016: Interview with Corey Morris

Recorded on July 13, 2023

Summary
The conversation covers Corey Morris's experience, learning from challenges, working within the DoD community, negotiating salaries, troubleshooting stories, transitioning to Microsoft, working in a pod, and the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this part of the conversation, Corey Morris discusses the importance of understanding and empathy, sharing a personal story about meeting a transgender individual. He also talks about the lack of favoritism and prejudice he has observed at Microsoft. Corey reflects on his experiences in previous roles and the challenges he faced, particularly in obtaining necessary access and support. He emphasizes the value of certifications in the IT industry and how they can open doors for career growth. Corey expresses his passion for mentorship and his desire to help others succeed. He shares his aspirations to be part of the product team at Microsoft and deliver TED Talks.

Takeaways

• Corey had a positive experience in the DoD and learned a lot from the challenges he faced.
• Working at DIA was a different experience, with resistance and a lack of support from colleagues.
• Negotiating salaries is important, and Corey shared his experience of getting a raise.
• Corey shared some funny troubleshooting stories from his early days in IT.
• Transitioning to Microsoft was a significant step in Corey's career, and he now works in a pod supporting multiple customers.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important values that Corey and his team at Microsoft prioritize. Understanding and empathy are crucial in creating an inclusive and supportive work environment.
• Certifications hold significant value in the IT industry and can enhance career opportunities.
• Mentorship plays a vital role in personal and professional growth, and having mentors can provide guidance and support.
• Setting clear career aspirations and surrounding oneself with smart and motivated individuals can contribute to personal and professional success.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/dem-tech-folks--5753456/support.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
My name is Corey Morris, cloudsolution architect for Microsoft. Microsoft. I've
been with the company coming up onwhat was about Me five years in October,
and I mean straight up, I'vebeen doing it for a minute now.
But it's funny like my journey intoit, I didn't take a traditional
path like it was nowhere. Ididn't think I had I had no I

(00:24):
didn't think I was gonna be init like I thought I was going to
be like security for well me backup. So after high school when I
joined the military, I joined theAir Force, you know, the smartest
of all branches. But when Iwas in, I was Security Forces,
So I was a cop while Iwas in the four years. You know,
at first I was gonna make acareer out of it, you know

(00:44):
what I'm saying. But got ina little bit of trouble. So after
that I was like, man,you know what I'm out. You know
what I'm saying. I got arrestedby my old flight sergeant. Yeah,
I can't take no loss up.I don't even know where they cross.
I hit the ground, then togo off, yeh, hit the ground
then to go off. Yeah,I can't take no lost. Jeff I

(01:07):
don't even know where I hit theground in and go and like I said,
it was my flight storry And yousaid, got me arrested under eag
drinking. It's a crazy thing.I was getting I was getting ready to
go to Korea. I had alreadyout processed from the squadron and everything man
done done you using limbo used inbetween the in between duty stations, real
thought light. So this was theway until you got the career. You'd

(01:29):
have been fine because it's legal.Little bit and man got brother got caught
up. Man got caught. Soafter that happened, After that happened,
man, they took my strike,suspended bus for six months, UH based
restriction for six months. I gottwo hundred fifty dollars five six months after
that, like that room last,Like you know what up? How long

(01:51):
have you been in How long wereyou in the air force at that point
this was three years. So whenthat happened, Yeah, I had just
put them on senior. I hadjust I just put on I had just
put on senior. They took mystrike. I took my strip back,
but me back down at E three, I was like, you know what,
forget it? So you know,what I'm saying, I decided to
get out. I got out withnothing, like for real nothing. That

(02:15):
is that when you started making beats, let go ahead. Man. If
I had not doctor Hey, Iwas waiting to get into the same when
you started making it go ahead.Man, No, I'm not doctor Gray.
I wish I had his money,though, I really do wish I

(02:37):
had his money. I hear thatall the time. I'm looking like that
dude, man, But yeah,all the time. But I got out
the military, man, I hadnothing like I had a car. Note
you know what I'm saying. Ijust had my oldest daughter. She was
eight six months at the time.You know what I'm saying. I was

(02:59):
with my ex wife. So Ileft Wyoming. I was in Shye,
Wyoming, got out the military,drove all the way to Hampton, Virginia.
That's where my wife was. Theex wife was stationed at Langley and
so like literally I was there lookingfor jobs. I was applying, couldn't
find anything. And then my brother, I mean y'all know my brother,

(03:19):
Keith. He he was working forUS company called pros off out of I
think they was out of uh.I'm wanna say, Virginia beach anyway.
Uh, he was working for themand were supporting. He was supporting Jeff
come and so he called me oneday and he was like, hey,
man, you want a job,like like literally real talking like I was
sleep. Called me about eight o'clockin the morning. Nine o'clock in the

(03:39):
morning, and you want a job, like yeah. He was like,
hold on here and talked to myboss. So Jeff Oakley, Man,
if Jeff Oakley see this, Igot you man, for real, put
me in a game, like forreal, Like I say, I was
sleep, they called me, wokeme up, going to job. Yeah.
So Jeff was like, all right, I need you to do man,

(04:00):
I need to go take some collegecourses start on Monday. Like That's
how it happened. And so thatMonday I went to pro Soft corporate office.
And I still remember this vividly tothis day because keep in mind,
I won't make it nothing like Ididn't have no job or anything. Just
got out the military. You knowwhat I'm saying. We weren't getting paid

(04:20):
much anyway. So and you gotand you got out of Wyoming. I
got. I got out of Wyomingbecause I didn't think I did. I
didn't think Wyoming had black people toKanye, you know what, Yeah,
Kanye, he got a ranch onthe wound, he got a spot,
like like, oh yeah, hewas deep out in Wyoming. You know
what outside of the outside of themilitary, really not much black folks.

(04:45):
No, I mean in the blackfolks that are there, they're there because
of the military, you know whatI'm saying, Like it's folks that I
knew that. No, Yeah,their pops or something was you know,
was there and they just stayed there. But I ain't no where in the
hell out of stayed there. Thatmakes sense. Bro. When you all
said on me, I'm like,oh, yeah, that is a snake,
Yeah exactly. It's now it's Coloradowould now Colorado straight, Colorado straight

(05:09):
though, Like Colorado Springs, that'scool. Colorado Springs is nice, Denvers
cool. Work out in Colorado.Yeah, Colorad is. Actually it was
total. It was like cold ashell. But I mean it's cold,
bro, it's snow. It's snowed, Lolai and shy want it's snowed.
Fourth of July one year, Iremember it was outside shooting five works in

(05:29):
the snow fourth of July, onAmerica's birthday, fourth of July. That's
how it's cold. It's cold alot there. I started helped ask and
it's funny like he told me toreport the corporate office on one day.
So I got there and I rememberthe manager whoever it was at the time,
he was like, all right,Corey Morris, you know seeing here

(05:50):
looking he was like, I'm gonnaoff you, you know, on off
you thirty nine thousand dollars. Ilooked at him. I was like,
I'll take it, like thirty muchmoney to be like I had nothing.
You know what I'm saying, brother, is it done? Sign me up?
Sign me up? Thirty nine thousanddollars. I thought I was getting
broke off man. I mean,you know it ain't bad man. I

(06:12):
don't right word the right word.I don't right but no, also from
men like so that's that's a realthat's a real good point right there.
And I've had conversations with people aboutthis. You can you can go for
one into things. You can gofor what you think the market and all
this other stuff is well. Youcan take when when I say win,
it's a certain percentage of a positiveincrease from where you front currently of finance

(06:38):
like me, I got a certainnumber, like I won't move a role
until I get that that would makeme comfortable. It's got to be a
you know, I got to bein a position where I say I was
stupid not to do that if Ididn't do it right, you know what
I mean? Right? Yeah,but I mean shoot, thirty thirty at
that point seems like it was likeenough, you know, I'm good.

(07:00):
Way to get on the board.I was balling. Went out and got
me Alexis that went and bought me, Alexis, tell me that you bought
Alexis? Were thirty George Us though? Man, how old were you though?
When I got out? Twenty twentythree, twenty one, twenty two?
Yeah, okay, was it byAlexis? Was it? Was it

(07:23):
clean? And I had rams onit had twelves in it? Yeah,
but no, they were eighteen,they were eighteen. They were eighteen eighteen.
They looked like yeah when it whenI shined them up? But nah,
so that man. Yeah, Butso I got the job, took
the job. Knew absolutely nothing nothingabout it. They put me in the

(07:47):
it was the building was called theAnnex. So I was supporting jiff Com.
I don't know if y'all not familiarwith Jiff com. I was supported
the Jiff come out of Northern Virginia. But my building it was Jade said,
I was in the J seven.So we were in Suffolk and they
put me in an annex. Andso I was in the annex by myself.
I was the only help that's personthere in supporting like maybe fifty people.

(08:07):
And like I said, I hadno I couldn't reset a password,
no clue how to do anything,and they just put me there by myself.
But just yeah, I ain't knownothing, you know what I'm saying,
ain't no shit. But so theyput me in there. And but
granted, you know, my brotherand the rest of the crew, they
were in the next building over,so I can always call them whenever I
needed help. And I called himall the time, Like man, I

(08:28):
remember going to a user's computer andlike, say, ain't on nothing.
I called my brother. I waslike, hey, man, this is
I don't remember what the issue waswhatever, but I didn't remember. It
was so cool. Keith put anicon. He made an icon come up
on the desktop and it made itdisappear. The coolest thing. I was
like, how did you do that? I said, what, man,

(08:48):
I seen it, but then itdisappeared, like how'd you do that?
Magic? You know what I say, Let me show you, let me
show you again, right, soI was just blown away. But no,
but from there, like real talk, like I mean, I just
grew. I started supporting info workspace for a little bit. Then I
got promoted to sis Adamin. Atthat time, I still don't help us.

(09:09):
So then I got promoted to sisadamin. Exchange. Man, that's
how I got an Exchange World.So start supporting Exchange then I know,
man, I know Exchange was thatfive now two thousand and three, two
thousand. I helped stand up twothousand and three Exchange two thousand and three
environment out there and did that.Then shoot like from there from prosof,

(09:37):
I got the job down and Ileft there, ended up going to headquarters
to n OB start working out nOB. Then I got the job down
here a syncom and that's Sitcoms wherewere uh met Marco and Reggie and then
eventually Rico. But man, Istill remember to this because I didn't know
you had a twin. Yeah,I was still inform, That's what I'm

(09:58):
saying, Like I remember you camein. I remember, like, because
I didn't know you had a twin, right, and so man, I
remember coming out and I seen Rico. I'm thinking in my head, I
said, man, what the hellMarco doing? Like what is he doing?
And we're in the uniform because hewas the hell? And then Marco
came down the hallway. I'm like, the man, why you keep changing?

(10:22):
I was mind blown. I didn'teven think you had a twin.
Mind blown. It was like thehell going on in the twilight Zone that
come felt like the Twilight Zone everynow and then. But yeah, man,
especially yeah, yeah, I don'tknow how you did that. Man,
you gotta showed me that one man, get a twin, that's it,
get it, get a twin.Nah, but you got them.

(10:43):
So I want to I want tohave I was and this has been like
a current thing, like for thelast probably three episodes that we were just
recorded. Man, like you gotthis role. You wasn't looking for the
role, right, you didn't youdidn't have to apply up front or whatnot.
Right, somebody was looking for somebody. So what happened when you got

(11:05):
this first role, this first helpthat role was somebody else find it grow
for you right, You wasn't goingout looking for it. So that's just
talking to the whole social network.Your social network is so critical, it's
almost as critical, if not morecritical than your skill set because you didn't
even have any skill set. Youjust knew somebody that was willing to put

(11:28):
that name on the line right nowbecause they knew how hard you were.
Now that you knew something up front, you didn't know you know anything,
helped that. But they knew youhad the propensity to ramp up and be
successful. You would make yourself successful. You would turn yourself in that person
and they were looking for eventually,even though you wasn't that person current right,
right, So anybody that start therelistening pull that from this, this

(11:50):
whole exchange. Your social network isyour network, right that you want more
than your eyes looking for roles forYou want your networks to be an extension
of yah yep to represent you andyou're not in could not agree with and
I'm gonna say no, I couldn'tagree anymore. And a lot of it,

(12:11):
I mean, I want to say, it's like a lot of it,
it's not about what you know alot of but it's really really about
who you know, like for real, because especially people in positions you know
what I'm saying that can really lookout for you. I think that's vital.
And and don't take that the wrongway. I don't. I don't
mean that like only talk to people, connecting people that you can use,
you know what I'm saying like that, But no, it's a real,

(12:31):
for real like you know, lookingout like it's a for real network.
You know what I'm saying, Folkswant the best for you, And I
mean that's what it's about equally,So we're not we're not. We also
not saying don't study, just goout the bars like net your people,
because you do have to give peoplenetwork work from like yeah he's got this
and who's not. Just tell youit, right, It's not just who

(12:54):
you know, but it's also howthey know you. Right. They know
you as a ship bird who can'tbe real, they're not gonna put that.
But if they know you as ahard worker, tenacity, they go
and get it. Let go gonnaput you out there. That goes back
to the whole conversation about building yourbrand. You know, you build your
brand, your brand starts to spread. It's like co con PEPSI also want

(13:18):
to put that too. When theydo give you an opportunity, you gotta
yeah, you got show up,you know what I mean. So so,
going going back to your story,though you got this role. You
know, we we we all finallymet. At that point in time,
you were doing exchange. You werepart of the team. You were how

(13:39):
big was the team and what wasthe composition? Was it pretty diverse or
big? Was it it was?Man? I mean I don't remember a
big team, but I just knowI was nights. I was working nights,
night shift. There was three ofus working nights, and Marco started
out on nights, and I thinkabout, didn't you start on the knights?
You know what? No, youdidn't start out on nights. You

(14:01):
know what? I remember, Iremember this conversation. They will talk about
you because I remember when you wereknew and you refused to work nice and
I remember them talking about you,like for real. That was like that
was like who was this dude guycoming in talking about he's not working night?
They was going there and on you. It was going on you.
I do remember that. I doremember I remember that. Was that was

(14:22):
that like that right of passage,like yeah, was coming nice and everybody
started nice, just like that's whatthey do, them do nights. Yeah,
he I know, Versatization Enterprise Vaultand it was a piece of ship
at the time. So don't getme started on ball. I mean you
already know I was guy there.I was an ev guy there, and

(14:43):
then at D I a like II couldn't stand fault. Yep, yeah,
yep, yep, you're the balkguy. Yeah, you Enterprise Wault
turned that ship around. That's whyI didn't work. Yeah, but yeah,
that was that was up said.I was us and car right when
you were you, uh, servantein the whole town? Did you go

(15:05):
on to the lab before I was? I was servateen the whole time.
Like this was back when Reggie wasa big time it was mister s c
I see, so you know whatand the crazy thing. I mean,
I knew Reggie. You were cool. We were cool, but we ain't
know him. I don't know Reggielike I know Reggie now, Like I
was cool, me and Marcao.Me and Marcao were cool. You know
what I'm saying. I was sayingI went cool with Reggie. I knew

(15:28):
him. Was like, yeah,you know what I'm saying, Like Reggie,
Reggie was a big time. Reggiewas big time, so he didn't
he didn't he didn't talk to theminions. So but it was cool though.
Now we had a good time.It was fun. I said,
it was definitely an experienced. Imean, we don't. I mean,

(15:50):
I'm not gonna drop names on here, but I know, y'all one person,
y'all from the sooner we're talking aboutstanding up, not standing up,
that's not gonna anyway, all right, As we were, yeah, as
we were out on the side,So there was a lot of as we

(16:11):
were, a lot of people thatwe enjoyed. It was some people that
were not, you know, asa joy enjoyable. But you know,
it was a time. We hada great time. Yeah, man,
you know, to learn the wholewhole lot. Stuff was always breaking,
which is a double edged sword.So it's a pain in the ass,
but at the same time, it'sa blessing in the sky because you learn
a lot more when things don't workthan right, let's went the d IA

(16:34):
for a substantial I'll just leave itat that. Yeah, well, like
what what percentage of an increase itwas? It? You know, what
I'm saying, like, I wantlike that one forty it might have been
like a like at least this mighthave been like a twenty percent raise.
That's pretty good from thirty. Bro. Well, no, by the time

(16:55):
I got down to Syncom, Iwent at thirty nine. When I got
a syncome, I was a littlehigh than that. Little I had a
little bit more dollars. But he'sabout fifty issues now, you know,
I tell y'all talking, I'm realtalking. I'll tell y'all. I moved
down. I was getting paid sixty. I was getting sixty when I started
a saying really when I started somethingcoming out and paid sixty thousand, and
then they went out to me andthey telled me there. I was like,

(17:18):
what the fuck? What what happened? I came in at seventy two.
I was like, huh, yeah, play the game. Yeah,
you gotta play the game. Igotta play the game. Bro. And
a lot of y'all probably like wandered, like what he was making more than
him, But you know, Iguess from from his perspective, he was
He's looking at you know, eightyears and in tech and in this whole

(17:41):
deal, there's a lot of differentthings that play when you're dealing with an
offer from person to person. That'syou know, accolades experience, length of
experience, what the issue is whenit came in. One of the good
pieces of advice that I got wasif you really want to get paid,
you got to go and learn theskill that people are bleieeding that nobody has

(18:02):
some issue in the organization. Yeah, there's some issue that then organization has
with somebody's bosses poking them in thechest. You need to hire somebody that
can fix this thing, because somebody'spoking me in the chest too. And
so with that you kind of have, you know, negotiation leverage. You
have a skill that they need,not want, they need it. There's

(18:23):
a lot of people that say thesame. You find what's in the market
and you work on getting that andyou can cover it down on the rest
of the stuff that comes with thatalong the way. But the way you
can kind of like show quick valueis by doing that. And at the
time, you know, like wewere saying, ev enterprise vault exchange was
going down. Anytime somebody sneeze,you know, so yeah, they were

(18:47):
getting broke off. You know,we talked, we had an episode with
the one of one of my othercolleagues, with Willie Hobson, was doing
you know McAfee product. Right,there was a time when the mac age
it was blocking everything and you know, so I'm sure they were getting paid
pretty well during that period. Soyou got to you gotta find what the

(19:07):
what the period is, you know, what kind of you know, conflict
is going on within that organization thatyou can resolve. And it's kind of
crazy, like I guess it's differentmentalities and whatever, because you know what
I'm saying, Like when Marco wassaying, you know when he came you
know how much you made Like me, I'm like, shit, go get
it, you know what I'm saying, Go get yours like I'm happy for

(19:29):
you know what I'm saying, Golike do that. But when I came
in to D I a completely differentI mean a lot of them didn't look
like us, you know what I'msaying. So I got a lot of
pushback because I came in, youknow, it's an exchanged guy, and
I got a lot of pushback.I'll just leave that. I didn't get
a lot of help. They justkind of threw me in, threw me

(19:52):
to the wolves. Nobody was helpingme learn the environment. All that stuff
I've learned on my own. Iain't gonna say all of it, but
you know, it was very resistantat first until I got to really know
a lot of people. Just knowingthat the team, the rest of the
team that was there said nothing thatnegative against them, you know what I'm
saying. It's just I mean theyprotected, they doing you know what I'm

(20:12):
saying, They doing what they feellike they have to do. You know,
it was that alignment bro behind me. People. People wasn't as free,
you know, getting given information outas they are right now. I
think all of us went through thatwhole situation. Yeah, you you know,
especially if they find out you weremaking more money. Yeah, they're

(20:33):
paying you figure it out right,you know what I'm saying. You know,
no, yeah, you're running tothat. And I hate to say
it was people. It's just itwas just like that time. It seems
like it seems like I'm like theywas, yeah, well there goes that,
there goes that non uh that nonsolatiouslanguage podcast. But I'm not I'm

(20:56):
not running Yeah yeah, I meancool, except bro, gotcha? But
no, what but what I wassaying. What I was saying was that,
uh, you know, for somereason that people connected like that knowledge
with job security, Like if I'mthe only one how to do this,

(21:17):
yeah, I'm gonna make sure Ikeep my job. The whole things.
A lot of that and that's nojust like you said chest between races,
and that's some black people that dothat too. Man, it's weird.
I was saying it was a blackthing. But you remember, bro,
like we I sit didn't talk aboutvault yea ving wearing all day long.

(21:37):
Yeah what you want to know?Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,
let's like, yeah, let's justget in this, let's just fix
it, you know what I'm sayingthat. But a personal note route though,
bro, because you you hit DI A. You were doing change
in E V right, mm hmmwhat what what did you move into the
action before you talk about the nextstep. Are there any kind of like

(22:00):
weird stories unattached to it in ofthese roles like troubleshooting that went overnight or
some crazy stuff like that. Yeah, well a couple I got. I
told the first one. I'll telly'all the first one. So remember I
said when I first started out atJIFF come out in southern Virginia. I
started help desk, didn't really knowshit. So I remember, uh troubleshooting

(22:23):
or getting ready to troubleshoot this issuewith uh this guy his monitor wasn't working
well kind of. So we endup somebody else wanted to send your text
look at it, said hey,you need a new video cards. So
Corey, you go out, youknow, Corey and somebody else I'm not
gonna say that individual's name, y'allgo change out the video card. And

(22:44):
so I was like okay. Sowent to his workstation, his desk or
whatever, and so, you know, pick up the tower and I'm looking.
I'm like, okay, lem startedtaking apart and somebody, this person
asked me what are you doing?I said, about to take out the
video card. It was like,why are you looking at the computer?
Why are you looking at the tower? Like what? Because the video cars
in here? Right? It's like, no, the video cars in the

(23:07):
monitor, right, Like yeah,video cars in the monitor. I'm like,
oh shoot, because again remember Iain't so bro wait, video cars
in the monitor. Bro. Wespent the last I think he was trying
to get you, man, He'strying to ship ain't b no, no,
no, no, no. Individual. It's like, hey, Reggie,

(23:27):
no no, this person really thoughtthe monitor the video car was in
the monitor, like had me convinced. That's how he was stupid, Yes,
trying to tease me how to doit, Yeah, acting like I
ain't know nothing, and like,man, bro, we sent you spent
at the computer, like we wasthere trying to take the monitor apart for

(23:48):
like thirty minutes. I'm like,yo, I really don't think the video
cars. So no, thankfully Iwent down. I took the tower apart
and took the card like no,it's the video card. But that's just
what crazy No, And then yougot me no no, no no,

(24:08):
But I was just playing. Iwas just playing. You got an expert
that's come here to help you,and you're gonna try to tell him how
to do his job. Well,that would have been fine, but the
expert had me convinced. I gotto say, like I said, this
person was a senior person. Idon't say senior, more senior than on
the help desk, you know whatI'm saying, Like I was the newest

(24:30):
person. This person tell the healthperson. Yeah, it was a you
know, it's a help. That'sperson help that person. That's why I
said, it's a senior. Yeah, it's a senior help that That's why
I'm like okay, wow, rightright, And they stayed on the help.
That's when I got promoted since admantthat individual still helped us. As

(24:52):
far as I know when I left, that person was still helped us.
Legend has it they still have been. You know, look right up and
look up on LinkedIn to see wherethey at. But nah, it's crazy.
But then and then yeah, wellwe'll we'll be posting as uh LinkedIn.
Yeah, here's the figure you gotthe video cards and they call him

(25:18):
mister GPU. Now, yeah,medio from d I AH, where'd you
go from there? So? Iwas at d i A for seven years
ishu something like that. Had alot of fun there. You know what
I'm saying. I deployed, wentover the guitar, did a tour there.
I didn't deploy as much as youknow y'all did. I wish I
did. I didn't know. Iain't know at the time, but but

(25:41):
no, And I think it kindof took me to another level because I
give my one of my mentors ashout out raft Rath Modernaudo took me to
the next level. Like I mean, before you know what I'm saying,
I was. I felt like Iwas okay in Shange, you know what
I'm saying. I was. Iknew Enterprise Vault, I knew in the
pro Ball Exchange. I was decentwith you know what I'm saying, I'm

(26:02):
supporting for a while. But Raf, it's what got me to an engineer
level, you know, tight withwith exchange. And yeah, I said
for him, I got to thankhim a lot for everything. And then
because I remember the access story,that's spending all night troubleshooting, there's one
time troubleshooting working on the Purple network. I won't say no names, but

(26:25):
I completely rebuilt the exchange environment inone night, No Lie. There was
something going wrong and I couldn't receiveno databases. It was I would like
I'd like reconnected to like back up. Man. I don't remember what I
know. I spent the entire night. I don't remember how I spent it.
I redesigned pretty much the whole exchangeenvironment overnight, like no Lie,

(26:48):
Yeah, for real, I rememberhaving to move mailboxes, delete databases like
it was. I was there Ididn't leave to I didn't leave probably about
till like ten o'clock the next morning. Everything was up. You know what
I'm saying. Everything was up.Scary, but yeah, I grew from
from at D I A. Andthen the crazy thing is, you know,

(27:11):
I never approached raft Tell and toldhim that I wanted to come to
Microsoft. I wish I did,because I probably would have been the Microsoft
a lot sooner because I mean,he knew what I knew, and I
didn't think I was ready. Ireally didn't. I didn't think I was
ready for Microsoft. But Microsoft camedown and had a Dan what's some things
called Reggie. When they they camedown and had it was like they called

(27:34):
it something basically. So yeah,we met it at Cooper's Hawk. They
interviewed us kind of like a meetand greet. We met all the managers,
you know, and our job therewas kind of making impression on the
managers. I guess I then,so whoever did the managers wouldn't bite back

(27:56):
for interviews, and so that's whathappened. You know. I met there
the managers and they scheduled me foran interview. I did three interviews in
one day, very very intense interviewslike literally Randall, Randa Randall, watch
this Randall Burns, he one ofmy interviewers. Yeah, he told me.

(28:17):
He's like, all right, fromstart to finish it this whiteboard.
I want you to stand in frontof white board. Tell me the process
of email from mail flow from thesecond at least outlook the user's client to
it's through you know, the throughthe cloud, through the internet, then
received on the distance, and goahead and draw it out. And he
just set back like this and puthis hands on draw it out. I'm

(28:38):
like, oh, but I saidI drew it out. Yeah, I
drew it out. I mean,you think he did pretty good in it.
I mean he had to help alittle bit. He had, but
yeah, for the most part,I would say if I had to give
a percentage, I probably said Igot about maybe eighty percent of it,
you know what I'm saying, Andthe rest of it, you know,
he was like, Okay, wellthis this this, you know, this
is how this works and this sobut I mean mm hmm. Yeah,

(29:00):
and it's crazy as it sounds rightlike, it sounds scary. But those
are the great moments, especially ifyou can, like for Negga, your
way through and then still get somethingthat makes them to say, yeah that's
it. Oh yes I did.Yeah, yeah, the struggle makes it
worth it. Yeah, yeah,yeah, totally. It was definitely worth
it. And I said it wasit was a good time, man.

(29:22):
But at the time, wasn't ityou know, I said, but after
that look back and we talked aboutit, joke about it now, but
no, it was. It wasa pretty good interview process. And then
so from there, was that themost difficult part of your three phase Yeah,
interview? Yeah, by far,by far, yeah, because it
was like it's like what like onetechnical uh you know, like behavioral and

(29:44):
then two technically, two technical,and one one with the one with the
hiring manager. Yeah, you know, the one with the hiring managers more
of yeah, more of can Iwork with this guy? You know,
it's a good fit for the team. That's more of what the long what
it was? Yeah, yeah Iheard it was a pretty ruesome roh.
Yeah yeah. Yeah. It hasit has its moment. Yeah, it
has its moments. But I meantquestions about to say, yeah, yeah,

(30:08):
that's how you know, bequse youget to someone's death, Yeah,
and then you get the confidence likeI know me, after the end of
that day, you know, Ihad the confidence like damn, you know
a little bit, I know alittle bit more than I thought I did.
You know what I'm saying, like, yeah, you know, but
ship I started that, you know, did that first job with Microsoft.
I was supporting n G A solfor back and forth every week from Tampa

(30:30):
to d C. Every week.Did that for two and a half years.
And then probably look, I stillgot points, I still got points,
I still got the awards man stillyeah, but yeah, Reggie,
Reggie was doing the same thing.You know, we'll see we would be
in the same hotel. I'll believeit at that. But don't make it

(30:56):
weird. Don't make it weird.It don't make But now that's where all
the Microsoft like up in that area, That's where a lot of the Microsoft
folks stayed at because it was Imean, the hotel was decent, you
know what I'm saying. It waspretty too much centrally located and everybody can

(31:17):
get to where you know their customerfrom there. So that's why the bast
majority of Microsoft folks stayed there.I did that, and then now you
know, fast forward, Now youknow I mean, I'm pretty sure I'll
know how that my motorcycle accident whatever, and then that put me on the
POD. Yeah, so now thatput me in a remote position. That
the same position I'm in right now. I've been doing this for almost three

(31:40):
years now, being the POD.So in that transition, is that is
that how you ended up going fromyou know, working on exchange into being
a right now? Yeah? Soyeah, so definitely, So what the
POD is, It's we're a groupof engineers. We try to keep at
least maybe two to three engineers pertechnology so you know my technology exchange Exchange

(32:06):
or EXO exchange online, so weit's like two of the there's three of
us on the team. And thenwe have you know, SPO individuals.
We got security folks, we gotidentity teams, you know teams is teams
is blowing up. But yeah,so you know, we got each you
know a little bit you know,supporting each technology. And then amongst all
of us, we support a numberof customers like we have. There's a

(32:30):
lot we I think we up tolike eighteen or nineteen customers right now that
we support. Wow, yeah,yeah, we can get to Yeah,
it gets tough, man like isthere a certain like ratio they try to
keep like you know, you know, I tried. It's crazy, you
know a lot we try to likeme and the other XO resources, we

(32:52):
have our private teams and you know, we'll talk to each other, you
know, like hey, you know, I take this issue or you know
or whatever. But it's kind ofnot I mean, there's no really set
way to it. We just tryto make it work. But it's crazy,
like it's hard because like you couldbe working on one thing, you
know, for a customer or theyyou know, trying to trying to reprod

(33:13):
something in the lab, then youget a hit up by another customer,
by the whole nother fire you knowthat they have. Because of course everybody's
issue is important, you know whatI'm saying, they feel like you need
to stop what you're doing and workingon it right now. So it can
get a little bit overwhelming at times. So I'm not gonna I'm not going
to ask you about, you know, any company specific positioning on things,
because you know, you work fora vendor. I work for a vendor.

(33:36):
When not speaking on behalf of thesevendors because the show is not you
know, be endorsed by any kindof vendors. But what's your positioning on
you know, the DEI movement anda lot of organizations trying to embody in
their culture and you know, increasein the amount of diversity within their ranks.
You said the D and I whatdoes that mean for you? Yeah,

(33:58):
I'm a kind of stretch of thestretch question a little bit. So
as far as like representation for youknow, minorities and you know, women
and stuff like that. That's theinclusivity kind of talk about like historically what
you've seen and you know what you'reseeing right now. How how those two
kinds of contrasts if they do.If you feel like the contrast, no,
you know, I feel we willtake pick it up from the No,

(34:20):
I feel you're not. So whatyou're saying, I mean as a
company, I mean, I'll bestraight up real talk like because it's funny
because I'm a d you said dN. I'm a d D and I
lead diversity. So we call it. We call it d N I d
N I, So diversity and inclusionand inclusions un covered the equity. Yeah,
yeah, we tried to. Wetried to, but no, I'm

(34:45):
actually just funny because I'm actually ad N. I lead for my team.
And then Reggie and I like wehe helped start we started a BAM
chapter. BAM it is Blacks andMicrosoft. So we started the first BAM
chapter and Florida, like the nearestband chapter was in Atlanta. And so

(35:05):
Reggie, like I said, hewas very instrumental setting that up. Like
it's like Reggie's yeah, just partof the team. It was probably about
fiber. I mean, throw numbersout there, but he's very instrumental setting
that up. And so but I'mnow kind of backtracking. I apologize.
I can give you my personal experience. Yeah, I can give my personal
experience that I've seen. So whenI first started, when I interviewed for

(35:25):
Microsoft, and I had braids,That's when I got my hair. I'm
growing my hair back out right now. But anyway, when I interview,
I remember you walking around. Yeahyeah, but I have bread. Look,
I know I have veg go ahead, but no, I had braids.
Like when I interviewed for Microsoft,I had braids down my shoulders.
And you know, but and whenI I came to an interview, I
came in in the suit. Youknow what I'm saying. So I'm thinking,

(35:46):
like, you know, they're gonnasee me, like, man,
who's this nigga with the braids?This, that and the other. But
so after I heard after the interview, like talking to roundom after obviously,
after I came with Microsoft talked topeople to interview me, they weren't like,
yo, who's that dude in thebrain? I was like, Yo,
who's that dude in the suit?You know what I'm saying. They
didn't see the braids, they seethe suit. And so that's how it's

(36:06):
always been, Like I can say, at least with Microsoft, like you'll
see folks that don't look like us, with different colored hair, women like
man, it's funny, like man, I don't want to hold it,
get in, I don't want toget into a whole d and I spill.
But because I didn't know much,like I didn't think much about like
it's things situations like that until Ibecame in the position of a man now.

(36:30):
And it might make a little sensewhen I tell you what I'm talking
about, But I just say straightup like transgendered people like I didn't.
I didn't want to say I hadan opinion or anything on it like it
was nothing negative. But I didn'treally think you know what I'm saying about
until yeah, put in this roleand then I said, we have every

(36:51):
month we have these fireroom chats orwhatever in the team meeting and there was
a transgendered uh individual that was talkingand he talked about how he was treated
when you know he was younger,and how his father you know, because
I just see he was born afemale, how his father treated him,
and just that story. Like Imean, it was I ain't on front

(37:14):
like it was. I was like, dangn man, he had to go
through that, you know, andthe crazy things. Crazy thing is I
seen him. We had these thingscalled ready or fed Start. Now we
had fed Start event last year andI ran into him coincidentally up in DC
and sat down to talk to himlike yo, and I mean, cool,
cool, dude, you know whatI'm saying. And like just being

(37:36):
in that role, being like thingslike that, I never I look at
things, give me a different perspective, you know what I'm saying, look
at things a lot different, notsaying before like negative. I was like,
oh, you shouldn't get away fromme. No, nothing like that.
It's just I didn't know, youknow what I'm saying, and so
just hearing his story, hearing thatand then that's just this one example,
you know what I'm saying, Likefemales, I feel like there's no I

(37:59):
don't see any favorite sause. Idon't see none of that, you know
alone, I don't see it personallywith the company, you know what I'm
saying. I feel like everybody getstheir fair shake. I feel like everybody
gets treated the same, you knowwhat I'm saying, regardless, Yeah,
yeah, I said, I don'tI don't see any prejudice. I don't
see any I personally don't see.I'm not saying it don't happen. I'm
not naive, you know what I'msaying. But it's never been in my

(38:20):
face. I mean, like,at the end of the day, Rod,
I'm not going to like run thislike a lot of other conversations.
If we don't share the same experience, that makes you a liar. No,
that just means your experiences aren't thesame as right, you know.
That's that's that's the that's the baseof us having a conversation just to try
to explore what your experiences are.It's perfectly fine, man, did you

(38:43):
experience any kind of like, youknow, differences with regard to what you
were just not talking about. Microsoftdoesn't have difficulty in those areas as far
as you can see. Did youexperience or seeing it that kind of stuff
like before going into Microsoft, workingat Microsoft, like earlier on your career,
and I know you was like youwas, uh, the only black
person in your job. You justhelped this, but you was he was

(39:04):
also working in the office that wasone hundred percent black people because you're the
only person. Yeah, I know, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I was a team of one,you know what, not so much.
If I had to say, likethe most, if if I had
the category, it would be mytime with the I A would be the

(39:25):
big the biggest you know, yeah, the biggest kind of issues or anything
like that that I ran into towhere you know, it was hard getting
help, It was hard. Itwas it was hard doing my job.
But there were days it was reallytough to do my job. I'm not
even gonna front. I'm not evennafront because I didn't like I would go

(39:45):
in I didn't know much about theenvironment. I wouldn't get no pass,
there won't be no password. Tothat man like like, all right,
they passwords not the ones I needed, Wow, not the ones I needed.
I had to make it. Andin that, in that that may
or may not be relevant to youknow, the issues you know, because
I mean you were probably still knew, right, I mean, was was

(40:08):
that the case been there for awhile. It could be something as simple
as oh, we don't really he'sgonna stick around, you know. So
yeah, you know what I'm sayingabout that, I'm not to minimize that
they shouldn't hire me. They shouldn'thire me. You know what I'm saying,
I should Yeah, I shouldn't havebeen upstairs. You know, you
shouldn't get a task that requires youto have a past, right, right.

(40:30):
But what I'm saying is not tominimize, like the issues that we
know are still you know there,whether as pronounced or less pronounced nowadays than
they word in the past. It'sjust say that everybody experiences, you know,
something that may something may seem likeX. It may be why,
you know what I mean, you'rejust having a certain advantage point that's making

(40:52):
you see it like that. Butjust you know, y'all y'all about that,
that's listeners just be careful if youhaven't issue that seems nefarious. Yeah,
I mean, if you feel likeit's you know, that big of
a thing, document and start writingit down, start asking more clarifying questions
or find out where the root ofthis behavioral activity is coming from, and

(41:13):
have conversations with other people that arealso related to it that can kind of
speak to it, maybe give youa different vantage point or give you better
edification as to what may be goingon with this specific individual or group or
why you're not getting the past worldor whatever. As a waiting period where
it's thirty days because there's high youknow, turnover, there's been hot turned

(41:36):
with the roll and they're like,we want to make sure he sticks around
because you already know we don't doit, but we haven't done in the
past. Whenever somebody leaves, it'ssupposed to roll all the codes, you
know what I mean. And that'sthat's that's frustrating. Back in and back
right. Help that you've gotten thehelp, that you didn't know anything from
getting the help. That's not knowinganything. You know, you're at your

(41:57):
first successful troubleshoot right was shut yourfirst thing as it helped this guy.
So now you I'm an it guy. You could tell people your it now
once you fix your first problem.I think. So between that point and
then now, what was your journeylooking like as far as like building qualifications?
Getting these certifications, you know,these certification was like the you know

(42:17):
talk about I got about five ofthem. Now, bro, br you
know I started strong. I ain'tgonna front. I started all real strong,
like when I first got into helpedthis. I think I kicked knocked
out two SERTs security plus netplus likewithin the first uh maybe a year or
so. And it's crazy like whenI went to school. I'm backtracking again,

(42:37):
But when I went to school afterJeff told me to roll in college
before you gave me the job,you know, or when he gave me
the job, I was going toschool to be a network guy. Like
I wasn't gonna be a serving guy. So yeah, I was wanting to
be networks and Francisco stuff was prettyhard, and I enjoyed that. That
one was fun, you know whatI'm saying. And so that's why I
like, you know, I wasreally leaning out way but no, but

(43:00):
so I started out hot against withinthe first couple of years knocked out a
certain and another couple of years afterthat knocked out another one. I need
to get back all the game.I ain't gonna lie. It's been a
couple of years since I had aSERT since I joined Microsoft. I mean,
I got one since I joined Microsoft, and I've been with Microsoft with
coming up on five years. Sobut that's only because they in my defense,

(43:24):
in my defense, I have torede that shirt every year. So
I got to take another test tokeep that joint active. You know what
I'm saying. So in a sense, I'm taking you know, So what's
your what's your view's like from fromwhere you stand right now? What's the
importance of sir? If there isany importance in search? Some people don't
feel like, so my how todo the thing? And that's what that

(43:45):
that helps to, That helps toBut me as me being, I mean,
I've interviewed several individuals before on alot of occasions, and so what
I'm seeing, like search, theyhold a lot about you, they hold
a lot of weight like and thenwhat I'm saying, don't get me wrong,
like a degree looks good on papertoo, you know, a bachelor's

(44:06):
degree in computer science or whatever thatlooks good too. But if you see
somebody with you know, ten searchs, you know what I'm saying, or
whatever, you know, they knowthat ship, you know what I'm saying.
Not saying that the college graduate somebodydoesn't. But just in my experience
again I'm just talking about me personally. I've seen I've seen times where people

(44:30):
with more search were were picked orhired you know, over I don't say
over, but they were a betterfit. Like again, because I want
to I'm trying to watch what Isay because I'm not trying to minimize a
degree, because that's whe I thinkthat's very important. You know what I'm
saying, get your school and getyour you know, education, but like

(44:52):
like that cert that certain goal,like especially if you got something that's certain
they need and then you got thatexperience too, Like you got an experience
and then you got certification. Youlike, I think you can kind of
write your own ticket with that.Bro. I've heard it say that a
degree doesn't show your knowledge, itshows your ability to do right and finished
right right. Because my thing isif you got your degree in the nineties

(45:15):
and here we are in twenty twentythree, what you learned in that agree
ain't really right, especially in It even if you got your degree three
years ago, what you learned notreally right because the stuff in that books
always change, always changing. Yougot technology is always evolved. But one
thing that you can say for itand I'll let you get back to it.
Reg I heard you trying to,you know, say something. But

(45:37):
one thing is like this, likewhen you go through a college degree program,
because I mean, I'm on thesame side that you're talking on where
I feel certifications are way more importantthan a degree. But the skill that
you get from a degree is beingable to like effective the community. But
it should be that you learn howto effectively communicate yourself from writing it or

(45:58):
really a lot of time to doright, able to research and we have
to like be it articulate ourselves ina logical way that people can kind of
pick up on what you're trying toconvey your writing. And a lot of
people they have they struggle with withdoing that. Yeah you know, yeah,
I mean so much so they haveit's a complete job you gotta take
take writers, yeah, because theengineers came right, not for real?

(46:20):
That left me Like documentation is ahorrible document. Like you asked me put
a document together. Tell me tofix something. You know what I'm saying.
Give me something to fix. Don'task me to tell you how I
fixed it. You don't actually thedocument how I fixed it. I just
fixed it. Yeah it's fixed,man, don't worry about it. You
know this is me personally, like, yeah, I'm horrible writing man.

(46:43):
Yeah video would you would you have? Would you? No? I was
just gonna say, uh, sometimesit depends on the company and your path,
right, So I see that differentcompanies are different. So, but
but I do see people that airedfor like executive or leaders senior leadership type
positions. They do say like havinga degree is an asset if you're a

(47:08):
technical lead and stuff like that.But there are some companies that don't really
care about that either. If youhaven't adapt, if you have an attitude,
you can adapt. Like I knowsome companies I don't like the name
companies, but I know some companieslike I don't do straight up told told
us like, look, you know, with my company, I don't really

(47:28):
care if you got a degree.I don't care what you got. You
don't even have to have a certainas long as you're smart. And I
was like, wow, really He'slike, yeah, man, I know,
as long I care about people thatare smart and can learn and adapt
and perform, I can care lessabout all the other stuff. And I
was like, wow, that's thefirst time I ever heard that before.
But he was dead serious about that. So can I say? So I

(47:52):
have three degrees? I have notgotten me. I have three degrees.
Yeah, I do a bachelor's inan association since no, no, no
one, Well I got to nowI got bachelor's in business management. Then
I got one and I didn't goto school at the same time. I
went to school two different times andgot a bachelor once, and then I

(48:14):
went and got I got my bachelor'sin business and go to bachelors that I
got bachelor's Information management. What isit? I t s M. But
no, I have not got one? Man, man, hold on,
well, all right, hold on, bro im probably keep cutting. You

(48:34):
got you say you got an associatesand two bachelor's. Yeah, how did
you get to? Go ahead?Man, No, I ain't no doctor
anyway anyway, you know, soI have not After I got my I
got been working obviously. When Igot my degrees, I have not once
got a raise from getting in thedegree, but I have got bonuses for

(49:00):
certifications. And not leave it atthat, there were some companies that were
paying a little bit more for everycertification. I forgot what that formula was,
but that was the actual thing whenyou I'm not talking about like a
bonus, but like they would increaseyour pay, you know, like I

(49:22):
know, I know one of theforms where was if you are a var
or something like that and the companyneeds so many certified people for certain technology
to become a different, certain levelof partnership, they would pay you for
that, Like we need five ccis to be platinum with Cisco, So

(49:42):
they would pay you a lot ofmoney, actually overpay you sometimes just right,
exactly exactly exactly. Yeah, yeah, so switching switching lanes to something
else. I know we're kind ofrunning right, how you what's mentorship in

(50:06):
that whole dynamic mean for you?Like do you have a mentor or you
a mentor? And what's that looklike on your trip? Man? I
love it like I love mentorship.I love helping people. I love mentoring
folks. I got several mentors.Reggie, Reggie on it. He might
not know it. I think Itold him before. I look at Reggie
as a mentor, it's it's agroup of us that we all get together
a lot. And I look atthem all his mentors because I learned something

(50:29):
from each and every one of themevery day. So I think having a
mentor is definitely vital in your careerprogression and path. I mean, because
you know you, they help out, They're given a lot of advice,
they help I'm trying to get promoted. I remember telling Reggie that, like,
yo, I'm trying to give mypromotion. Reggie helped me, Like

(50:49):
he's helping me with that. Likeyou need people like that in your corner.
And I want to, you know, reciprocate that. I want to
do that for somebody else too,Like I want to help bring somebody up.
You know what I'm saying, bringyou up to you know, our
love. I mean, I won'tsay them like day beneath me anything like
that, but I want to helppull you up. You know what I'm
saying. Help you get that bonus, help you get whatever, help you
get that promotion, help you getthat raised, Like let's do it,

(51:10):
let's eat. You know what I'msaying. I mean my angle, I
would love to be be in aproduct group or something like that, but
I mean as far as my mycareer, like, I don't see myself
ever leaving the company. They're gonnahave to kick me out. Like I
say, I'm not proud. I'llcover my shirt. I'm not trying to

(51:32):
promote it just because I work forthem. But I really do think there's
a lot of different ways you cangrow and learn. You know, Scot's
limit. I mean, I'm surethere's other companies like that as well too.
But yeah, I want to Isee myself. I want to do
taed talks. That's now you gotme spilling my life dreams. I want

(51:53):
to do ted talks, man.I want to be part of the product
man. I want to lead fedstart conversationations and discussions and hosts all these
sessions man. And and it's crazy, like I gotta I still got to
work on myself and getting used toget in front of folks talking because that's
what I'm inspiring to do. ButI still find myself a little hesitant,

(52:15):
like whenever I got a workshop orsomething like that to deliver, but I'm
shitting bricks, like I'm so damnnervous because you know, I got to
teach you know, this technology orwhatever I'm teaching to a group of individuals,
and I don't want to come offthe crowns sounding stupid or crazy like
I don't know what I'm talking about. But for real, real talk,

(52:37):
that's something I'm inspiring to be.Like I said, I want to be
at that level to where I'm talkingcenters standing from a CEO telling them about
the next latest and greatest thing that'scoming out, you know, and how
it can help his company and youknow what we could do. So I
mean that's that's my aspirations. AndI mean as long as I stay hanging
around people like y'all like cause again, like I said, I you Rico

(52:59):
and Mark like y'all Like when Ifirst met y'all too, like I'm like,
man, you smart like these dudeslike they own it like y'all husband,
and I remember telling y'all like likey'all be on it like and so
you know what I'm saying, yougot shund yourself with smart people man like
Iron Sharp and Iron Bro. Absolutelydefinitely. I mean I want you to
say, if you're always the smartestperson in the room, get a new

(53:21):
room room yea. But yeah,like I want you to like lay out
your plan, say what you're goingto say. Man, whatever it is
you feel like you want to do, is in your heart to do it.
I mean, because I'm actually goingright right now, I'm trying to
like I'm applying to a role that'ssimilar to what you just not. You
know you're talking about it's a blackbuilt type. Yeah, I know black.

(53:46):
So we have the same mindset withthat. But the other benefit I
just saw with the what me doingthe show because you know, before we
started recording and started talking about thevision and what we're trying to do and
get for people out of view inthis. But the benefit that you get
is this, if I can hangthis thing, keep this thing going for
the next three five years, inthe next three five years, we still

(54:08):
got this episode streaming on pot Spotifyor whatever. You go back after you
taking that role and say, youknow I said three years ago, you
know, and that's your testimony thatyou can talk to your mentees, you
know, people that you're talking towhen you say, hey, do a
dream board, you know, speakit. Whatever it is you want to

(54:30):
get into you want to get involvedin and do speak it and start working
the process. Trust the process.It'll work for you. This is how
it worked for me. I didthis recording on this podcast five years ago,
and here I stand. You knowwhat I mean. So the process
works. And a lot of peoplethat are new and young in this industry,

(54:52):
they have a hard time trusting theprocess, you know, and sometimes
a little bit of evidence is whatthey need. You know. You want
to say you have faith. Faith, don't really pay the bills today,
but you have to give them thatfaith so they can be strong enough to
delay gratification and hold out and trustthe process. Man. That's that's a

(55:13):
great term. Delayed gratification. Yeah, I hear that so much, the
late gratification. Yeah, it's it'sit's a you got a grind. I
mean, you know a lot offolks say in this generation they want they
want it now. You know whatI'm saying. They don't want to put
it in the work. They justwant it given to them. You know
what I'm saying. You gotta bewilling to get your hands dirty, getting
the weeds, you know what I'msaying. You know, if you really

(55:35):
want to be successful, you know, and I commend all again on this
too, like I know, tryingto give it all. You'll flowers too,
because just like this podcast and thingslike like five years somehow, you
said, now you will just keptit gonna blow up like y'all wanna blow
up on the see little clips onInstagram, you know, with the the
algorithm or whatever. You know,Hey, look at this pipe, like

(55:59):
y'all it's gonna blow up too,man. So y'all got it. Bro,
don't let anybody tell you you can'tdo anything because another person. Again
I'm gonname name this, but youalready know who I'm talking about. It
worked the ten come. One day, this nigga came and told me straight
up, he straight up told me, if I had to lay people off,

(56:21):
you'll be the third person I layoff. And I mean it was
a team of straight up to mein my face, like the first the
third person he named, He namedtwo individuals and then he was like out
five such and such first and notfire such and then you're next. That

(56:42):
that little b Yeah but no thatsomebody that today faced straight up told me
that. But so so but whatthat was before? Bro? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I know whatI'm talking about, right, you know
what I'm talking about, right,I know, yeah about yeah, yeah,

(57:02):
stop the clues. Yeah, butno more clues. No. And
ever since that man like kind oflittle you know, kind of put a
chip on my shoulder, like I'ma proved this Uncle Tom asked I'm wrong.
You know what I'm saying, Like, Nah, how dare you?
You know what I'm saying? Imean, you know, yeah, right,

(57:24):
yeah, like how dare you?Man the nerve review? You know
what I'm saying, like, don'tdo you don't do that? And so
yeah, don't let anybody tell youyou can't do anything like Scott's limit.
You know what I'm saying. You'rethe only person that's stopping you, is
you. You know, don't don'ttell people you can't do. Don't let
nobody tell you can't do. Youneed to go back, you need to
you need to drop drop due toemail or something. You know what I

(57:47):
should do? Yeah, I justsend him an email with my signature block
Corey Moore, Cloud Solution architect MicrosoftThis. It wasn't for you. I
wouldn't be wise. I mean theend of the day, you think he
was lying though? Fuck him?Let me. Do you think that you
were I think he believes I thinkhe believes it. Yeah, I think

(58:09):
he But no me personally, no, I felt like I was doing my
job. But I think he reallyfelt that way. And so you think
you would have pushed this hard ifif if he hadn't like kind of through
your face like that what he feltabout, not to get you know what,
probably not not to get out ofsyncom. But that's the point about

(58:30):
it. If if he wasn't rightor at least had a point, you
wouldn't need to push home. Mhmm. Yeah, yeah, real talk touche.
And I'm just I'm not saying itwas a ship back back then that
would have been better. Basically,yeah, you could have been better,

(58:50):
and you saw you could have beenbetter, so you put it down and
you made yourself the person who youknew you could be. I feel like
I feel like your you know,your everything with every decision that you could
possibly make. So had you notmade decisions to you know, ramp down
and prove somebody wrong, yeah,you probably could have slept slump back in
the being whatever it was he thoughtyou were. Yeah, because but since

(59:14):
he did posed that to you andput that, you know, put that
out there like that. You know, you decided to go this way instead
and to yourself into the different versionof you that is that can't went on
to be an employe for Microsoft.Yeah. Because yeah, that's why I
say. You know, I've alwaysyou know what I'm saying, where I
felt like I wasn't doing enough,Like man, I gotta That's why I

(59:36):
always always grind always because I nevernever good enough. Never I don't know
enough about this, Marco, needto figure that out. I feel that
way all the time, all thetime. I mean, that's big with
it. I feel that No seriouslywith Microsoft, Like we're Microsoft, We're
supposed to know everything. Bro.Like anytime I'm in a meeting and I
get asked, hey, y'all knowhow to do this, I'm like,

(59:58):
impost sitting from I had to talksomebody about that. It's real. But
go ahead, Richel, it's real. It's real. I haven't heard that
you know a lot. It's thepeople that the people that know a lot,
they know so much about the topicthat they know what they don't know,
so they feel like they don't reallyknow. But someone who doesn't know
a lot, they don't know whatthey don't know. So they think they

(01:00:20):
confidence that they're experts. It's almostalmost like it's almost like, bro,
if you had, like, ifyou have a freaking pickle jar, right
and you put thirty fucking big marblesin it, right, it's a half
full pickle jar now, and yousay, hey, you know, do
you have a lot of marbles?You say no, right, because you

(01:00:42):
know what you'll say, yeah,I got a lot of because the pickle
jar is full of marbles. Butif you have a swimming pool with thirty
marbles, right, you don't havea lot of You're not even like feeling
that you know all of the volumethat you could take up, and you're
not taking it all up. That'sthat's that's that's a rough craphic way of

(01:01:02):
explaining it, but that's what itthat's what it turns into. The person
that doesn't really know the tech,like Marco was saying, is the person
that thinks that all the information that'savailable for that specific subject is just pickle
jar. Whereas when you learn andyou actually do know, now you know
all the things that most don't know. You know a lot of the things

(01:01:22):
that you don't know about it,and that's a lot more than what you
do know, even though what youdo know is ten times with the average
person those Ye. Right, youmay be you know the guy in that
thing you know, But I meanthat's the knowledge fallacy, one of the
knowledge fallacies. I mean there's allkinds of psychological tricks that people play on

(01:01:45):
themselves with respect to like what theyknow and how they present themselves. Yeah
no, and yeah, like yousaid that, like that impositives room is
real And I like how you howyou phrase that too? Like you you
know what you I'm trying to workthis because I got an example for it,

(01:02:06):
but I just don't want to soundcrazy you knowing what you're don't?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like yeah, Like for a minute,
I thought, like when I firstjoined Microsoft, like you can tell
me ship about exchange, like Iknew everything. I knew everything by exhange
man, Like yeah, I geta whole list of other stuff that you

(01:02:27):
ain't seen, Like it's a wholeother level to it. I'm like,
you got in the right room withright, Yeah, I'm like, damn,
maybe I don't. And then Ifeel like I don't know about exchange.
Yeah, you get on the youget on the phone with these people
that actually like the d L thecold. I mean it's like, bro,
yes, you're like it's it's likeyour mind just getting Yeah, and

(01:02:52):
then you think to yourself and thenyou think to the stuff when you talk
to those people. How the hell? Yes, yeah, because I thought,
yeah, and you I used tothink I knew a lot about like
Microsoft, you know, like Windowsor server or whatever. And when I
got like assist Internal book and startedgoing in on now yeah, yeah,

(01:03:15):
it's level. It's levels to it. But it's really important though I don't
remember. I think Marco was sayingthis, I remember which one y'all said
it. But it's really important.Like it's all a mental thing, like
because when you feel that way andyou're putting all that pressure on yourself,
like you're generating all this stuff inyour head like oh this person knows this.

(01:03:38):
You're comparing you know, you thinkthat's when you can be your own
worst enemy, Like you say,in dealing with that impos yourself. You
compare yourself at your worst to otherpeople at that yeah. Yeah, yeah,
because you're always talking, you alwaystracking your failures and your shortcut,
right, You're always tracking how otherpeople right. It's like and you gotta

(01:04:00):
really pay attention to yourself doing itbecause it'll drive especially when you're like on
that quest for knowledge and you onall the knowledge. It's kind of like
that movie. Uh, I forgotwhat the name of it was. It
was a TV show, but thesecats had these powers and this one dude
had the power to like eat somebody'sbrain and take their power. And you
gotta do heroes was h. Yeah, you just ye worry about yourself,

(01:04:27):
like, don't compare yourself to nobodyelse, you know, I mean,
be the best version of you thatyou can be. And yeah, don't
don't look whatever, don't look whatsomebody else got going on. That's all
again again that that takes us backto that conversation we have the start about
the whole people losing the job.All you can do is yep, because

(01:04:50):
if not, you'll be You'll beup. You'll be up, stretched out.
Can't sleep, Yeah, I meanI've been there, not about not
this is not this time, butyou know I've been there. It's around
like two one two hours of sleepbecause I'm just stressed out, worrying about
stuff. We all been there inI t