Ep. 11: BLK Men In Tech Conference & Community Helping Hundreds Of Black Men Break Into Tech!

Join us for an engaging and lively conversation with Kham Ward, the founder and CEO of Black Men in Tech, Incorporated, and the Thrive Conference. In this episode, we explore the importance of diversity, inclusion, and networking in the tech industry, with valuable insights from Kham's journey and mission.

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Transcript

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So take your notes, stay tuned, and soak up this big tech energy. Hey, what's up, everybody? This is Jarrett Albritton and the Big Tech Energy podcast, where we highlight black excellence in tech. And we have them drop the gems on how they broke in, how they succeed, and also the mindset that got them to the bag. And today I got Cam Ward in the building. Founder of Black Men in Tech. And I'm not to steal his thunder, I'm going to let him introduce himself. Welcome to the show, brother. What's up? What's up, man? Hey, yo. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you. I'm Cam Ward. I'm the founder and CEO of Black Men In Tech, a nonprofit geared towards helping individuals that's in the tech space have accessibility and inclusion through the black men voice. So I'm really excited to be here. I'm excited to have you, man. I'm excited about what you're doing and your whole movement and for people to get to know you, you know what I'm saying? The person behind the organization. So before we get into Black Men In Tech and all the amazing stuff that you're doing, we'd love to hear more about your break into Tech and what that looked like and your career overall. Honestly, man, that's a pretty wild story. I'll tell you. I actually fell into Tech by accident, had no real clue about the word, like, the industry of tech, right? Yeah. So I was in higher education. I was at a school as a diversity director of a school, over 10,000 students. So I was like, a pseudo chief diversity officer before we had one at the campus. So I worked with the faculty, worked with the staff, work with students all around diversity, and I ran the culture center. So in that there was a lot of companies or a lot of headhunters reaching out to me saying, hey, Cam, you maybe should be a chief diversity officer. But the knock on me was that in the feedback I got, that I didn't have a terminal know, to sit in higher education and sit on the president's cabinet, you need a PhD that solidifies you as an individual and put that stamp on you. So I committed to the degree. I went. I left my full time job. I was a ga. I worked as a FedEx overnight packer on the plane, worked at Ups, worked at another university as a consultant, because I'm like, you leave a whole job for no job, you got to fill in the gap. So I worked like, five jobs, and I was a grad student, so I was committed to getting a degree and then one of my managers one night at FedEx. So lesson number one, you never know where that inspiration is going to come from. So always take every opportunity. My manager overnight packing planes, one of the best jobs I ever had because it was thankless, but he sat me down one evening. It was like three in the morning. He goes, Cam, why are you here? And I go, what do you mean? He goes, you're probably the smartest person in this building. Nobody got double degrees in this building. You got a master's degree. Why are you working at FedEx? And I told him the situation with me trying to get in diversity, blah, blah, blah. He was like, you ever thought about doing diversity on the corporate side? Light bulb. I said what? He was, you know, we got a diversity team. He introduced me to the diversity team. Two weeks later, I was interviewing that Indeed for my first tech role. And it was really cool because for me, I had no clue about the process. All I knew was higher education. And when I met that manager and he opened the door and gave me that lift to be able to say, I can do this, I decided to do it. Now, I'm a diversity officer in the tech space for quite a few years now, and it's been really rewarding. That's dope, man, that's dope. The thing I take away from that is, one, you have a hustle. You got to man, you got to have a hustle. A lot of these tech influencers be talking about, no, you don't need to hustle, you can just get in and just put your feet up. No, you got to grind. Because here's the deal. If you don't grind in life, there, we'll always be behind the eight ball. Not saying that you got to work twice as hard. Some people believe that. I get why they believe that, that sort of thing. But for me, it's about, how can I always stay two steps ahead? I'm not trying to keep up. I'm trying to be ahead of you. And if I'm ahead of you, that means I'm working now, I'm working twice as hard because I got a goal in mind. You feel me? When you work in a system that's not really set up for your success, how can you work within that system to get you where you need to go? And that's through grinding and working harder because you want to be two steps ahead, harder because you want to go to that next level, because it's innating you. It's not because of someone else's situation, it's because of you want it. And that's why you got to grind, man. It's the same hustle, man. It's just different lens. Yeah. So you got into indeed. Tell me about your career once you got into Indeed up to the present state. Yeah, so I hopped in and Indeed love Indeed thought it was Indeed of the world, the world of Indeed, but it was in Austin, Texas. I was far away from family, from friends, that sort of thing. It was an opportunity that came up to move back home. So home is Fort Lauderdale for me, so I came back home I worked that job for a while. They went through transition with being acquired. So at that point, I decided to branch out on my own until I found LiveRamp, which was my role, where I was the diversity officer, senior diversity officer was a director, hung out with the C suite, helped help move them forward. But then I thought about, you know what? I want to branch out on my own. At this point, black men in tech was really doing well. Opportunity for me to take a risk, right. So black man, especially this black man, I don't like taking risks. I like knowing when the check going to come. I like knowing I can do what's necessary, and I have that cushion. So this right here is a risk that I'm willing to take better myself and really go into this full time as a founding CEO. Got you. All right, so let's talk about black men in tech. Yeah. So what was the motivation? I have a good idea of the motivation based off of talking to you and being around you, but what was the motivation? And then what did this journey look like? Man, I will tell you immediately from my seat, right? I'm not talking about nobody else seat, man. This stuff is one of the hardest things I ever did in life, all right? And I'm talking about I sit in the spaces where I'm sitting with the C suite, trying to help them with their own diversity journey. And this, by far is the hardest thing, but it's the most rewarding thing I ever do in life. I started my journey for Black Men Attack because I got tired of trying to explain myself to people and then not put them on guard about who I am because I'm a black man. I'm a black man. I got a ball head. I play sports. I'm big. And I used to still do. Probably scare people when I walk in the rooms. And it's crazy that my mere presence scare you. You fear me because I don't look like a package like you used started I started the organization based on that, man. I was in a room with some people, and they asked me, well, Cam, why aren't they more like you? And that really threw me off. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm explaining myself again. Like, you got to walk around with your resume on your forehead so that people are not afraid to speak to you. I say this all the time about black men smile. We ain't that damn happy, but we always walk around with a smile on our face. So that to help you understand I'm friendly. I'm okay. Right. I got tired of doing that, so I had to find a community of my brothers, my people. We started with eight people. I called them randomly, organically and just start asking questions like, hey, is it me? Is it you? Is it us. Everybody was like, Nah, bro, it's all of us. It's all of us. We started that call two and a half years ago with eight people. Now we got over 11,000 people. That somewhere in the community because it was a need not taken away from anybody platform. Just elevating and carving out a name for black men. And our voice, like, people ask me all the time, hey, is it just for black men? No, it's for everyone. But you understand you're going to get a black male perspective from what we do. And that's important to me. No, that's dope, man. That's dope. So when it comes to, I guess, why you personally feel black men should be in Tech, what would you say to the black men, black women, black boys and girls listening? Listen, I would say immediately there's a space for all black people to be in the Tech space because if we're not, we're going to be left behind. My simple example is this one. When you go to a soap dispenser and you realize that it don't recognize your hand, right? Because the AI and the systems in there don't understand darker color, hue of individual skin, it's not the fault of the company. It's the fault of the people in the room. And if you're not in the room, then you won't be counted. So something as simple as getting soap out of the bathroom is a miss. If we don't have black people as it pertain to black men, black men, it's important to be in the Tech space because, man, we got to lead our families, our generation, we got to lead our people and lead it in a way that's consistent. One of the ways to stay consistent is through money. Tech is a lot of money in Tech. It's a lot of people using Tech in the space to really level up their life. So for a black man in the Tech space, even though we still men, so we do have some privilege. It's a lane. I feel as though that black men are left out in the Tech space because of that privilege of being a man. Like, you got to walk in your privilege, too. Now we can walk in the room as a man, and then we got to support our black women as well, because they don't have that voice that they seen as all the negative things that said about them. And we must support them as well. And we must carve a lane out for us to have a voice because being a black man, sometimes that emotional attacks jump on us, too. So it's not a competition. It's not one over the other who got it the worst. It's more. So how do we lift all of us up at the same time? Because we're all in a space where we can be left out at any given time. No. 100%. Yeah. Now that's the motivation for this podcast. That's been the motivation for the rooms. I used to do on Clubhouse. I still do them a little bit. Clubhouse and Twitter spaces is give people access, inspiration and resources with black men in tech. How are you doing that? Yeah. So we got three pillars that we work in convening. We do conferences, we do meetups, we do zoom. Actually, we just did a really dope meetup. I just wanted to shout out to one of our partnership that Birmingham, Alabama, headquarters CEO by black man Kamal Wetherspoons. Mayor is a black dude. Mayor Woodfin. And we just came from there a week ago. And it was absolutely amazing because for the first time in my life, I was on the stage with a black CEO of a major corporation and a black mayor of a city. Right. And I was able to talk to those fellows about what it is to be authentic leaders. They're both morehouse grass, so they came with a different perspective, which was dope. But I took 40 fellows up there and we had an amazing time. Ten of them applied to jobs. Ain't never been in Birmingham a day in their life, but applied to job. Two of our students that came up there with us got internships or will be interns in the fall, I think, for this organization. But for me, that's the type of connection we need to have with companies and partnerships to be able to be successful. Right. It's about the collective, like us joining. You got something cool. I got something cool. How can we collab to make it even cooler? The best thing ever. And that's the type of stuff we do. So we convene people through mechanism, like that unconventional mechanism. Take them to cities and be great. We connect people to jobs. Past two years, 155 people have gotten jobs through black menatech. Sourced and hired. That's cool. I'm able to text recruiters and say, hey, here go a resume. Do you have a job opening? And they're getting rounds of interviews. And we're talking to everybody from entry level all the way to senior leaders. We even had someone dabble with the board of Director position for Fortune 500 company from being a part of our conference. Right. And the last thing we care about our community. I'm a firm believer to whom much is given, much is required. Which means for me that we got to take care of our students, we got to take care of teachers, we got to take care of our school system. We got to take care of our college students with a book stipend. I know I didn't buy my books in undergrad, and that's probably the single most important thing you should be doing. We used to borrow books, so make sure our students so we can level the playing field. So we do those things through the mechanisms because we feel like it's the most important thing we can do to help in making sure we make the next generation of tech leaders very successful. Nice. I love that. When it comes to the conference, you mentioned that real quickly. How long you been doing it, what's it been like, and what are you excited about for the future? One check it real talk. I started the organization in November of 2020. Our first conference was June 1021. It was really wild, right? I know. I wanted to convene black men to a space where we could have a good time, have fun, and not be buttoned up. Right. I had no clue what it was, actually. I was talking to my good friends about it in the early stage. They told me it was like, yeah, Ken, that sounds great. Probably for like, two years from now. And I'm like, no, I want to do it this upcoming year. But our conference has been amazing. It's been like the anchor of our entire year every year, and it's called the Thrive Conference. So this year is October 19 through the 22nd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the Western fort Lauderdale beach. 30 steps on the beach, beautiful location. Past years we had first year I gave it away virtually all free. Was in the middle of the pandemic. I can't ask nobody to pay for something when you're looking for a job. So we did totally for free. We had two chains tristan Walker, Isaac Hayes II, a bunch of people that just leaned in on the strength, like, hey, I feel what you're trying to do. Let me help you out. I can help you with my time and energy. Right. Second year was our first year in person at the Western. Again. Last year we had Rick Ross, Lee Merritt, Jeff Johnson, Kamalwu, Janine Nuzel from Nesbi. A bunch of people. Like people from Microsoft. People, cybersecurity people, everyone. Podcasts came out. Black wealth, renaissance, shout out to the like. Everybody leaned in again for the culture, had amazing time. Right. I'm really excited because we got some really cool things coming up. But the thought process is that no matter if you're a man woman, no matter your gender, no matter your race, come out and come be a part and be the change you want to see. And that means to me, just show up. You never know what happened. When you show up, every space is for you. Absolutely. And one of the key things, like when you found out about corporate, it was through a conversation. Exactly. And when you show up, these conferences, you're having conversations on steroids. Talk about the importance of networking when it comes to tech and be able to get into doors that might be closed for you. Exactly. To that point. Like you said, you never know what conversation will have. And we dress down, we hang out, I promise you. Don't come in a suit unless you're really comfortable in a suit. And bring your flyers kicks, because we got a Kit Cam that every day we putting on the shoes or whatever. And I had a couple of people laugh that didn't get on the Kit Cam last year because their shoes wasn't fresh. And then they like now they're like, Kim, I've seen them at some more conferences already this year. They're like, hey, Kim, I'm getting on the Kit Cam this year. But it's fun ways, right? To have fun, be people, feel relaxed. You're talking to CEOs, talking to VPs, you could talk to anybody and never know where they lead. Yeah. And I love relaxed environments like that. Especially with us, because we can vibe, have a good time, but we all know we're here for the same reason. Exactly. So when you're in the club or some random spots, people be kind of, like, feeling each other out and qualifying each other. Who is this guy? Who is this woman? But when you're at a black men in Tech event or Afro tech or render or whatever, all hang out. We can hang out and vibe, but we also know, like, we're trying to be upwardly mobile, so how can I help the man next to me? And then vice versa, right? And that's the beautiful part about what you just said. It's a low barrier to entry. You never know who you're talking to. Right. So you could beat somebody and say, oh, okay, cool. Grab your LinkedIn and go on LinkedIn. Oh, shoot. They actually but you'll never know it because they dress down, they got on their kicks, and they just hanging out. You know what I'm saying? And that's a different vibe. So I love the organic vibe of yeah, yeah. And networking up is like, you like, they're not coming in with this big head. Like, I am the big boss at HP. Like, Nah, I'm a black man or black woman in tech, and I'm just excited to be around my brothers. Exactly. The best comment I got last year was, like, Cam, I never seen so many black men smiling, and it's not a sporting event. And that took me first of all, I was like, what? What's wrong with you? And then I thought about, that sounds kind of funny at first. And I thought about, like, that's a pretty interesting comment, right? And I was like, Person absolutely mean it with the greatest intent. And once I took a step back to actually hear it, I was like, that makes sense. I get it. I'm glad you can be exposed to something like this. That's important. Yeah. And I know you don't have any problem probably getting sponsors, but any sponsors listening to this, I highly recommend you get in front of this crowd. Yeah, you should get in front of this crowd. This is a definitely solid crowd if you do have a genuine interest in diversity and building up black men and black women in tech. Because you mentioned before black women do show up to the event and they're welcome, right? A third of the people that showed up to any of our events are women and absolutely love that because, one, they see the need to support. Like we need everybody, just like everybody need us. I'll tell you this, we don't have the luxury as black people not to be involved with everything black related. And I'll say that for me, and I'll say it again, because we don't have the luxury. Some people can pick and choose and you can if you want, but if you really bought the upward mobility and the motion of the entire culture, you take on those extra responsibilities even though they're not necessarily required to or you require to, you feel as though it's important. That's why I love my black women. I love people that's non black that come and support because they understand the movement and the need for us to do it together. And only together are we going to make that true movement happen. Yeah, it's funny. All my non black friends are like, man, why are you making your podcast, like, exclusively about black people in Tech? You're limiting your audience. I was like, Because there's nothing that's really like this out there. Like, shout out to Cyrus, tech is the new black and a couple of other dope people doing black Tech content. But I was like, man, I want to make sure that people can see the people. I want to highlight thank you. That I see at all these events, that I see doing amazing things, building community. And if I can help them build a community, why not then? Especially for the kids. So that segues me to the next thing. Does black men in Tech do any programs for black boys? Yes. I want to go back to your point right there, making an exclusive black content, right? It's actually inclusive for the black community because so many pieces that we are left out of spaces or people love our culture but don't love us. You know what I'm saying? So they'll be like, yeah, I want to have this. So I love what you, Cyrus, a couple other black wealth, Renaissance, Tayon, Tech, all of them. I love what y'all doing. There's so many others, right? There's tons of them, right? I'll make sure they'll be on my show because I want people to know about them. Cousin recruiter. All of them. Love them because they're highlighting black people for the goodness in what we offer. And that's what sometimes is missed when you try to try to have everybody come to the meet, right? Sometimes you miss that gym or that special person because of that. So shout out to you for doing that, man, and sticking to your guns. Membership in black and HR means community and being a part of a culture of like minded individuals. You have a culture within a culture, especially in the black community. And black and HR is that professional culture. We have fun, we laugh and joke about things that are related to us in the workplace. But we also have serious aspects as well, where we help each other grow. And it's just one of those places where I can go to any time of the day, pose a question, and I'm going to get all type of answers, but I'm going to get support. And we all work together to give advice, to give insights, to share tips. The networking is amazing. The people that I've spoken to have allowed me to learn things about myself that I didn't know. So what does that do? When I go to my next interview, I have that confidence when I walk in to be able to explain and speak on what I've done in the past and prove that I am the person for the job. But we do stuff for kids, right? Back to your question. We do stuff for kids all the time. Actually, on Thursday, if you're still here, you got an open invite. I'm opening invite you on your podcast. We're actually going to read to a school in South Florida. It's called Real Man Read and we sponsored it along with CSC, one of the larger nonprofit organizations here in South Florida. And we're going to read to some third graders. So you imagine 20 black dudes walk in ready to sit down and read you a book. Just the perception of those things. We also do give backs at school time. I just gave out scholarship to some graduating seniors that's in the arts, that's going to study computer science. This past weekend. We do a full scholarship offering. We help out in a way of going to the YMCAs. What is it called? Boys and Girls Club. Slip my mind. Boys and Girls Club. Just to show up, right? So half the battle for us is representation. That's half the battle. Representation. Because you don't see people that look like you're doing the stuff that you're doing well. How can you ever know there's an opportunity to do it? We see that in sports, we see that in music, we see that in other spaces. But why not tech? Tech should be an option for our students and everybody isn't technical that's in tech. Like, I work in tech and I'm a diversity officer. So I need them to know, hey, you can be a diversity officer, make good money to take care of your family, but also go to school for something very different. So we try to be that different visibility for our students and that's what we work on. Big proponent of that because I'm a product of someone reaching back and saying, you know what, I'm going to help this twelveTH grader figure out his life. You know what I'm saying? If it wasn't for the Capital League in my twelveTH grade year, I wouldn't probably sit here talking to you now. So I'm always about that, you know what I'm saying? Because that helped me so much. No, 100%. Yeah. That's the fastest way for us to not be unicorns. Right, exactly. To make sure we're sharing the resource and not being gatekeepers. And that's what I love about events like yours. There's no gatekeeping. Gates are wide ass open. Who wants to come in? Right? Let's figure it out together. How can I help? And I'm glad you brought up the fact that there's non tech roles in tech. Yes, because I was in tech sales easy. And I was in tech sales since 2006. Very lucrative. Big bags. Big bags, man. Big bags. And I would always tell people like, yeah, I'm in tech sales. They'd be like, oh, you sell laptops at Best Buy? I'm like, no, I don't work at the geek squad, man. I sell enterprise software solutions for sea level executives at Fortune 500. Right. And still there would be, like, a glaze over their eyes. I don't have no clue what you're talking about. And I remember back in the day, 2006, et cetera, when I say I was in tech, the women weren't feeling it, you know what I'm saying? People were just like, okay. But now I love the fact that tech in the black community is starting to become more, like, popular. It's becoming more of a status thing. It doesn't need to be all clout chasey or nothing like that. But at the end of the day, we should highlight the lifestyles we're able to get, but we also should be honest about what it takes. But just because you got a bag don't mean you're not doing work while you're working hard. And I think that's the misstep that we're doing right now and setting people up for success. Like, yeah, you can make X amount of dollars, you can make six figures, you can make blah, blah, blah. But you're going to work for it, too. It's not easy. And while we glamorize it, I think it's great that we shine a light, like you said, podcasts and talks like this. Let them know Israel working there, too. You got the Hustle, you got the grind. Because if you don't, you can be out of there pretty. Yep. Three months, you're on the Pip. Six months, you're right? Yeah, man, go ahead. No, so I was just saying the Hustle piece of that is important as well. Yeah. Especially in the climate, with the layoffs that are going on, you got to make sure that you are a value to your company, and you need to make sure you're documenting your value internally for yourself and then make sure that you share that value that you're bringing to the company with your management, et cetera. So that's like, one of my biggest pieces of advice, is always be results driven, metrics driven, but also remember how you're making people feel with your responsiveness, with your accountability, reliability. Et cetera, because when these layoffs happen, these people are going to get hired somewhere else. And when they get hired somewhere else, they're going to be like, who's a good diversity officer we should mess with? You should mess with Cam or Sales, you should mess with Jared, et cetera. So talk about like, and I'm going to keep it very broad so that you can just make it your own. For the people that join black men in tech and ask like, hey, Cam, what are ways for me to get in? What kind of advice or resources do you typically point them to? Easy. So we got a couple coaches that we get the new fellows that come into the and women's women reached out as well, which I love, that don't think we not for you either. So I give them immediately. I set them up with a coach, right? We have a couple of coaches that work with us, and they all in the as black men and Tech been there from the beginning. That's why I absolutely love because, again, there's no competition in the space. It's more so how can we work collaboratively? So what we do is we do a career development piece to help people break in. Let's look at your resume first, let you talk to one of the coaches and see what they can work out and how they can help you succeed. Then we talk about, well, what have you done already? Meaning what prepared you to go into tech? Most people try to get in on the cyberspace. Most people cybersecurity. Most people try to get in on tech sales. And what I tell individuals immediately, use your transferable skills, all right? Everything you do in life, you can bring to tech. If you in HR, if you in sales, if you in product, if you selling stuff at Best Buy, that's product management, like that's product marketing, use that skill set, change it up and get into the tech space. Third thing we do is actually set them up with recruiters to walk through their resume, which is key and important because our partners are so willing to help that they're willing to give up their free time to help someone go through a resume to say, okay, you want a Texas sale job at X Company? This is what you should consider. Right? So how many times do you have a recruiter not trying to recruit you, but trying to help you? And that's the thing I love about our partnerships. People really get it. And people really want to do unconventional things to get new people into tech. So they're willing to do that work because of that. Now you have someone that's uber prepared to be able to go to an interview because now they have help from like, three or four different people before they even see apply to a job. So I think it's just the way it looks different and plus, we also opened up a cyber lab that's going to be running this summer with Ted Lucas at Fortimamore University that's going to do resume optimization, LinkedIn optimization, and also cohorts of students that's going to be able to do certifications. Again, another avenue. We can't keep doing the same thing, expecting different results. That's why we, as black men in tech, we look at it from a different angle. Like, what can we do outside the box to ensure we solve problems to help people move into the tech space? Yes. Now, the totally is dope, man. Is there a cost to these services? No, they're free. Okay. I do all the hard work going to get the money. That's why I need more sponsors. Yeah, because I feel like the barrier entry has to be low for people to succeed. Now, eventually we're going to come out with a subscription membership model because people have been asking for us. But if I had probably shouldn't say this a lot, but if I had all the bankroll to do it, I'll do it myself and make it free to everyone, because everything else costs. I understand monetizing stuff. I understand your worth and that sort of thing. But the target people that I'm going out there, either you got money already because you in tech and you're looking for a home for people, for yourself, or you're looking to break into tech and you ain't got no money, so you're trying to get into tech. So because those are clear lines, the people that got money don't mind buying a ticket to the conference, don't mind being making their self available. And the people that's trying to get into tech, you can't afford it half the time. So how do I create a low barrier to entry? I just let everybody come organically and we get the work done. Got you. So how are you able to deal with the demand? Because I know your DMs are crazy. Like, my DMs are insane with people. Like, I'm trying to break in. I'm trying to break in. And free resources can get you there, but it can take you longer. And so that's one thing. Stuff does cost, but you have to understand or at least do research onto what is the ROI. You know what I'm saying? So for people that refuse to invest in themselves, what would you say to that? Yeah, so here's my thought process. Like, you know, and everybody come on your show. There's a lot of work. All right? There's a lot of work, but the reward is in the people. You have to bring something to the table for me, I just told you, like, my utopia. Like, if I had all the money in the world, this is what not even all the money. If I could just afford it for everybody, I would. But again, you got to bring something to the table as an individual. Like, you got to be willing to do well. You got to be willing to hustle and grind to get it done. If you're not willing to hustle and grind, then within the first week when we put you on these schedules to say, do this, do this, do this, if you fall off and give me a bunch of excuses, then how can I help you? Right? And I'm a person that's going to give people many a chance and opportunity to do the right thing and get it right. But at some point you got to say, you know what? You're not committed like you think you are, right? Because it's a lot of work to get done. But if the work is there, if you're willing to do it, we just need to be able to do it together. So for me, it's a fine line and a balance to it, right? Because you're right. DMs going crazy and I love it because people are interested in black Men attack and then Travel schedule. We just released some research a week ago and it's starting to pick up on the state of the black man in partnership with Work Human and Rice University. So if I'm out there trying to get the funding source or whatever, all I ask for the people to do is meet me halfway. So when you are ready to break into tech, you're really ready to do the work. Yeah, and I just wanted to emphasize that because usually when people pay, they pay attention. Yeah. When they get it free, they kind of take it for granted. Right, I agree. But you do have those couple of people that really grab onto it and then pay it back, pay it forward. Like, I have people that come through and they got free resources from us and it's fine, but then they come back and they pay for somebody else, right, because they said, this does so much for me, I'm going to bring my homeboy who need to do this and that as well. But I agree with you, man. Well, people pay, they pay attention. But also me personally believe because I know I came from no money, I know what it's like to really want to do something and money be the bear. I struggle too, man. If I charge every person that asks for advice with tech, right, I would be so rich. But my conscious is like abundance. Come on. Gratitude for what I've been able to experience. So, yeah, through my spaces, we got like hundreds of people into tech with no cost to them or the recruiters. And part of me is like, dang, you all billion dollar companies should be paying me. But I want to make it easy for them to show up and hire us. And as long as they're hiring us, I'm cool with it. The boot camp I partner with is course careers, okay? I chose them because I don't want to partner with somebody that charges thousands of dollars, you know what I'm saying? And my partnership, you get a discount like $50. Nice. But ultimately what I like about them and programs like them is that they're incentive to get you hired because the hiring companies pay them when you get landed. Somebody got to pay somewhere. Yeah. So instead of taking thousands of dollars from you, they supplement it from the companies and they get you in front of interviews. And that's why they're motivated to really get you trained up, get your resume, your LinkedIn, they get paid on the back and it makes them look good because the companies that are paying them are like, you're bringing us amazing talent. So I'll put the little thing at the bottom. But if you can't get into black men talk in tech, then definitely come. I love that because you're right, somebody do. But when you get to people, man, like I said, some I struggle with it as well. Just making sure we're all thanks to everyone. Someone asked me the other day, like, hey, you do a lot with black meditech? I said, I can't afford not to. We have a responsibility to the space to make sure that we're seen and highlighted in a way that makes sense. And to me, it makes sense through working those three pillars, you know what I mean? Having the grip mentality. We want to grow the community. We want to stay relatable. We want to inspire. We want people to thrive. The grip mentality for us is what we really focus on. So yeah, man, all the things yeah, bro. So when it comes to keeping the job and being successful in tech, because that's my biggest thing, I want to get as many black people into tech. But what good is it if you're gone in six months to a year and you're struggling to get back in? And that's why I call it big tech Energy. Obviously, it's a play on words, but it's about energy. It's about mindset. It's about how do you solve problems, how you deal with adversity, how do you add value to other people, how do you show up with relationships. And these are all things that have been key to my career. And so what are some of the things that have been key to you in terms of being marketable successful, et cetera, in tech? And also as an entrepreneur? Because a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this as well. Yeah. No, immediately I say to individuals that are trying to stay in the tech, find your community. That's the only way you're going to stay in tech. When you think about if you go at it alone, you think you're the only one and you're not going to lean on anyone to help you, help you with whatever your situation is. Give you a perfect example. Just yesterday, I was talking to two directors of a company that felt like they got skipped over for promotion. Probably did. But through our conversation I explained to them the calibration process and because they understood the calibration process, now they understand the systems in which when someone says, I am fighting for you to get your next role, it's not just on your hiring manager or your direct managers, on the managers four and five levels up, right? So I think the immediate win is just going ahead and connecting with a community that'll help you stay in tech, your community and finding them because they're going to be those trusted advisors to give you advice and let you know you're not the only one help you navigate the waters because that's what we do in tech. And I'm speaking as almost like all of us because at some level you're navigating the tech scene in order to stay there, right? It's not a clear cut role. It's not being 27 years old, working as a CSM and making $200,000 and you know, you got a clear path. Sometimes we got to work through it. So work through it together, right? I think for entrepreneurs, including myself, which I'm still learning, y'all, I'm a work in progress. So don't judge me, judge yourself. It's about standing on the ground and stand on top of things. The best advice I've gotten this year, last year for this year, is being able to be vulnerable in spaces. Rick Ross told me in a conversation, he said, you have to be able to say, I need you, I need your help. I need people I know me as an entrepreneur myself, it's like this is my baby. Nobody love it like I do. And if you want to take that next step from growth to scaling, you need more people to help and you have to be able to trust. So for me this year, to make it marketable, stay on the grind, stay on the hustle, but for me, it's about being able to be vulnerable enough with a small team of people to say, I need your help. I can't do it all. Because as I'm trying to do it all, I'm dropping some of the balls. You know what I mean? So there's some I'm learning and some I'm really working towards for this year, being able to grow and then scale. Because you're right, we're super busy. We run around the country, we're doing all this stuff and we're thankful for those things, but we can't let none of it fail. Sometimes it fails because we try to hold all the cards. So to any entrepreneur listening that's in that stage, whether they trying to figure out what's the next step be, okay, being vulnerable, you know what I'm saying? It's my uncomfortable spot. It might be yours, but we'll grow together. Absolutely. So I'm going to give some takeaways from this conversation, right? And hopefully the listeners take this away as well. Your success has been fueled by passion that's bigger than yourself, but it's bigger than your money, your status. It's about helping other people and bringing value. How important is that? For one, your ability to get through the adversity of putting together these big conferences where things will always go wrong. You always got to put out fires and figure it out to make it work. So right. The importance of passion and the importance of leading with value for others, like obviously diversity officer, there was a passion and a value there as well, because I say that to say this real quick, everybody wants to get into tech. That's cool, I love that. But what is your why that is going to make this role that you get into become a 1015 year career? And what is the impact you're going to have on your teammates, your management, your customers, or your community because of that role? If you have something really solid like that, you're going to have a really successful career and people are going to gravitate you. Takers are going to gravitate to you, but givers will gravitate to you as well. Having discernment of who's who, that's something that comes with time. But ultimately, if you have a passion that's bigger than money and bigger than status, et cetera, you'll have success. So I just love for you to kind of talk about your thoughts on that. Yeah. So really quickly, I would say passion is an emotion that we all have and you need it. But purpose is what's going to get you through in the toughest times. I said this the other day. You have to be able to find your purpose in life and your purpose is going to drive you to whatever is next. Like on nights where I worked five jobs, on nights where it gets rough, like your purpose, why you're doing it, is more important than what you're doing, right? So focus on the why and the purpose and the passion will come with it. And I would say this, some people might not agree, like your purpose should make you money. Your purpose should make you money. All right? So what that means to me is like you drive with your purpose and it will make room for your gifts. It would happen for you the way it should. If you chase money, you're going to be always chasing money and chasing a dollar. But if you know you have an end game and purpose in life, please follow that and please find that. Because on the toughest days and I'm sure you could attest to on the toughest days, it's our purpose that get us to the next day to answer that next email to open that DM to help that individual when you don't got burned by two individuals trying to help them get into tech, right? That purpose is your fire, right? So you always want to be focused on that North Star and your purpose and your purpose will get you there. Your passion will keep you filled up. But your passion sometimes go low when somebody do something burn you or your best friend do this or that something happened and you post to get this done, they don't. That happens, but that's passion. But if you know that there's a

purpose, it's going to keep you up to two or 03: 41:42

00 in the morning, keep working, keep hustling, keep grinding, because you know that it's a bigger purpose for you than just saying, oh, I want to be on a podcast, or I want to be on the stage. It's like, no, I want to help that brother, that sister that's trying to get in tech, or I want to make sure that CEO, that black CEO feels supported. And that's a purpose driven life. So if you find your purpose, everything else will fall right in place. Yeah. And that's what I love about black men in tech, because it's going to help a lot of people find their purpose. Yes. Through conversations, hopefully. Man, you already done it. You're doing it, appreciate it. And yeah, we need more of it. So to everybody that's listening, make sure that you tap in with black men in tech. Check out the conference that's going to be happening later this year. Definitely going to have you talk about all those details. But when it comes to your final thoughts that you want to get off to the audience, what is it that you want to tell them in terms of letting them know that they can get whatever they want in this world? Yeah. So I would say immediately to individuals that's listening to the podcast, stay tapped in, all right? Never tap out. Because when you tap out, that means you're done. If you're tapping in and you stay tapped into whatever you got going on, whatever is happening in life, find that purpose and bring it to the tech space. We got so much room over here and there's so much money to be made. Literally, people are changing their generational wealth based on their job currently in the tech space. So the money is here, the people are here, but you have to find a way to maneuver and navigate the space. So I would say tap in to whatever resources you have or community or network or just listen to these podcasts. Reach out to the people that you see LinkedIn, DM and whatever. Get more knowledge. It's a hustle to everything. That same hustle that you had when you wanted that X, whatever that X is Jays, that new purse that wanted to go on that trip, well, that same energy, that same energy, bring it to the tech space. Bring that hunger and that vigor, because you are needed. You are wanted. And we can only succeed with you in the tech space. So next generation of tech leaders listening to me, you all come to tech. The people that's in tech stay motivated, stay positive, find your people, and let's do this together 100%. And so my addition to that is basically when he says your purpose will make you money or it should make you money, your purpose is going to show up in your interviews and it's going to permeate your confidence, your conviction, and also your intentionality. Because if you have a purpose, you're going to be more intentional with the actual preparation. So if you do have purpose and you're intentional, take advantage of the black men in tech resources. If you're not, leave them for the person. That you know what I'm saying? Big fact. So that's that. And then being at these events, I cannot emphasize it enough how much you're going to expedite in terms of time, energy, et cetera, because you're going to DM these people on LinkedIn and their LinkedIn DMs are just a freaking avalanche, right? But at these conferences, you can just walk right up to them and two step before I let go. And then be like, oh, let's connect on LinkedIn. And then be like, yeah, we're dancing before I let go. I want to show you here's what I'm working on, you know what I'm saying? But more importantly, when you network, lead with how you can add value first, you know what saying. Like, for instance, I met Cam this weekend in person. I reached out to him before and my thing wasn't like, yo man, can black men in tech do this for me? Or whatever the case is. I'm like, man, first and foremost you're doing dope stuff. And I would love for you to be highlighted on my podcast. It's mutually beneficial, right? Of course. Because you have an audience, I have an audience. Your audience is going to learn about me, but my audience will learn about you. And collaboration is key. So focus on collaboration versus how can this person get me somewhere? Whenever asking for a mentor, whenever asking for a referral, whatever the case is, just authentically. Ask yourself, what can I do to help this person? And if you don't know, then ask because you never know, I would say to that last piece about collaboration, at the same time, make sure your collaboration you bring yourself to the table and it's an equal footing. Collaboration should make you better, not bitter. So if you find yourself in a situation where the collaboration is necessarily not working to your full potential, something is wrong. So you need to check that because that energy can really throw you off or really mess you up. So making sure you always on the even playing field when we talk about collaboration because everybody want to collab, all collabs could be good, but not always good. But you got to know internally what's going on with that collaboration. And you got to have good vibes. You got to feel the vibes. If the vibe is not there, it's not there. Can't force it. But at the same time, when you in good company, stay in good company. Yeah, 100%. Awesome, man. So everybody needs to be a part of black men in tech, everybody, men, women, whoever. So please tell people how they can get in touch with black. So at B-O-K-M-E-N-I-N-T-E-C-H on all socials. You can also reach out on our website WW dot blackmanatech, B-O-K again, blackmanatech.com and just get involved. Hit the like button, hit the info button. Join our newsletter. Join our fellowship meetings. I'm actually going to have you on one of the fellowships coming up. But we're just going to continue to do the movement organically and with purpose and as well as if you want to know more, DM us, see us on different, come to our different events. We got an event in La Cinco de Mayo at station 1640. We're collaborating with some really cool people house party, charles and another charles and another individual out in La. In a couple of weeks. So if you're in La. Join us. If you're in Atlanta, May 31, join us at render. We'll be activating there as well, but just come be a part of what we're doing. It's organic, it's real, you're going to feel the vibes and you're going to want to do more. So definitely come join us. Okay, awesome. Well, hopefully you all enjoyed this episode. Definitely make sure to subscribe, like comment, share, let people know this is happening in terms of big tech energy. Let black boys and black girls hear this as well, your nieces, your nephews, your daughters and your sons. Like the whole goal of them seeing us in my bomber jacket and his hoodie is because we don't have to be code switchers exactly. We can be our authentic selves and bring value. But I want you all to understand the mindset that's making these people successful. So also check out blackhire.com. This is one of my initiatives connecting black people to freelance opportunities because you can make a ton of money as freelancers in the tech space as well and be autonomous and also stack jobs and cool stuff like that. So go to blackhire.com. And if you are somebody looking for freelancers, fill in your information. If you're looking for jobs, put in your information. As soon as this live, we will let you know. And yeah, tap in with me at BigTech energy podcast on instagram, dr. J-D-O-C-T-A-J on instagram as well. And then also check me out on bigtechenergypodcast.com and sign up for the mailing list for all the events that will be happening in your cities. And last but not least, want to make sure everybody hears again the conference dates, location and all of that, how they can buy tickets. Got you. So conference is called thrive, October 19 through the 22nd, fort Lauderdale, Florida at the Weston fort Lauderdale beach you go to our website, www.blackblkmentech.com. We have a whole section about our conference. You can learn more. CPAs speakers also hit that button that said get conference tickets now. Early bird specials are already on sale. Tickets are moving pretty quickly, so you want to be in the space. I'm going to tell you immediately, this is not a conference where you're going to see thousands of people. You're going to see a small group of 850 people max. And the reason why I do that is because I want people, recruiters people to really feel like they are part of a conference in a way that's meaningful for them. If they're trying to get job, they're trying to network, that sort of thing. So it is going to sell out and I want you to really be there. And I'm intentional about making it smaller because I want to make sure people have that touch point that they need. And sometimes people get real lost in the huge conferences, but shout out to all my huge conferences because I'm definitely a supporter of those vibes as well. So it will sell out. Definitely get involved. Blackbenditech.com where you can buy your ticket now. Early bird is on sale. All right, make sure you tap in. Make sure you're in the building. You never know who you're going to meet. Women, you never know if you'll meet your husband. I tell people, man, these black tech conferences is a great place to find your boo, man, we're all intentional about our futures. All right, so, yeah, everybody, thank you for joining in, listening and make sure to tap in with us in the future. Big tech energy. We're out. Thanks. Membership in black and HR means community and being a part of a culture of like minded individuals. You have a culture within a culture, especially in the black community. And black at HR is that professional culture. We have fun, we laugh and joke about things that are related to us in the workplace, but we also have serious aspects as well where we help each other grow. And it's just one of those places where I can go to any time of the day, pose a question, and I'm going to get all type of answers, but I'm going to get support. And we all work together to give advice, to give insights, to share tips. The networking is amazing. The people that I've spoken to have allowed me to learn things about myself that I didn't know. So what does that do? When I go to my next interview, I have that confidence when I walk in to be able to explain and speak on what I've done in the past and prove that I am the person for the job.