Ever wondered how to navigate the tricky maze of internal politics when pushing for a solution in a professional setting? Why does the balance of knowing when to stand your ground and when to compromise matter so much, especially when you're aiming for a promotion or a raise? Join us as we unpack these questions with insightful discussions on managing security solutions and the often underplayed, critical role of internal politics in an organization. We dive into the importance of crafting an effective professional image, understanding team priorities, and the art of winning buy-in from other teams.
But that's not all. Brace yourselves as we switch gears to something immensely personal - your safety and security. Can jujitsu be more than just a martial art? Can it be a tool that boosts your confidence and lends a sense of security? We sure think so! And we're eager to share why. We also explore practical ways to stay prepared for unexpected scenarios like having to abandon your vehicle in a major city. Join us, as we draw connections between personal preparedness and our roles as security professionals, and impart some valuable tips to help you stay ready and resilient.
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Speaker 1: How's it going, everyone?
00:00:01
This is another security unfiltered mentorship episode,
00:00:07
so this week will probably be a bit shorter than the normal 30
00:00:11
minute episode that I shoot for.
00:00:13
You know, the reason being is that I typically base these
00:00:17
episodes off of, you know, different things that are coming
00:00:21
to mind, right, different things that are going on in the
00:00:24
world and whatnot, and trying to relate it back to his podcast,
00:00:31
and so we'll just talk about a couple of different things,
00:00:34
right, I won't give you very many specific details of this
00:00:40
upcoming you know situation or use case, right, that I've been
00:00:45
working through, but I will talk about the different techniques
00:00:48
and importance of it.
00:00:49
So what am I discussing right now?
00:00:53
So, I've talked about this before and I've talked about how
00:01:00
to sell a solution internally, how to actually identify a
00:01:05
solution that may be a fit for your organization and then
00:01:09
working it through the process and really trying to deliver
00:01:14
that product.
00:01:14
Well, you know what happens when you're actually in the
00:01:21
final stages of this, of this project, of this product, of
00:01:26
deciding you know which route to go.
00:01:28
There's a few things that you have to keep in mind.
00:01:34
You have to keep in mind the priorities of your team that is
00:01:41
coming up in the future, right In the near term future, the
00:01:44
first, the next one to two years .
00:01:46
You know what projects do you guys have slated.
00:01:49
Do you need buy in or agreement from these other teams that may
00:01:55
be opposing the solution that you want?
00:01:57
Do you need their buy in to be successful with those projects
00:02:01
that may be bigger than what you're delivering right now?
00:02:04
If so, then you may need to either find a way to convince
00:02:09
them or meet somewhere in the middle.
00:02:12
That's just plain and simple.
00:02:15
You know a situation that you need to navigate.
00:02:21
Another you know situation with it is really knowing how to
00:02:28
manage your own image internally within your company.
00:02:32
You don't want to be known as someone with an iron fist, right
00:02:36
.
00:02:36
You want to be known as someone that is, you know, cool,
00:02:41
tempered, even mannered, that is able to make you know non
00:02:46
biased decisions for whatever is best for the organization,
00:02:51
which is difficult in security, I think, because you know you
00:02:57
get to meet these vendors, you get to know the products very,
00:03:01
very well, and it just doesn't always go the way that you want
00:03:07
it to go, and so you can take that personally, but it's
00:03:13
important for you to remember that it's not personal.
00:03:16
You know that at the end of the day, it all fits into a bigger
00:03:23
system than what you're just playing within.
00:03:28
You know, and you have to be able to manage that image of
00:03:32
yourself and of your team within the organization.
00:03:35
This is one of the ways that you do it it's by giving a
00:03:39
little so you could take a little.
00:03:40
You know, typically you have to give before you take, and there
00:03:46
is no difference here.
00:03:47
When you are, you know, managing and trying to deliver a
00:03:52
solution within an organization, and along with that comes
00:03:56
managing your own political power.
00:03:58
You know there's there's different situations where,
00:04:04
where you may be in your career, where you can say, like you
00:04:09
know, hey, irrespective of what they're saying, if it's my
00:04:12
budget, I'm doing this right.
00:04:15
You can do that right If you're in the right position.
00:04:19
Or you know you could be saying , oh okay, I'm going to go a
00:04:24
little bit easier on this.
00:04:25
Maybe I'll choose a solution that they want to go with that
00:04:28
they prefer over the one that I want, because in six months I
00:04:33
have this other solution that's going to be four times the cost
00:04:36
of this one and I need their buy in for the solution that I know
00:04:40
is right and you know you're working at that angle, right.
00:04:45
I'm kind of talking about I don't want to call it internal
00:04:50
politics, but you're really you're managing the boundaries
00:04:56
of you pushing a technology or a solution internally, right,
00:05:02
because I think that it's very easy for us as security
00:05:05
professionals to kind of lose sight of the where the
00:05:10
boundaries are and not understand the damage that we
00:05:14
could be causing while we're fighting for that solution.
00:05:19
There's a time to fight and there's a time to meet in the
00:05:22
middle.
00:05:22
There's absolutely a time when you should be fighting for the
00:05:27
right technology.
00:05:28
You know, if you're, if you're, a multi billion dollar
00:05:32
organization is still relying on an ancient technology, like you
00:05:37
know, mcafee, for instance, right, and they're not going
00:05:41
with a more updated EDR solution .
00:05:46
That's a problem.
00:05:48
That's probably a fight that you want to take on right,
00:05:52
because it advances the security posture of the organization
00:05:55
overall.
00:05:55
It advances your own perception within the organization.
00:05:59
Even if you have to, you know, crack a few eggs to get the job
00:06:04
done, it still advances, you know, your own image within the
00:06:09
organization, which will buy you more.
00:06:11
You know political power and political capital down the line.
00:06:16
Now, why am I bringing all this up?
00:06:18
Because all this stuff matters.
00:06:20
You know all this matters when you're up for promotion or up
00:06:24
for a raise.
00:06:25
You know they're going to look back and see how you manage that
00:06:29
situation, because not every situation is very cut and dry,
00:06:32
not every situation is going to go the way that you want it to
00:06:35
go.
00:06:35
And how did you handle that?
00:06:37
When it didn't go your route, how did you handle it?
00:06:41
That's, that's a huge thing.
00:06:45
That, for sure the big tech companies you know, they they
00:06:50
ask you at during the interviews , for sure 100%.
00:06:53
So, knowing your boundaries when you're pushing a tool
00:07:00
internally, when you're pushing for a project, when you're
00:07:03
pushing for anything internally, know your boundaries, do not
00:07:07
cross them.
00:07:08
It's typically a better option to meet somewhere in the middle
00:07:14
with an opposing team or whatever might be.
00:07:17
You have to be able to hear other people out and go into
00:07:20
detail as to why they feel a certain way about a solution or
00:07:27
as to why you feel a certain way about a solution, and you have
00:07:32
to dive into those details.
00:07:33
The devil is in the details, right?
00:07:35
And if you don't go into those details, you're never going to
00:07:39
know where the issues may lie.
00:07:41
You're never going to know where the advantages of a
00:07:46
solution may lie, you really have to dive in.
00:07:48
So you know that's.
00:07:53
I guess that's the first part of this episode.
00:07:58
You know I'm not.
00:08:00
I'm not one to really bring up politics or anything like that.
00:08:06
I'm really not right.
00:08:10
But this week, you know, we we really saw some atrocities
00:08:18
taking place over in over in Israel, over in Gaza, between
00:08:25
two different groups.
00:08:26
Obviously, you know, everyone that's listening to this know
00:08:30
exactly what I'm talking about.
00:08:31
So why am I talking about on this podcast?
00:08:33
So you know, part of being a security professional is not
00:08:40
just that you're a security professional between the hours
00:08:43
of nine and five, you know.
00:08:45
When you're working your day job, monday through Friday,
00:08:47
you're no longer concerned with the security you know of your
00:08:51
own self or your family or your you know your own digital assets
00:08:57
, right, like that shouldn't be the case.
00:09:00
So if, if that is the case for you, then you probably should
00:09:05
find another profession, because security is not something that
00:09:09
you know you can just turn off, for for a lot of us, a lot of us
00:09:13
are always thinking down that security, that security path,
00:09:18
that security mindset.
00:09:18
And along with that comes, you know, being prepared, right?
00:09:25
I'm not talking about prepping, not talking about, you know,
00:09:30
preparedness or whatever might be right.
00:09:34
But me personally, you know, I feel as a man it is my duty to
00:09:42
be able to defend myself and be able to defend my family and be
00:09:47
able to provide for my family, right, and so I take certain
00:09:50
measures to be able to do that and ensure it up to a certain
00:09:55
extent.
00:09:55
Right, like, obviously there's limits.
00:09:56
You know I'm not going to be able to purchase an island, put
00:10:03
up, you know, an iron dome around the island and right,
00:10:05
like that.
00:10:06
That's unrealistic.
00:10:06
But what I could do is make sure that we have a little extra
00:10:12
water.
00:10:13
Right, I could make sure that we have a little extra food in
00:10:14
the house.
00:10:14
I could make sure that we, you know, have means of protecting
00:10:23
ourselves.
00:10:24
I could put up security cameras .
00:10:26
All those things are very reasonable and you know,
00:10:30
probably 99% of us do not live in a bad neighborhood where you
00:10:39
necessarily, you know, need to have a full blown security
00:10:43
system or whatnot.
00:10:44
Right, but you also don't want to be the softest target on your
00:10:51
block.
00:10:51
You know, when a criminal looks at your house, at wherever
00:10:57
you're living, they should see that house and be like it's not
00:11:01
really worth the effort.
00:11:02
I'm going to go next door.
00:11:04
You know like that's, that's what they should be thinking and
00:11:09
that's a deterrent factor.
00:11:10
You know, as a security person, as a CISP professional, you
00:11:15
learn about all these other, you know physical security features
00:11:20
and things that you can deploy and ways of deterrence and and
00:11:25
you know all of these other things that you should be
00:11:28
thinking about.
00:11:31
And in this crazy world, you know, like me, personally, I
00:11:38
feel like you know there's no telling what will happen.
00:11:41
There's no telling what will happen in the coming, in the
00:11:45
coming, you know couple of years even, right.
00:11:48
And you know, as, as professionals, I feel like we
00:11:53
should, you know, really be more prepared, we should be more
00:11:57
ready to, you know, handle things not just in the cyber
00:12:01
world, but in the physical world .
00:12:02
You know we should be ready to be able to provide for our
00:12:07
family, to be able to protect our family, protect ourselves.
00:12:10
You know, one of the ways that I do it is actually with jujitsu
00:12:17
, right, because and it's really multifaceted jujitsu it is very
00:12:26
difficult, it is very strenuous .
00:12:28
You cannot Not do.
00:12:30
You cannot do jujitsu and not be in shape.
00:12:34
You know, like you have to be in shape After you're doing
00:12:39
jujitsu for a couple weeks, like your body just gets in shape
00:12:44
and eventually it gets into pretty insane shape, which is
00:12:49
great because you know what, like you know, you can have all
00:12:53
these cool, you know Gear, loadouts and everything else
00:12:59
like that.
00:12:59
But if you aren't taking care of yourself at the end of the
00:13:02
day, if you aren't exercising, if you aren't staying in shape,
00:13:07
all that other stuff that you may have to, you know, do the
00:13:10
job for your family to be able to protect your family, and
00:13:13
whatnot, it's gonna mean nothing , right, it's gonna mean pretty
00:13:19
close to nothing, and so staying in shape is really critical.
00:13:25
And you know what I?
00:13:27
I do actually Listen to a lot of jacquo willing videos and
00:13:32
whatnot At least not recently, but I did before and he talks
00:13:38
about how jujitsu is like a superpower.
00:13:41
Right, it's the closest thing to a superpower that we can have
00:13:44
as humans, and I a hundred percent agree with him.
00:13:47
Not because he's a ex Navy seal and you know he's an expert in
00:13:53
this sort of thing and he's a you know black belt and jujitsu
00:13:56
and whatever else.
00:13:56
Not because of that, it's because I've literally trained
00:14:02
jujitsu.
00:14:02
I was a wrestler in high school , right, so I understand the
00:14:07
power of being extremely comfortable in a place where,
00:14:12
like 98, 99% of the population is very uncomfortable.
00:14:18
They really don't know what to do in those situations.
00:14:21
And For you to know what to do and for you to be able to stay
00:14:25
calm and control your breathing and Methodically work through
00:14:30
the different holds and movements and whatnot, that's a
00:14:34
huge benefit to you, it's a huge confidence booster.
00:14:38
You know, I have a good friend of mine that his his Son.
00:14:44
It was being bullied at school and he did jujitsu and I said
00:14:49
you know, why don't you, why don't you put him in jujitsu?
00:14:51
So he signed him up for the kids class and Slowly but surely
00:14:57
, he gained his confidence.
00:14:59
You know, not because he Knew how to like beat someone up
00:15:06
right, he gained his confidence because he knew for sure,
00:15:10
without a doubt, he could defend himself.
00:15:12
There's, there's power in knowing that you have the proper
00:15:18
training, the proper ability to be able to defend yourself.
00:15:22
You know there's something to that and I think that as a
00:15:26
society, you know, in a first world country where Typically
00:15:31
there's, you know, very low crime, there's not much to worry
00:15:35
about it.
00:15:36
What not we?
00:15:37
It's very easy for us to get very complacent, it's very easy
00:15:40
for us to forget that we live in a very Dynamic world where your
00:15:46
world can change in an instant without notice, without you
00:15:51
realizing that it's even happening, or anything like that
00:15:54
, and your whole world could change.
00:15:57
How well do you adjust to a situation like that?
00:16:01
You know, like that, that is my whole mentality.
00:16:05
You know it's not some Crazy like prepper mentality or
00:16:09
anything like that.
00:16:10
You know it's like hey, I just want to be able to reasonably
00:16:14
adjust to a situation to make it through, right, like I want to
00:16:19
come home at the end of the day.
00:16:19
I don't want it to be a question of me coming home at
00:16:23
the end of the day.
00:16:23
You know, like it's like no, you know I'm coming home, I'm
00:16:26
making it through whatever's going on.
00:16:29
And so that also means you know, if you have to commute to work
00:16:33
in a major city, you should be thinking about like hey, what if
00:16:40
, for some reason, I have to ditch my vehicle?
00:16:43
Right, how am I even getting home?
00:16:45
Like that's a good question, what would I need to sustain
00:16:50
myself in my vehicle?
00:16:52
You know, earlier on in my career I had to go up to
00:16:58
Wisconsin Almost like every weekend, right, and in the
00:17:02
winter in Wisconsin it gets pretty brutal right, and I had a
00:17:06
sedan at the time and you know it could get snowed in.
00:17:11
It never got stuck in the snow, but it could absolutely get
00:17:16
stuck in the snow.
00:17:16
You know it's a sedan at the end of the day it's a two-wheel
00:17:19
drive, so it could absolutely get stuck.
00:17:22
And you know I had some roadside supplies in case, you
00:17:31
know, my, my vehicle got snowed in or was immobilized in some
00:17:35
way and you know I couldn't keep it moving.
00:17:38
Right, you need something to keep yourself warm.
00:17:40
You need, probably need a little bit of food, some water.
00:17:44
You may need, you know, a cell phone battery, you know, so that
00:17:48
you could charge your cell phone and reach out to someone,
00:17:50
right?
00:17:50
Basic things, you know.
00:17:53
I'm not talking about, like, you know some insane stuff.
00:17:57
That is not what I'm talking about.
00:18:00
I'm just talking about you, you know, taking that security
00:18:03
mindset that we have in the workplace, right of kind of
00:18:07
being.
00:18:07
I Don't want to call it forever paranoid, but you're forever
00:18:14
Investigating things.
00:18:15
You're forever thinking through different situations and
00:18:18
planning for different situations and whatnot, like
00:18:21
what's a, what's a DR, bc or BCDR Planning, right, you're
00:18:26
thinking through the worst-case scenarios and how you're gonna
00:18:30
recover from it.
00:18:32
The reason why you do that is Because if you don't have that
00:18:36
plan in place and that worst-case scenario happens, you
00:18:40
will have no clue of what to do .
00:18:42
You won't know what to do, you're gonna fail.
00:18:44
It's probably gonna end up worse than what it should have
00:18:48
been.
00:18:48
But if you planned, and Even if you have to adjust course while
00:18:54
going through your plan, it's better than not having one for
00:18:58
sure, like that's guaranteed.
00:18:59
It's better than not having one .
00:19:01
So that's all that I'm saying.
00:19:03
You know, plan for the worst, hope for the best.
00:19:06
I think that's probably like the best analogy.
00:19:10
And me personally, you know, I feel as as a man that has a wife
00:19:15
and a kid.
00:19:16
You know it is my responsibility to plan
00:19:20
accordingly, no matter what situation I am in, and even when
00:19:24
I was single, right, I plan accordingly In accordance to
00:19:28
whatever situation I'm in, wherever I'm going.
00:19:31
You know Things like that.
00:19:34
I'm not oblivious to things around me, so you know a lot of
00:19:39
crazy things going on in this world.
00:19:40
I have no clue what the future holds, but you know I'm a little
00:19:45
bit more alert when I go To the store, right, I'm a little bit
00:19:49
more alert when I go to the major city by me.
00:19:52
You know, like those sort of things, and you should be too,
00:19:56
and it's for your own safety.
00:19:58
You know, it's not.
00:19:59
It's not for you to be Rambo or , or Batman or anything like
00:20:04
that.
00:20:04
It's like, nah, it's for you to just pay attention to what's
00:20:09
going on.
00:20:09
So you know, with that, guys, it's really about taking that
00:20:14
cybersecurity mentality Out of the office and applying it to
00:20:19
your life.
00:20:19
You probably already do it in some other ways.
00:20:22
I just wanted to point it out because of all the craziness
00:20:25
that's going on in the world.
00:20:26
So, with that, I don't want to keep on rambling, so I'll cut
00:20:31
the episode short Until next time, guys, which will be next
00:20:36
week, of course.
00:20:36
I hope you enjoyed this episode , see ya.