenever you talk. I first of all, I want
to suggest that just because there isa perception of code switching, it's not
to suggest that it's not your authenticself, but go ahead and tell it.
No, I agree with that.I agree with that. And he
(16:26):
said, I think that when Iwas younger, I used to try a
lot harder to fit in because inthe military, like I said, you're
while I was predominantly around white males. You just try to fit in,
right, because you don't want tomake quote unquote a situation uncomfortable. The
older I get, the less Iget I don't really care what you think
(16:52):
I know what I know. Youknow what I mean. It's just a
level of confidence you have when you'reconfident in what you know, and so
you can't take that from me.So I'm gonna show up in spaces I
know what I'm talking about. Iusually don't step up and open my mouth
if I don't really know what I'mtalking about. But don't get me on
a topic that I'm passionate about,and I go tooth and nail with you
(17:14):
like theaters out this joint. Butbut yeah, anyway, Yeah, I
try I show up as my authenticself because that's when I am the best
version of myself. If I tryto be something else, I'm not going
to be successful at that. SoI really found myself wanting to push back
on what Ebony just said. Butwhen you really think about it, it
makes sense, you know, becauseyou're multifaceted people were multi fasted people.
(17:38):
You know, you you you findyourself just change and allowing yourself to fit
in with whatever space you're in.But the thing that made me want to
push back on it is that thateffort. Well aside from there, that's
why you want to push back on. Let me have my flowers. Now
(18:03):
aside from that is that you knowit requires effort, you know, like
like Tony was just saying, it'sexhausting doing that, and you get to
the point where you just don't careand you don't care to expand this extra
energy that that's required for you toassimilate to this this environment. Right,
And I think that's an important thing, right, we should be we should
be comfortable enough to be the selfthat requires less effort. Right. So
(18:30):
it's not that you're not your authenticself, probably not your most comfortable and
ideal. So you have remember toothat well I always said this, I'm
not for everybody, and I'm goodwith that, you know what I mean,
Be good with not being for everybody. It's just not everybody's cup of
tea. That's cool, keep youknow what I mean. There's somebody,
(18:51):
there's somebody that is that fits themold that you want or whatever. So
just got to be comfortable in that. And I do appreciate a few a
few tickes ago when you were seeinghow you know, showing up and we
were talking about you presenting it ata conference and such. It's good to
be seen, right, seeing peoplethat look like you but for people to
(19:15):
see people that look like them,they got to have somebody out there.
So you know, Tony's doing it, Evan, he's doing it. I
do a good deal of it inmy circles in my role at Red Hat.
And disclaimer, none of these viewsare Red Hats and they don't sponsor
doing any of that kind of stuffthe show. These are all my cookie
(19:36):
ideas and bad jokes. But alot of what what I got exposed to
when I started was they really harpon building your brand. So when I
have mentees or people that I coach, some of the most some of the
some of the things that I harpon most aside from the technical learning,
the technical stuff is building your socialcapital and building your brand. Your brain
(20:00):
is crucial, you know, Soif you have it in you to go
out and do a talk or haveconversations with people that are doing talk,
to do that, let let peopleknow who you are, and just get
outside of yourself. Because I believeit or not, I'm an introvert.
Evan is an introvert. Tony justsays she's an introvert. I don't know
(20:23):
if Reggie is an introvert. Hedid say he was an introvert. You
just ignored that. Yeah, sohe left me out of the whole conversation.
But it's like I just picked youup and dragged you back in.
All right, you want to comeback in? No, I'm saying I
was just saying I was an introvert. I'm you know, I do a
lot of stuff too, man,just like Reggie. And we got a
(20:48):
question for you, Tony, howwould you encourage women to get into tech
when some would think it's something heavyfor you? Oh? Right, from
the chat exactly, that's exactly whatappreciate that yet welcome was like I was
on that one. So I thinkthere's a couple of things, right,
(21:11):
There's a there's a couple of freeresources that I'll say that are out there
right, So, not to promotemy my day job, but uh,
there's some challenges that we've put outthere that's called try cyber I think it's
try cyber dot us. It justkind of gets your feet wet and what
you think is interesting out there orwhat you might be interested in in cyber
(21:32):
There's a couple of other things onthe syste dot gov website that you can
go to. The c I sA dot g o V that talks about
career pathways. So there's different thingsthat are out there and tools that are
out there. I always tell peoplebefore you start investing a whole bunch of
money in tech, because it canget expensive. Make sure it's something that
you really want to do, don'tdo don't let money just be the motivator.
(21:56):
That's with anything, right, Like, have some passion behind. I
mean, the money can be good, right, I think we all know
that, But at what cost?Right if you don't really want to do
that, and it's not something thatyou want to get up out of bed
every day and do. And soI also encourage people to find those different
professional networks. I'll promote the couplethat I'm a part of Women's Cybersecurity.
(22:19):
By the way, I'll be speakingat that event again with some of my
peers on a panel. There's alsooh sorry, that's April, I want
to say ninth through the thirteenth inNashville, Tennessee. There's also women's society
(22:42):
inside Brijitsu, Black Girls Hack,Black Girls, Code Girls, Security Girls
who Code. I do a lotof like obviously a lot of women involved
or black women led kind of organizations, but there's a ton of organizations out
there, right, and so Ithink that finding a finding your tribe is
what I like to say. Butfinding your people, finding your network is
(23:04):
really really important because when you're confused, you want to you feel more comfortable
with people that you know kind ofasking those questions. And so I've always
welcome to Now I might not getright back to you, So I'm gonna
just put that out there now.But if people have questions, you can
reach out to me on LinkedIn toI try to answer as many questions as
I can. I do not havea hookup on any jobs. I can
(23:27):
tell you when jobs are getting putout there. I don't necessarily have the
hookup though, when really I don'tever have the hookup, I can tell
yeah, so I look at yourLinkedIn page, and you did post a
lot of jobs on your LinkedIn page. That's mainly what I do. I
try to like because I always say, right, my network, I know
(23:48):
what my network looks like, right, and I know my network may not
look like somebody else's network, Solet me make sure my network is getting
these resources as well, because ifthe same people are posting these jobs and
the same people are going to gethired for these jobs because of the only
ones that know about them. SoI try to force multiply as much as
I can when I see opportunities outthere, whether it be internships or jobs
(24:11):
that people can pursue. Reggie,Reggie, I felt like you no,
no, no, Well I alwayslook like this because I'm always listening and
paying attention and I'm always intensive.I had to give a pregnant pause because
(24:33):
last time I left Reggie and thedust, and I don't want him feeling
excluded, not about but I wasjust no, I'm just I'm giving you
a hard time. Bro. Youjust sit here, you know you look
man, you pressure Bro. Wedon't want you to you know, re
excluded. Hey man, it's allthat back and forth. It makes you
show fun man, no doubt,no doubt, no doubt. Rico go
(24:55):
back like stocking capsin ways man,two thousand and three. I think,
so we're all doing great things outhere. I think that's what makes it
real, Dope. I think that'sI think that there's the more the more
we get out and we go indifferent pathways, the more we can share
our experiences, the more people wecan motivate to come into these spaces and
(25:15):
help kind of cultivate what these spaceslook like. You So, you talked
about, you know, earlier,about having what I would assume is formal
mentorship that you receive, and thenyou've recently just you know, spoke of
having people reach out to you andeven though you're not going to reach back
in the timely matter, maybe maybedo you do you have any formal you
(25:37):
know, mentees that you kind ofgroom personally, is that you're engaging in
for sure? So and when youwhen you when you when you when you
speak on that, can you followup with you know, how you feel
how important you feel mentorship is fora person's growth. Oh yes, I
(26:00):
think there's I think there's really kindof three areas or three types of people
you need in your career, right, I think, or maybe maybe it's
really two. But I think amentor is great. A mentor is to
me is someone who's probably been theplaces that you want to go and can
kind of tell you about the experience. So, if people were interested in
the military or the federal government.I work in the private sector too,
(26:22):
but most of my time has beenspending the government, I could be a
good resource, right, because Ihave some knowledge and background about those things.
Someone with a private sector they cantalk Tony been everywhere else. So
okay, relax again. Everywhere here, every You're wanted by everyone. That's
really what it is. So thething is flowers, they ain't even trying
(26:48):
to. But I think a mentora mentor, is that right? I
think a coach of someone who kindof understands where you want to go and
helps you kind to guide your pathto get there. But I think the
third person that you really need isan advocate or someone who is willing to
(27:10):
say I put my name on soand so that they will do a good
job. And I'm not I'm tellingpeople right now, I'm not that for
everybody. I'm just I can't putmy name on everybody. Yeah, friends,
family, and don't matter who itis. I can't put my name
on everybody. But there are peoplewho I have seen kind of do the
(27:30):
work. And that's what it reallyis for me, Like, let me
see you demonstrate how bad you wantit. How often do you reach out
to me even if I'm slow toreach back. And I'm not that bad
most of the time. Crazy,but it'll be a lot of people reach
out. I signed out for yourmentorship program, Deny. I think we
(28:00):
definitely have to have those types ofpeople though, somebody who's been to where
you want to go, Somebody thatcan help guide you just from like a
higher level perspective and really maybe evenchallenge you to challenge yourself essentially to do
higher things. And then somebody's gonnaput the name on you, like somebody
that really is just going to saywe need to put this person in this
position because a lot of things happenthat way. It's really about who knows
(28:23):
you, not who you know.I really appreciate you for breaking down the
distinctions between mentors, coaches, andadvocates. A lot of people they blur
those lines. They don't really understandthat those even though that could be a
person that holds to a more ofthose roles, a lot of times it
(28:44):
will be one person that's each ofthose things. And then I can also
appreciate that you don't just take riffraff mentee. Okay, realize, like
two words before that, she saidI was wanted and then she told me
I couldn't be on leadership fro myMan went back to the twenties riff raff,
(29:10):
this tom foolery that we're dealing withon the phone there. So now
I couldn't agree more like I.That's why I got excited when you said
that, because I was literally havinga discussion on a panel about the difference
between coaching and mentoring. People don'tknow the difference. So the fact that
you brought that up is really amazing, and I really take my hats off
to you for understanding the role thatyou play in people's lives. That's awesome
(29:36):
your flowers, Thank you appreciated.I just started my own LLC Envision and
so with that, I want todo some I want to be doing.
Consulting. Coaching is one of thethings I want to do as well,
though, because I think it goesback to my philosophy again. I think
you can learn from any and everybody, but I think when it comes from
(29:57):
somebody that looks like you. Andthat's not to say that we're a monolith,
because I really it really disturbs mewhen people want to just bucket every
black woman in one bucket, orevery black man or black people. We
are non monolithic. We're all verydifferent, but I do think there are
some shared experiences, right, andI think that there's an opportunity there for
(30:21):
me to be able to kind ofpour back into some people with the leadership
skills that I've learned along the way. And so more to come on that,
but that will be something I'll definitelykeep it posted up on my LinkedIn
page, some of the things thatI'm trying to do post career, because
you know, we got to havemultiple streams of income out here. We
can't be out here just on onepaycheck. And if we out here on
one paycheck, it's okay. ButI'm telling you right now, today is
(30:44):
the day to start thinking about whatthose multiple streams and income are going to
be. Probably should have a separatestream of income for each of the activities
you engage in. I'll just tellyou. I'm just tell you right now,
I got a side business right nowthat just supports my travel. Are
you a travel agent? Ane?No? But I have considered it.
(31:08):
That's most people who like to travelbecome travel agents. No, no,
No, I think I'm gonna bea content creator any travel ebony on the
road, eveny worldwide, it's calledthe road last travel. Come on,
keep up, Regie, Okay,I mean I'm sorry, is this your
(31:33):
current passion project? Here? Yourenvision? Are you looking for a mintees?
And uh coaches? I mean notme personally, but I got some
people because you know, I can'ttalk to everybody. You talk about what
what envision is about? Yeah?So really really envision. Really it's about,
and in this name itself, isthat I want you to envision yourself
and where you want to be,right So if you can't see yourself there,
(31:57):
it's not going to be. AndI think a lot of times we
don't take the time to actually envisionourselves in where we want to be and
then start to set the milestones todo that. We start marching out to
something and we don't really know whatthe end goal is. So my thought
process is is to go into organizationsand help leaders one be better leaders,
because everybody that is given the titleis not really a leader, So to
(32:22):
provide training and then to also provideconsulting to help them get to that place
that they need to be to beable to run their organizations. The other
piece of that is I want todo leadership trainings really for young people.
That's really my end goal, mywhole passion in life. I don't have
kids, And I think part ofthe reason why I don't have kids is
(32:43):
because I'm supposed to be able tobe there for kids in the masses,
and I think when you have kids, it's probably a little harder to do
right, because you got to focuson your own kids first. And so
I want to teach young people ofcolor really how they need, how they
can be a leaders and not justfollowers, and so it start to instill
(33:04):
those skills in them at an earlyage, so then when they walk into
spaces, they walk into the spaceswith that confidence already that I might just
here, I might start off here, but this is not where I'm going
to end up. And so mywhole goal is to get the streams of
income, to get the profits soI can do these types of things for
free for young people. I lovethat I actually do a lot of volunteering.
(33:28):
Me and my brother Nay in theChat, we volunteer at the Boys
and Girls Club teaching stem. Butyeah, I feel I feel very strongly
that's the way to go. Youknow, we do have to go with
the kids. Adults definitely need tosupport, but I feel like there's a
(33:49):
lot of bang for your buck whenyou're dealing with the kids, because they
could be so milleable, you know, in there figuring it out. A
lot of us we go through lifeis adults and we already think we already
got to figure it out. It'skind of hard to get people to understand
there's a different way, of differentperspective, you can take different options.
(34:12):
So yeah, I definitely appreciate that. Have any original you guys do anything
with kids? I don't like thephrasing of that question. That was that
was wild? That was wild?All right, it was great. Have
you guys here good night? Thatwas wild? Thing quick? I know
(34:35):
right, We're to cut that off. Let's start with that. Try to
get try to get it, tryto get Yeah. I support multiple children's
organizations in a variety of ways,including mentorship. This is a probationary cold
(35:00):
that she's doing right now. Soyeah, and uh yeah, so I
do. I do lots of thingssometimes. Well, previously, much like
you and your brother, I wasteaching soldering and uh software development programming to
(35:22):
kids, making robots and stuff likethat. I don't know if I want
to do that now. It takesup a lot of time, totally.
I'm here to support anyway on thesidelines. It's very challenging. I mean,
these kids, they're like squirrel,you know, mister Rico, can
(35:42):
I touch your hair? Like?No, put the thing up in ponytail.
You should have known by the wayyou showed up. They're they definitely
teach you sapacious. They definitely teachyou supacious. Oh what about you?
Ready you do anything with children organizations? Yeah? So, uh, I
just recently did the second year wedid the I T Export at Orange Technical
(36:02):
College. On the thirtieth, wehave the one hundred Girls Conference I'm doing
with Blacks of Microsoft Florida, Sothat's I'm going to be speaking there.
There's also Microsoft Blacks of Microsoft.That's an organization I'm a part of.
So also we have something called bikeCoon, which is going to be in
(36:22):
the chem Festival, which is goingto be kind of like a black comic
con. A lot of kids aregoing to be there talking about comic con
stuff, and byke Con, I'llbe doing a panel talking about AI and
the role of is playing. Andyes, it's a lot of different things,
but I don't want to get intoall of it. But yeah,
I do a lot, not onlywith my company, but outside the company.
(36:45):
So to me, I think theguidance that she's I mean, like
it's it's amazing. Right. SoI was talking to a girl the other
day and she's she went to herfirst conference right as a child, and
you know, she was just kindof looking around like, oh my gosh,
(37:06):
Oh my gosh. And then oneof the girls that I work one
of the women that I work with, she said, I went to my
first conference when I was young,and that's the thing that got me into
it. She was like, Iwent to my first conference, and I
was like, this is what Iwant to do with my life. And
I mean the company. She worksfor a major company now, right,
you know Microsoft, So I don'twant to, like I said, just
(37:29):
like we gooing red hat same thingwith me and Microsoft. Right, so
but yeah, just yeah, disclaimers, disclaimers, disclaimer. So but yeah,
that just changed her life going toa conference when she was when she
was she actually wanted in a contesta ticket. It was like two thousand
dollars tickets to a conference, aready commress or something like that, and
(37:49):
it changed her life. And nowshe's an up and coming rising star.
She's young, came came round ofcollege, you know, joined the company
and just aspire hires what they callthem, and she's just been like taking
off. But that's that's that startedher whole path, right, it feels
it feels like an investment, likeyou invest in these like kids, and
(38:10):
you don't know what's going to happen. Right, The market could go either
way with their lives. But likefor me, I just it would be
worth it if if one of them, like twenty years from now, right,
if I can make it that long, keep that health up twenty years
from now. I'm watching TV andthen there's a you know, you know
(38:32):
Bill Gates version of this This NewTime and it's like, oh, yeah,
you know, I got into itbecause you know, mister Rico and
mister Marco, they used to cometo the boys like that would make it
worth it for me, Like justone of them, or if they you
know, just came back and said, yeah, I really appreciate what you
did. You know that got meinterested in tech? Shut up? This
(38:58):
is your last This is your lastshow. This is the last show.
I don't know if you notice itnot. Sometimes your facial expressions while you
I already told you I shouldn't beon camera. You're definitely making the case
that at least you know your strengths. I do if I didn't have to
(39:22):
talk. That's so sweet. Didyou say that you're gonna be like after
this episode, people are gonna belike, who that girl with a bag
on our face? That's like thatjust for the smileing face on it.
Yeah, because we're gonna we're gonnanot have enough time for that solo at
(39:45):
the end. We're gonna have time. We're gonna have time. Yeah,
Okay, let's shift, all right. So we talked about your background on
what you're currently doing, what's yourwhat's your what's your what's your thoughts on
AI? Right? Is that affectingwhat you're doing or what you're looking to
(40:06):
be doing, or like, howis AI affecting what you're thinking about right
now? Yeah? I think sofor those that are artificial intelligence, I
think I'll give my real quick thoughtson artificial intelligence. One. Anything that
happens as advancements in tech that goesunchecked is going to be a problem.
(40:28):
And so I think that you don'tneed to bog it down with a whole
bunch of things to prevent creativity.But you do need to have some checks
and balances. The other thing thatmakes me a little fearful about it.
Fearful is not the right word.Cautious about it is that I'm not confident
(40:49):
that the people in the rooms makingthe decisions are reflective of what this country
looks like. And so if thosepeople who are in seeing how things are
being written, how uh the moneyflows for it, how just all of
the things, I think it's justagain going to cut people out that will
(41:14):
probably have the greatest dependency on it, or will it will impact their lives
the most, And so I thinkwe just have to be really I think
we have to think about the securityof it all. That's all. I'll
just believe it at that. Youknow, it's gonna it's gonna evolve,
it's gonna be here, it makesmoney, it's all the things. So
the minute something the money, allthe rules start to go out the door.
(41:37):
So that that's just a little bitof my caution around AI. I
think though, that a lot oftimes in these conversations we skip directly to
artificial intelligence, and we don't acknowledgethat it's a transition from an augmented intelligence
to an artificial intelligence. And whenwe are discussing at our official intelligence,
(42:00):
like you said, the people thatare in the rooms that are making some
of these decisions aren't necessarily reflective ofall the people that will be impacted from
these decisions. However, when we'relooking at the bridge between where we are
and where we are thinking that artificialintelligence will be, we have a lot
of opportunities in between to impact andcontribute to the way that augmented intelligence is
(42:23):
leveraged. As artificial intelligence continues toexpand en biomentation, Are you seeing an
augmentation of the of the humans intelligenceor no? No. When I'm referencing
and a augmented intelligence, I'm referencingthe computer still requiring active interaction from a
(42:52):
human, but the computer is simplyproviding amount of data that humans would necessarily
be able together or obtained in thetime frame that they that the computer provides
it. Okay, got you.Thank you for clarifying that, and I
agree with you, Tony, it'simportant that we have a strong consideration for
(43:15):
security. It took years for usto start baking security in our current products
and platforms. Now it's it's acommon practice, it's a common conversation I
mean, we agree with you.You're right, You're right. I agree
(43:37):
with you. I agree with you. No cut me off. This is
your birthday, birthday. I justdid that. It works, it works,
it works, it works, doeswork. Let it work. I
thought that maybe feel dainty work takethe wind, brother, But yeah,
(44:00):
like to your point, it isvery much more of a conversation than it
is a reality in most cases.And and not agree with that. But
the good thing is that it isa good It is a conversation. That's
that's that's a step. The thingthat's that's disheartening to me is that I
was I was attendant of virtual conferenceat one of the local universities where it
(44:21):
was businesses, a couple of companiestalking about AI. And there's one guy,
you know, he he made thecomment that he pretty much wanted to
put regulation on the background. Onthe background. You know, it's like,
you need to put that up front. You need to start considering how
you're gonna you know, regulate andand and you know, put policies around
(44:46):
the stuff upfront while you're in theimplementation phase, and not do it when
you're trying to solve some issue orclose some whole you have to be more.
You'll be very intentional when you're doingthings like this, because it could
(45:06):
be some pretty serious consequences if youdon't, if you're not considerate of all
things, because it all, itall matters to me. That's while we're
in the shape that we're in todaywith the Internet. I mean, I'm
not gonna go down this whole youknow, stand on my my soapbox,
but I just box girl. TheInternet today is it was money was never
(45:29):
meant to uh, it was nevermeant to be what it is today,
right But as soon as someone sawthey can make money off of it,
they were like, oh okay,we can make money, and nobody really
thought about like let's stop because itwasn't intended to do this, and so
we should think about the security ofit all the minute dollars signs get involved
security and all those things like we'llfigure that out on the back end,
(45:51):
Like that's not we can't operate thatway. And I'm just fearful that money
and the money that can be madeand it's being me is going to quiet
the voices of those who really understandhow we need to have security put in
place up front. So the chatsays, they're saying a lot right now,
(46:15):
Happy birthday. Security slows you're down. That's why they say, don't
run with scissors. What okay?Somebody asked, what are your thoughts on
big tech like TikTok, building brandversus voice versus security? Uh? Any
(46:42):
thoughts on big tech like TikTok,building brand versus voice versus security? And
you can you can take a takea quick pause to kind of digest that.
Yeah, yeah, there's TikTok.You know it was back in the
news again or maybe I never left. We have to be there's like a
(47:07):
level of caution that has to betaken when we start to kind of regulate
things based off of whims maybe Idon't know, you know of the way
our government is feeling that day.So you just you do have to be
careful with that. I will saythat I understand that TikTok in China looks
(47:29):
very different than the TikTok that ourour people get, right, And I
do think that misinformation and all ofthose things because we as a culture,
not so much Tony, but weas a culture in general, are so
heavily reliant on social media that wetake that as our news. We take
(47:51):
that as the gospel, like thisis what it is. I heard this
on TikTok, Like, yeah,but the person who say it were they
informed about what they were talking about. And so I think my thoughts on
big my thoughts. I have alot of thoughts on big tech. Big
tech. I just kind of talkedabout my thoughts about it's about money and
not about security affront and that's aproblem for me because they just need to
(48:12):
slow down put in product product toUH to the streets until they've built in
the security that it requires. Butbut on the TikTok idea, I think
we just have to be I thinkit's just a slippery slope when you start
to just single out and pick certainplatforms, are certain things that can and
(48:35):
cannot be used. And I alsothink that people need to be more informed
themselves and not be so heavily relianton social media to provide them with all
of their news. I mean,and also the big media, the big
media in this country aren't always asaccurate in our bias as well. So
I think you just have to doyour research and know things for yourself and
(48:59):
not be so reliant on everything.Because there's a lot of there's a lot
of conversation about it, right,a lot of talking points. Some some
people are looking at, you know, the children and how you know children
are being you know molded you knowby by by the platform. Some people
looking at the security implications right openingattack vectors and such. So there's other
(49:23):
ways to deal with that aside fromthrowing you know, regulation at it.
And I don't I don't know.I don't proclaim to know the answer,
but what I do know is thatif you have a way of answering the
problem, you do it with theway with the with the you do it
(49:44):
with the answers that are readily athand. And if you're concerned with you
know, kids and education, youknow, locking those those systems down if
you have your own kids and you'reyou're worried about that risk of that threat.
But yeah, I mean, dosome due diligence, get yourself educated
(50:06):
on these on these topics, andyeah, you guys have anything to add
to that, Avenue or Reggie,I was just going to what is this
face, Tony? What is thisface? Okay? I was just going
to say that you're absolutely right,people do need to be informed and that
(50:30):
there are a lot of seemingly kneejerk reactions from a law and policy perspective,
and I think that one of thechallenges that we often experience is that
people that understand the technical and securityaspects of the decisions and how they impact
(50:53):
the masses aren't the people that area part of the decision policy and law
making. And that is something thathas to definitively shift because we have a
lot of really smart people that thinkthat their time is wasted in crafting the
policies, the laws, and theregulations that will be on the books for
(51:17):
years and years and years, andthere's also an opportunity to dictate how they're
implemented and where they're implemented. AndI don't think that we have enough knowledgeable
people and enough diversity in those spacesto make the impact that's really going to
be necessary for us to see itat the levels where we presently reside.
(51:40):
Right after the runt with scissors comment, Marco says that what about stifling a
speech a free speech by Facebook andInstagram. It also goes on to say
the government is too involved in personallives and there's too much propaganda. Whiche
definitely don't disagree with that. Sothat's why I said, it's tricky,
(52:01):
right because in a political system thatis very polarized right now, we have
to be careful when we when thegovernment has the authority to silence voices,
and so this administration, it maybe the voices that you want silence.
The next administration may be your voice. So I think we just got to
(52:23):
be careful about being too quick tobe like, yeah, we should ban
this, because it may be banningthe books later. Let me be quiet.
Let okay, wait a minute,All right, that's because you know
what, we're gonna talk about thislater. I'm staying quiet on this one.
(52:44):
This is too we gonna talk aboutthis later. Yeah, all yeah,
It's just it's just it it's sopolarized. We just have to be
careful, you know what I mean, because laws can apply both ways,
right in your favor and against you, and so we just have to be
careful about what that what that lookslike, you know what I mean.
(53:06):
But I think, as and I'mnot a parent, but I have a
ton of God children. I thinkthat we have to also as protectors of
our young people, be all intheir business, make it uncomfortable for them.
We're doing it for their protection,and we need to be monitoring.
You can't be from twenty four byseven, I know, but we need
(53:29):
to monitor and make sure we're talkingto them about the things that they can
be exposed to. I know sometimesin our community there's a culture of we
won't really talk about a lot ofthings, but I think we need to
be These are the times we needto be extra vocal and making sure that
we're instilling in them what they needto know when we're not with them.
Yep, we definitely need to talkabout Bruno. So yeah, you gotta
(53:51):
break down that. Well you say, godchildren or children guys or whatever.
Got to break God children, ohGod? Okay, call you my bad,
my bad. Yeah, I'm aware. You don't have to talking to
teacher voice. I'm okay. Soso yeah, it's so again, these
(54:15):
conversations get really, they get really, they go they can go sidews real
quick. So I'll just think thismhmm. Individual responsibility. In a lot
of ways, it's kind of whatthe main point I think you guys are
trying to make take an individual responsibility, whether it be for yourself or your
(54:36):
child or something like that. Andmy favorite quote was from I don't know
a radio host, So he says, nobody wants to believe the truth.
When the live is more entertaining thepeople, these things wouldn't be making money
or gain the steament. People didn'twant that sensationalism. They didn't want It's
kind of like it's almost like somebodysaid, you know, from a health
(55:00):
food perspective, right, like youknow you eat healthy and stuff like that,
but then you listen to this andsacialism and all the garbage that's like
McDonald's for your brain, right,a jump food for the brain. People
love that jump food for the brain. And until we start taking individual responsibility,
we're going to continue to have thisproblem because the only way that the
only reason they're doing this for themoney. It gets clicks, It makes
(55:22):
money, people watch it, peopleconsume it, and that lead and that's
money. And until we take individualresponsibilities, we're going to see a lot
of the same stuff repeat over andover again. So Tony and then that's
it for me, Tony shaking herhead though. But I did a whole
lot of you got to keep thatstraight face, Abny for real, all
(55:46):
right, we did a whole lotto talk about work and stuff. I'm
interested to know before we close thisthing out, like what do you what
do you do? How do youhow do you decompress? Like what do
you do to kind of get awayfrom get away from things and find yourself
again? For sure? So I'mlearning. First of all, let me
(56:07):
tell, let me tell everybody,therapy is a blessing. If you haven't
tried it, you should get yourdose. It's really really good. But
I what I what I've learned fromthat is I have to establish boundaries.
So whether that's family, friends,whoever, it's okay to say no.
No is a complete sentence. Youdon't have to explain why and all of
(56:29):
the things. And I try totake the time to do the things I
like to do, like read.I've been writing a lot more lately.
I also, you know, liketo just sit and chill and be in
silence. It's okay to be insilence too, or just listen to some
music. Just the things that helpme kind of get back and kind of
center myself. But I'm also verycompetitive, So I like to play tennis
(56:53):
and I like to and I'm I'mthat person on the peloton leader boor high
five and you as I go pastyou, because I'm paying and like nobody
even knows that I'm doing this,and I'm just doing it, but because
I know that I my greatest competition. But I think like at the end
of the day, I try tofind those outlets and those things that allow
(57:15):
me to get back to my centerbase. And so, like I said,
after speaking engagements and things like that, I might take a couple of
days and really just kind of nottalk on the phone a lot or whatever,
just to kind of get myself backbecause it's a lot of I'm real
big on energies, and it's alot of energy that people are pulling on
your energy. And also everybody's energyisn't good energy, and so you're having
(57:38):
to deal with all of that rightevery day at work or whatever. So
me, I love this hybrid environment. I love it because it gives me
enough time to do both to havethe interaction with people, but also to
have the time tell myself, doyou have a buddy or someone close to
you that can kind of like,you know, check yourself when you're not
(57:58):
checking yourself well, like look totake a break, you know, you
happy looking face that is my regularface. A minute when you said,
my buddy, I started thinking aboutthe remember a little cartoon thing. I
(58:24):
don't know why, but that's whatI thought about. If you have one,
I have a squad of people.I mean I have, of course,
my family, I have my sororitysisters. I have my my friends,
work friends. I mean I havea whole tribe of people. There
are some people that are a littlemore in the inner circle that probably can
(58:47):
check me in, you know,all kinds of ways, right, But
but yeah, no, I havemy people. I think that's important to
have your people around you who canlift you you up when you're down,
and who can also celebrate you whenyou up. So what was that black
(59:07):
panther? Cats can times? Wow, I did mark the time, my
business man, it is, itis, it is, And I didn't
I didn't stop her. I justshoot her away. It's fine. Yeah.
(59:31):
I think we talked about something earlierabout kind of imposter syndrome and and
some of that type of stuff.Look, if you're there, you're meant
to be there. It's a no. One hundred percent of the times you
don't ask right, So just walkinto spaces with some confidence, do your
prep, do your work, walkinto the spaces, though, with some
confidence that you can do it.I find that women a lot of times,
(59:52):
has even been studied that women alot of times talk themselves out of
it because they don't have ten outof ten qualifications, where men will walk
in with two of the ten andbe like, I'll learn it on the
job. And so I think thatyou know, as women, you need
to get a little bit more ofthat right, Just be confident in who
we are and that we can getit done. And my favorite quote right
(01:00:13):
now is you've been through one hundredpercent of your worst days. So just
remember that you made it through onehundred percent of your worst days. You
got this. Life is good everytime you get an opportunity to wake up
and try again. So thank youso much for that. And just looking
at the chat, best boss ever, Tony is impressive, amazing person overall,
(01:00:34):
et cetera, et cetera. Peoplehave nothing of great things to say
about you, and that's that that'sa testment to itself. I looked at
your your profile and some of youryour accolades before the show and some days
and some days ago, and I'mthoroughly impressed. And I was definitely looking
forward to having this conversation. Thankyou so much for joining us. Thank
(01:00:54):
you guys that are in the chatfor joining us. If you're if you
didn't know, and you're listening rightnow. We do have a live chat,
So check out the website don't techpostsdot com, or we can go
to develop everymind dot com and findus and you can join us. We
come here every person thirty Tuesday othermonth and we'll have a new guest or
(01:01:16):
we'll have a new topic that we'llbe discussing.
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