Welcome everyone to the Blacks and Technology Big Tech Talk podcast, a show where
we talk to black people who are engineers, innovators, educators, invenors,
change makers, and entrepreneurs doing amazing things in the world of technology. The
Big Tech Talk podcast is where they show how they're stumping the divide by sharing
their stories, experiences, ideas, knowledge and perspective on tech with the big
community. Welcome everyone to the Blocks and Technology Podcasts aka BIT tech Talk Podcasts.
This is our first podcast we've done in a while, and this is
one of the first podcasts we've done as far as video at least for bit
tech Talk. And I'm excited about this because not only is it one of
our first video podcasts, but it's our first featuring one of our chapter leaders.
So I'm excited about that, excited to really get into this series spotlighting
our chapter leaders in a bit foundation of what they're doing locally to help stop
the divide. So with that being said, you know, my name is
Gray Grienley. I'm the host of the Big Tech Talk podcast. I'm also
the founder of the Blocks and Technology Organization, and I want to introduce our
guest tonight, Bobby McNeil, Bobby, Welcome to the show. Thank you,
Greg. Happy to be here, man, excited to do this.
Yeah. So Bobby is he's a tech recruiting leader. He is also a
former college athlete, and we'll talk a little bit about that. You actually
won a college championship, which is pretty cool. I think you may be
the first person I've met there's one on that level, So that's pretty cool.
We'll talk about that. He's also the president of the Blocks and Technology
Roley Durham chapter, and we'll get it into a little bit about that as
well. But starting off, Bobby, tell us a little bit about yourself,
like where you're from, your education, that type of thing. Yeah,
So I'm originally from Fuquaverina in North Carolina. So it's in rural North
Carolina. It's about maybe thirty minutes south of Raleigh, but still in the
you know, the nine one nine area, So born and raised there,
you know, grew up there. I have an older sister. Both of
my parents are still down there actually, so and you know, that's that's
where I'm from. So I grew up in this area. Again, it's
just south of Raleigh, the Raleighdrham area. So I've seen it develop,
you know, my whole life. You know, I know the Raleighdrham area.
You know, we have a lot of people who are you know,
transient, right they move here. And I've been here on my life.
You know, I've seen the tech scene really thrive and grow throughout my life.
And you know, it was actually an all star basketball player here in
the state of North Carolina, you know, pretty well known prep star in
my day. Yeah, and then you know, basically, you know,
went to college, got a full athletic scholarship, also got a full academic
ride too. So a lot of people don't don't know that because they just
focus on the athletic piece. And I'm glad. Yeah. Yeah, so
I was not only what could I hoop, but I could also write a
really good term paper. So I was really good at that. You probably
got on a basket, Yeah, yeah, you know I was. I
was Bobby, I got this turn paper coming up? Man, can you
help me out? Yeah, yeah, I got you. I got you.
You know, I see you at the practice. But but yeah,
man, that went to college and went to Barton College, which is also
here in North Carolina. Small school, you know, small small school in
eastern North Carolina. Division two. So you know, I played Division two
athletics there, played college basketball all four years and won an n cua A
national championship my senior year. You know, really excited about that. If
you can see the screen, Pricy my jersey right there. Yeah yeah,
I said it in the back. Yeah, my high school jersey is right
here, is on another side. And you know, I was a four
year letterman there. If you graver in a high school and won a national
championship my senior year, that was a heck of a way to go out.
And then I started my career and tech recruiting, so you know,
I you know, I knew I was going to do something like in business,
corporate America, you know, things like that. So I started my
career in tech recruiting. I've been doing it for over fifteen years. I
worked at some notable companies, you know, tech staffing agencies but also tech
companies, most recently on Amazon Web Services, and worked my way up the
ranks, you know, really got you know, well versed in how to
find diverse talent but also how to source for you know, you know,
different types of skill sets, right from software engineering, uh, cybersecurity,
data analysts, did a number of different you know things that I've recruited in
tech, I've recruited at all, got successful, was able to run different
you know, recruiting teams across the country, across the world, and you
know, you know, mentored recruiters, coach recruiters on best practices. Did
you know? D and I Initiatives worked with HBCUs and you know then you
know found you know, Blacks and Technology and uh started off actually as the
vice president of communications. I joined back in twenty twenty two, So started
off as a VP of Communications. In six months, I was voted to
be the chapter president and the rest is history. So and I'm not only
I'm doing that, I'm also the national chair for a Career Development and tech
recruiting and and doing a whole bunch of different things here in the Raley Durham
area and also here nationally. You know, a whole bunch of stuff that
I'm pretty sure we'll touch into. But that's my intro. Excellent. I
appreciate that. And and you know what's cool about this this uh, this
podcast and what we're doing is Dennis gets to talk to a lot of you
a lot of times. And I don't like, I know you all,
but I don't get to talk to you and really get to know you as
intimately as Dennis. So this is real cool and getting to know like your
background, uh you know, as well as how you got into becoming the
chapter president and things like that and what types of things you are are doing.
BIT is always focused on forming new partnerships and opportunities to assist the community
and our members with the continued professional growth and development. If you'd like to
partner with us, send an email inquiries at blacks and Technology dot net.
Let's take this back just a little bit, uh because you you know,
to your your tech recruiting, tell us, like, you know, you
you go to college, you obviously had uh uh an all start player uh
in in your in your state. So then you go to college and you
start playing ball there? How did that? How did that whole thing come
about? As far as transitioning into tech recruiting. Yeah, you know,
I'm one of the many many people that that we don't talk about that goes
pro and something else. Right, Uh So I was here, you know,
I was I was a star athlete in high school. You know,
I was you know, I was the man on the team. You know,
in college, I was more a role player. But you know,
making that transition you know, I say, from the ball game to the
tech game was a very like unique experience, right, so I had to
really early on really figure out, you know, what I wanted to do.
And you know, you don't go to college to be a tech recruiter.
There's no tech recruiting major, right. There's HR majors, but there's
no tech recruiting major. So you know when I when I got in,
you know, I really you know, was really trying to find something where
I could work with people but also at you know, work with people in
more of a corporate setting and you know, really impact people's lives. And
I kind of really stumbled on, you know, into recruiting in general,
which is how most people find that profession. And you know, I was,
you know, I started, you know, really at the at the
bottom of the totem pole. I was a recruiting admin assistant. I was
just basically managing the job boards and and you know, working through some of
the different you know, screening documents and things like that, you know,
years ago. And you know, I was on the phones well before I
got on the phones. I was, you know, sitting there you know,
in the what they call the pit area, right, and I was
just listening to all these recruiters. They were talking to these like like highly
skilled sophisticated tech people. They were talking about penetration testing and cybersecurity offense versus
defense, and back in Cody, I'm like, who are they talking to?
Right? And they just seemed to really like, you know, really
enjoy it. And I was like, Okay, I want to try my
hand in that. And you know, I've always been highly competitive and ambitious
and things like that, so I really wanted to get in the game and
really learn how to do that. And what got me into it is that
what I realized early on in my career, there really wasn't a lot of
us, you know, in the tech sector right in that space. So
I kind of looked at myself as a you know, a young black man,
somebody who you know, kind of had some some some skills and some
knowledge, like how can I really you know, I'm always gonna make them
try to make the best higher possible, no matter what somebody's you know,
nationality or races, But how can I make a difference? You know and
how can I learn more so I can you know, kind of make this
impact. And and I really started, you know, listening to like dozens
and dozens of phone screens and kind of like really picking up on these different
things. And that's why I learned a little bit about software engineering, just
listening to my fellow recruiters and managers getting on phone screens and just kind of
shadowing and just listen to those repetitiously. And I learned the difference between you
know, front end versus back end versus full stack software development. You know,
I learned about all these different things so I could talk about it conversationally.
And I just thought technology was just incredible. It's the ultimate equalizer.
It balances everything out in our in our culture, and it you know it
definitely, you know it. You know stomps the divide, right, you
know, you think about it. You know, technology and all the things
that they can do from people in the inner city to people in rural areas.
Right, it's the It's the ultimate equalizer. So you know, I'm
not a technologist myself. I can't code, but I can talk to the
people that code, and I can talk to the people who want people that
can code. So I looked at myself as the bridge and that's really how
I got into it, and that's why I'm passionate about it. And I'm
glad that you emphasized about, you know, picking the right person despite race
or nationality, because I think that's important because right now you have this narrative,
uh, that a lot of people are pushing that diversity, equity and
inclusion somehow equals lowering the bar, and that's far from the truth, right,
Like, as a tech recruiter, I'm glad that you can speak to
that and say, it's not about that. It's it's just it's finding viable
candidates, candidates that have the experience and have the skills, but also seeking
out candidates that in places that you you may not seek them out at right
uh, and bringing them in and giving them an opportunity. Uh. So
I'm glad you mentioned that, man, because I think that's important. Yeah.
And if I can, you know, just add one thing, like
you're right, you know, I hear that a lot, and it's it's
not about like diversity in tech recruiting our diversity in tech teams. It doesn't
lower the bar, it raises the bar. Because the more diverse your teams
are when it comes to innovation and design, the more global your product is,
and the more it touches more people. You want to have a different
perspective in the design review meeting. You want to have a different perspective in
the lab right when you're you're making these products because they touch everything. Like
Microsoft wanted to put a computer in every home. You know, Apple,
you know, I don't know if you're an app Apple person or Android person,
but that's just used Apple for example, they wanted to put a phone
in every hand. You don't you don't do that if you don't think about
the totality of innovation and diversity and how it impacts everybody. So it doesn't,
It doesn't lower the bar at all. It raises the bar. It
makes It makes teams more productive, it makes teams more innovative, and it
makes teams more you know, globally aware when you have different perspectives in the
room, no matter what their race, gen their nationality is, So it
raises the bar. Yeah, I totally agree. Again, Like this is
narrative is being spun and in the media nowadays is really disheartening, right,
Like it's because I know from being an engineer and also you know, being
the founder of an entire community of black people that are intech. I get
to experience all these different you know, personalities, all these different skill levels
and experiences and things like that. And I know for sure, like the
people that I talk to, the people that's part of the big community are
top notch. It's it's you're not You're not going downhill because you choose to
hire a person a black person, and that's not the case. And this
narrative that's being spawned, I frankly is dangerous to me and and and you
can and I can see it like how it's kind of permeating throughout even the
nonprofit organization and funding wise, like companies are pulling back funding because they don't
want to be seen as supporting D and I initiatives and things. I honestly
like to say, forbid, I think the product that we and and product
as far as you know, community and services, is that get that that
we can kind of offer to to potential employers and things like that. I
honestly think that for us, it's not about the product that we offer is
definitely in that realm with diversity equity inclusion, right because we're black people in
tech, right, But that's not our objective, right, Like, I
don't know if people understand that when they get like, my objective is not
to solve diversity, equity and inclusion like you. So you have different departments
at these different corporations and government sectors that their job literally is to try to
help solve this problem within their company or within their organization. And that's not
like my intent when when I found in Blacks and Technology, it wasn't that
it was I'm in tech. I want to talk to more black people that
are in tech. I want to build this community of black people so that
not only do we get to know each other, but we get to feed
off each other as far as knowledge support that type of thing. But at
the end of the day, it's about being economically sound, right, like
being financially you know, sound in the long run, and that's what I
want to see. And if the byproduct of that is helping your company in
some way, then that's fine. I'm okay with that. But the primary
mission of Blacks and Technology is to increase the representation of participation of black people
in tech. Not because you know, you know, I want to see
more black people at Facebook. It's because I want to see more black people
in tech going after that money so they can start creating generational wealth and not
only that, but being in those in those spots so they can help steer
where tech is going. Absolutely, yeah, that's important as well. Yeah,
absolutely, you know, you know, yeah, I agree, go
ahead, No, I was going I wanted to. I want to.
Cent agree. You know, it's you know, there's different pathways to that.
Sometimes it's it's being a tech business owner, a tech entrepreneur, and
we provide resources for you to do that. So sometimes, like you know,
entering into tech is not necessarily getting hired at Google. If you do,
that's fantastic, right, and you know it helped you do that,
that's great. But sometimes it's putting the tools and resources in front of you
and making sure you have access to the technology so you can maybe build something
of your own or build the infrastructure through technology of a business and an entrepreneurship,
right. So sometimes it's that. Sometimes it's just the knowledge with all
the you know, the products and resources is in boot camps and things that
we provide. So I agree, yeah, yeah, and I'm Glad you
mentioned that as well, because that's that's highly important too. The resources that
provides UH and the opportunities as well. It's key and what we're doing.
So what's up everyone? We hope that you're enjoying this episode of the Blacks
and Technology BIT tech Talk podcasts. Do you or someone you know have a
dope story that they want to share with our bit audience? Blocks and Technology
is seeking guests to be on our podcast. We're looking to highlight the journeys
and experiences of black women and men in the tech industry. So if you
know of someone, send them our way, shoot us an email to contact
us at Blacks and Technology dot net, or click on the link in the
show notes and fill out our form. We're looking to hear from you.
Let's get back to you, know you being a college athlete. Because I
have met you in person, I didn't notice how tall you were, but
I wasn't going to be that person to say, man, can you hoop?
But now that I know that you who speaking of? Who? Like?
So, my youngest son, he plays he plays basketball, sixth grade.
He's he's pretty slick actually, and I trained him. I played basketball.
But more you know, rec bout rec ball for many years, many
years. But I I you know, I take him to the gym.
I got all the equipment, I trained on my watch videos so you know,
figure out how to increase his skill set in one area and things like
that. He's he's really good. But I was out back the other day
and I got an older son. He's he's he's fourteen, and he's a
swimmer, I mean, and muscular and he's got a swimmer's build, strong
as I don't know what, man, So I'm I'm showing my younger son
a No. Actually I played him because he was playing my younger son and
getting the best of him. You though, he's not a hooper, but
he's just bigger and faster than my youngest son. So I was like,
all right, i'll avenger loss. I'll play. And man, don't you
know I threw my back my back step wrong or something like that. Oh
man, yeah, So I'm dealing with that as well today. Man,
on top of the dog stuff that was going on, like just hobbling around
like hold my back, I'm feeling like an old man. But let's talk
more about like you being an athlete and kind of what things from you being
an athlete has benefited your career as a tech recruiter and as a as a
career coach as well. Yeah. Yeah, So I think one of the
key things that you know, I think is number one. If I was
telling you know, when I talked to you know, young men who are
making that transition, young men and women actually who are making that transition from
like college athletics to like the corporate world, always tell them, never lose
your competitor of edge, you know, I think I think college athletes and
athletes in general, and there's people who are non athletes too, but just
speaking about you know, athletes, we kind of had we have that competitive
drive in us, right, and I always tell you know, individuals,
never lose that. You know, you can use that for for a good
right, So you know, never never lose that competitive edge, Never lose
that drive. You know. You know, it's not necessarily like competing against
your coworkers or anything like that, and sometimes it's healthy to do that,
but a lot of times, you know, after you lead the ballgame,
is competing with yourself, you know, competing against yesterday's version of yourself,
Like what can I do each and every day? To get better. You
know, what new skill can I learn? You know this month? What
new skill can I learn this quarter? You know, like they say in
basketball, like a basketball player, you get better in the off season.
You don't get better during the season because during the season you playing games.
You know, you on a plane, train, automobile, you in the
weight room, you're in the classroom. You get better in the off season.
So what it teaches you as well is discipline and self accountability, right
to make sure that you're you're always leveling up your skills. And I think
that's one of the things that helped me move and elevate in my career and
become such a you know, respected and trusted voice in the industry, is
that I was always willing to learn new things because even in recruiting, things
change, you know, employment loss change, how you attract talent changes,
and if you're a tech recruiter, the technology changes every three years, right,
so you always have to be practicing and always have to you know,
keep learning new things. I'm also you know, I've I've been on I've
been on winning teams. Obviously, you know, you see the jersey and
I think you might be able to see they give you a copy of the
trophy right there. I don't know if you can see it. So yeah,
So I and I say all that to say, not to brag,
but I say, I've been on winning teams, but also I've been on
losing teams, and I've been on winning teams where we went on losing you
know, losing streaks or had slumps. So one of the things that I
learned about, you know, that I took into my crib, it's being
poised, always staying poised, because you don't want to get too high in
the high moments where you get too cocky and get too full of yourself and
you think you're invincible and undestructible. Mm hmm. There's gonna there's gonna come
a time where you're gonna have to be in a valley a little bit and
and not get too high in the highest but also not get too low in
the lows and kind of just staying even killing join the victories and the winds
when they come and celebrate those and celebrating yourself and your hard work. But
there's gonna be a valley, you know. But that's that's life. That's
why they that's why it's a journey. It's called a journey because there's there's
ebbs and flows, right, So being able to just be conscientious about what
those things are and just staying poised hard work. Where I think I talked
about working smarter and that harder, you know, and and and just knowing
your craft. I think those are the big things really that I learned.
Being coachable. Being coachable, this is one of the things I'm putting in
my book. Always always be cod no matter how skilled you are, no
matter how experienced you are, is something you always need some sort of coaching
in some shape or way of forming your career. You know, even if
you're like a like a high level you know, back end developer, you
know, you're always gonna need coaching, you know, because things change or
whatever industry that you're in. No matter how seasoned or professional you are,
how skilled you are, you're gonna need coaching at some point. So so
always remaining coachable, I think it's key. Yeah, I think those are
great point, especially the off I love that about the off season. You
get better in the off season. And the way to me, the way
I look at it, how it translates in tech, is the off season
is your downtime. I think because tech is so continuous as far as how
technology evolves, you constantly have to be on that grind of continuous learning.
Uh, And it's harder to of course, there's you know, there's always
it. You know, during work you have to do research, you have
to you know, figure things out. But a lot of times it's all
about trying to figure out a solution while you're at work. And I've always
found, at least within my career that the way that I get better is,
you know, not is during you know, off hours. You know,
an hour here, a couple hours here, thirty minutes here, like
whatever it is. It's like, you know, it's it's there's the discipline
really to me lies in staying consistent as opposed to how long you know you're
you're gonna like study or something like that. Like I tell my son all
the time, the one who plays basketball. I'm like, you know what,
I was like, you may not be able to get two hours in
or an hour in at the gym all the time, but go downstairs in
the basement, set up some cones and do fifteen minutes worth of dribbling,
like just around, just around the basement. Just just work on that for
fifteen minutes and that's It's not a huge time or anything like that. And
you'll be surprised if you do that consistently, how much better you're going to
be than everybody else because they may only do it once or twice at practice.
Right, So that's something that God try to instill in them from from
an athletics standpoint, but also from a tech standpoint. I was a team
lead for a company consulting company, and that's one of the things that I
would, you know, whenever we met. When I met with one of
the team members, one of the things that I would tell them like,
yeah, you know you have this goal. You want to do this by
this. I'm like, well, and they're like, yeah, I just
don't know how much time I have, Like I do this, I'm like,
well, just do thirty minutes of reading. Like people think that you
got to do four hours worth of reading or something. No, you half
hour hour. If you want to do an hour and a half two hours,
that's fine. A lot of times there's more negative effects to that than
positive because you start losing concentration and retaining information or anything like that. So
let's just do a half an hour of focus, really focused reading on an
hour of really focused and it'll pay dividends because you're if you do it consistently.
So I'm glad that you, uh, that you brought that up and
mentioned that, because that's that's key, not just in tech but in careers
as a whole. Right, yeah, absolutely, So tell us a little
bit about about Raleigh Durham. Like, but I remember reaching someone from that
area reaching out. This was years ago before we had a chapter and they
wanted to start a chapter. And the first thing they said is is they
called it the triangle is a triangle park or research Research Triangle Park? Right,
Yeah, we got a few different names, and I'll say it on
the second, but we got a few different names. Yeah. Yeah,
So tell me a little bit like if somebody decided, like, hey,
I'm going to move to I want to move to Raleigh, I want to
you know, for a career, and so like what can they expect from
the area. Yeah, So, you know, this is a conversation I
always love to have because even you know, as chapter president, have these
conversations a lot, but also as a tech recruiter, have these conversations a
lot with people who want to move, you know, relocate here to North
Carolina. I'm also on the board of advisors for nc TECH North Carolina Technology
Association, so I love this. But yes, Raleigh Durham, it's like
really the Tailortoo cities, right, so they're like basically right next to each
other on the map, you know, So it makes sense for us to
have two cities in one chapter. It didn't make sense for us to have
a Rally chapter in a Durham chapter. We just need to have one chapter
because there's a teletoo. Cities, you know, both rich in history.
The Research Triangle Park area is an area right between Raleigh and Durham that hosts
all these different like science companies, biotech companies, tech companies. It's like
acres, it's like literally a park, and all these tech companies are just
lined up in a row and they have like these these campuses here, like
headquarters, like all in a row. And that's why they call it Research
Triangle Park because in North Carolina or in the Carolinas, that's where all the
innovation happens. Right, So a lot of these tech companies are headquartered here
or they have their second or third headquarters here. I give you an example
Amazon, Amazon Web Services. Their HQ one or headquarters one is in Seattle,
Washington. Their HQ two, headquarters two is in the DMV area.
But they were actually looking to put their headquarters two here in Raleig Durham,
but they decided to I think they decided to move it to Arlington, Virginia
for like tax reasons. But this is the center of innovation for the for
North Carolina, the Carolina's period, right, So basically, we have a
lot of different industry here, right, a lot of different industry. We
have a lot of different you know, different types of entrepreneurships that are happening
here. Durham is one of the top places for entrepreneurs right. You know,
the Google Startups has a whole program in Durham, North Carolina, you
know, right there in the area. So you get a lot of like
different variations of different types of people that live here. Right. A lot
of the people that live in raleyg Durham aren't actually from Raley Durham. They're
from We get a lot of people from New York. We get a lot
of people from the Midwest and Chicago, Ohio. We get a lot of
people from California. California is increasingly growing as far as you know the cost
of living. So I had a conversation with a candidate not too long ago.
I was like, well, why North Carolina you know why? He
was like, well, we have a silicon valley there. You guys have
somewhat of a silicon valley in Raleigh Durham. So the two translate. That's
number one, number two. We have North Carolina or Raleigh Durham has all
these prestigious universities that are right around each other. You know, you got
North Carolina State. You know you got UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University,
North Carolina Central University of HBCU, and not too far away, you got
North Carolina A and T. So I could come here and I can get
advanced education, advanced degrees. Wake County is one of the best public school
systems in North Carolina, if not the best. I think it's like always
number one and number two since I've been in school. And another reason why
this gentleman wanted to move from California to North Carolina is because you guys also
have beaches and mountains on either side. So I always say Raleigh Durham is
where you come to have life and have life more abundantly, you know,
per se. So that's what you will experienced here. You know, it's
a very active tech hub. A lot of times, I don't think we
get to shine we deserve because we're not like a big city. We're a
nice size city. We're not a big city. We don't have the immaculate
skylines like in New York or LA and you know, shout out to them,
love both cities, been to both of them. But I think sometimes
we get overlooked with with the flashiness. But tech lives in Raleigh Durham and
we have an exciting, engaged member base at Blacks and Technology. They're very
engaged, very they just love this area and they're always looking for ways to
network and do events and that's what we and that's what we do here as
a chapter X. It's good to hear out those, you know, wonderful
exciting things about about the area in case I might want to, you know,
move from Ohio. Yeah, it's always one of the it's always one
of the top ten places to live. It's always one of the top ten
places to live. Yeah, it's like We're on every list every year,
top places to live, top places for professionals, very diverse area. You
know, we're you know, we're not you know, d C or in
Atlanta, but we have a black tech professional nucleus here. The cost of
living is relatively inexpensive, and we're in a great area. We're right in
the middle if you if you want to go to the d m V,
the d m V is here. Atlanta's right here, Raleigh, Durham,
and then our brothers and sisters down in Charlotte, they right, they right
next to us. So it's a it's a great area whether it's nice and
you know, it's just it's thriving here, very nice, very cool.
So speaking of uh, you know, you started talking a little bit about
you know, the why you know, the BICH members and and how you
know, the the activity there at the chapter. How did you first hear
about Yeah, so, you know, in my tech recruiting career, you
know, I was doing a lot of things with like, you know,
diversity recruiting and coming up with creative ways to uh to attract talent. You
know, when I was working at the you know, the big you know,
these big tech companies, during that time, I was you know,
doing a lot of that, you know, as far as my career,
but I was I'm always thinking of ways, like what can I do outside
of my day to day work, you know, to kind of give back,
right I have a you know kind of a heart to serve and and
and lead and things like that. So I wanted to see if there was
something maybe here locally. You know, I'm a tech recruiter, so you
know, I checked out Nesby, but you know, you know, I'm
not necessarily an engineer, but I wanted to like where, where's an organization
or somewhere I can go where I don't necessarily have to be a technologist,
but I can still be part of the organization. And you know, I
fit the criteria to be a member of Blacks and Technology, and I you
know came across it, you know, had a conversation with the president at
the time, who was actually you know, still on the board, and
you know, kind of shared my passion for wanting to be a part of
it, just to really kind of have a you know, sense of community
and also find out how ways what I can do as a black tech recruiter
because there's not really many of us black tech recruiters like, well, here's
a how's here's a way, What's what's the way I can give back to
the members in the community here in the Raleigh Durham area. And had a
conversation with her and then she was like, well, have you thought about
maybe you know, having more of an expansive role. So I was like,
what does it look like? Right? And you know, a few
weeks later, you know, had some conversations with you know, some of
the you know, existing board members at the time, and you know,
I was on the board and and you know, she thought that would be
a great way for me to be in a in a position where there could
you know, be some exposure, some sort of elevated you know role where
I'll be able to kind of charter those things. So that's how I found
out about it. Just wanted to do more, you know, outside of
my my career, you know, to kind of add a supplement to what
I was doing. Yeah, excellent, Yeah, and I'm I'm I'll say
this like, we're happy to have someone like you in that position. I
mean, Raleigh the RTU Chapters is consistently one of the most active chapters and
the events that you all put on are always tops. Uh. And then
you're you're you're always like, you know, making sure that everyone knows about
what you all are doing. You're sharing pictures and things like that all the
time. My mom constantly reposting your stuff on LinkedIn and and everywhere. So
excellent, excellent. So let's let's let's do a little roll call. Let's
let's go down the names and the roles of the leaders of the ARDU chapter.
Do you have a product or service that you would like to share with
a big audience, or maybe you'd like to support the big community and do
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Okay, yeah, yeah, so we have a lot, so I'm
a I'm definitely gonna make sure I don't get anybody. But we have Tanisha
who Tanisha Cruz who is also immediate past chapter president and she was also one
of the co founders of the chapter some some years ago. She is currently
our VP of Membership and Engagement. Her role is really important because you know,
she comes up with all these incredible ways to make sure our members stay
engaged and also the recruit new members. And she's really the really the engine
behind a lot of our events. She's really good at curating events, really
thinking about the member experience and the guests experience. So she's you know,
done a number of different things. The Melani mixer that we had, you
know back in October, she was really the driving force behind that. You
know, all I really did was make up the flyer and come up with
the name, but she was the one. She was the one that made
that Friday night in October and downtown Durham magical. So so hats off to
the show. Then that's Leashanda Rogers. She's our vice president of Community Outreach.
She is very instrumental in you know, making sure that we have these
community connections in these community ties in the Raleigh Durham area in a really in
a real way. You know. She you know definitely connects us with you
know, you know school system also different you know nonprofit organizations as well that
share the same mission as ours also and that kind of helped push us forward.
Anything that you see us do, you know with the school system,
anything that you see us do from a government standpoints. She's really the backbone
behind that, so that that's her role. And then we have you know
Barrett, he's our vice president of finance. He's more you know, behind
the scenes. I have people on my team that are more you know,
front, front of the scenes, you know, more you know, extroverted.
But then I also have people on my team who are more introverted,
more behind the scenes, and they're just as valuable. And I wanted to
mix it up that way. But he makes sure that you know, we
are as frugal as possible, uh and making sure that you know, we
we keep our money where it needs to be, but also make sure we're
putting our money towards the right things our chapter fund, so you know,
shout out to Barrett. And then we have you know Robin, who is
one of our newer members. She's the VP of Administration. She she came
from the Charlotte chapter, and I know the Charlotte chapter, they were an
award winning chapter earlier on. Once I found out she was, you know,
moving to Raleigh Durham, I'm like really like so yeah, so I
talked to you know, the former president Natasha. She she vouchs for one,
UH talked to some other people there that was like, yeah, we
love Rob and she'd be an a credible asset to your team. She's very
big because she does a lot of stuff administrative stuff for us behind the scenes.
She's really good with data analysis. What we find is that a lot
of companies that we work with they want to know about the demographics of our
chapter and what that looks like. So she's been very instrumental in us kind
of having a like putting together data and information that we can present to potential
sponsors who want to know a little bit more detailed not only about our national
global membership, but our ALREADYU membership. So she's real big in that.
Brintley Brintley, right, he is one of our newer members. He is
our vice president of D and I Initiatives. I, you know, a
personal friend of mine. I call him like the D and I evangelists in
our in our our leadership group. He he works at the Diversity Movement.
This is really part of his work, so he kind of really coincides to
what we do. When once we you know, strategized at the beginning of
the year, I realized that you know, as we talked about before D
and I was like under attack, and we thought it'd be great to have
somebody on our leadership team that we can bring into our events when we're working
with corporations to really talk about D and I in a real honest, passionate
way. So I wanted to hand picked him specifically for that. So and
and he definitely feels that gap for us. Uh. Norris is our vice
president of University Engagement. Norris is the life of the party on the on
the chapter team. So he he makes everybody laugh, He keeps, you
know, everybody's spirits high and things like that. Uh, he's real passionate
about you know, students. He's an HBCU alone. He went to North
Carolina Central University just right here in Raleigh. But so he's very involved with
HBCUs, very passionate about that. But we don't want to forget about our
young brothers and sisters at the pwis too, right at the NC States,
at the Dukes in Carolina. So he's doing great work right now and making
sure we reach out to those you know, young you know brothers and sisters
as well who might not necessarily be at HBCU, but you know they're black
and wanting to get into tech, and we want to make sure they have
a place of belonging. So he leads that effort. Nicole Hargrove, she's
our vice president of Technical Education and Learning. She has dedicated her whole career
to creating pathways for minorities to learn about technology and setting kind of learning pathways
for them. I thought it would be incredible for her to be on our
board when we go to these meetings when we now not necessarily when we go
to these meetings, but we have these are our events, right, I
get a lot of questions about like, hey, like what certification do you
recommend this and that? And like I said, I'm a I can talk
about technology conversationally as a tech recruiter, but we needed somebody that was gonna
dive deep and Nicole is that person that can dive deep with people. Right.
So we got you know a lot of different plans that we're gonna do
with her about really you know, in a in a formal and informal way
of educating our members about you know, educational pathways they can take and also
aligning that with the offerings that we already have. So and then we have
our board members. We have Eric, dj Uh and Rosa. They play
big roles for us because these are all co founders. They were with the
chapter at the very beginning, right. Their voice as as board members and
also co founders is very instrumental because they keep everybody honest, right because they
would hear from the beginning. They make sure that you know, we stay
on the same we stay on that mission, stay on that path. So
their their knowledge and their wisdom is very important as we you know, our
decision make making processes and how we plan our year. And we also have
Andrea. She is the lead that Black eerg lead at Cisco, so strategically
we wanted to bring her in and she does a lot of things. You
know, she's working on a lot of you know, cool and interesting products
projects with us, like our newsletter, we started a member spotlight, so
you know, she's working through those things and really kind of you know,
spearheading those initiatives. And then we got Gary who's on one of our newest
members as well. He has a military technical background, so we thought that
would be great also to kind of bring that in as well, because we
don't want those brothers and sisters to be forgotten too. And he has an
experience because he is serving. He uses technology, he is a technologist.
And I know we got we got you know, brothers and sisters down in
Faydville, down in Fort Bragg that you know, we can reach out to.
So that's that's the board, Riley. During we got a large team.
I will say, you know, I have a really great team.
I think we had founders that yeah, we had founders and people that came
before me that really kind of set the foundation, you know for me to
come in with all my new ideas and flyers and and hey, let's do
this, let's do that, you know, let's go let's go over here
to sass, let's go over here. Like you know, they set a
foundation for me to really come in and build. So I always want to
pay homage to them because they did a credible job, you know, in
the earlier years, really setting that found foundation and that framework framework for me
to come in and with all these interesting, great and illustrious ideas. So
shout out to them, Yeah, definitely shout out to them. Like you
all you all could write a chapter blueprint book, but just about the way
you all operate No seriously, like and this is this is no knock on
on any of the other chapters. I know, you know, specific chapters
don't have the resources, uh, whether it's you know or or even they
may be new to the operation side of running a chapter as a whole.
And it's it's it's not an easy you know kind of I'm going to spend
fifteen minutes on this and for the week, and like there's time that that
you have to invest in and getting things up and running, reaching out to
different corporations, organizing events, reaching out to positive potential speakers, you know,
getting members or the community involved. Like there's a lot of stuff and
you all have really created a good blueprint as not from from a personnel standpoint,
but also the different roles because they're there, I would say, you
know, and some chapters there's like one or two people and they're taking on
the roles of all that, right, and it's it's a lot and if
you can if you can have more people in those roles to then that that
allows you to be able to kind of concentrate right on on what your specialty
is and then bring all that together and a and a probably a more polished
product, so to speak. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
And I appreciate you, you know, mentioning that. And you know
that was something that you know, when I came into you know, this
year, you know, I was like, okay, I wanted to you
know, my first year as president, you know, last year, I
really like wanted to take a year to kind of really assess things. And
and like I was like, okay, we need to make some like some
minor small recalibrations here. But then I had to wear thall enough and awareness
enough. Okay, we need to bring in new members, right, So
I had to propose a whole you know, kind of new structure and system
to the team, which you know, they bought in right, so you
know, like even as president, I still have to get you know,
the not necessarily the permission, but they're buying right because it's a team effort,
right, And then had to go and get Brentley and get Injury and
all these other people as well. So the structure that you see is you
know, just as a leader and as a president really sitting back looking at
okay, let's let's fine tune this. Let's fine tune this, and then
let's add these four pieces to the wheel so we can keep you know,
keep the ball rolling. And you know, but yeah, it's I think
everybody does an incredible job. We delegate. It's a team effort. I
don't really get caught in the weeds a lot as a president. I you
know, they start initiatives, they have their own projects and things that they
work on, and I just go at it, you know, like and
not just let them. Let them do it. So it's it's really a
team effort because as you mentioned, you know, I can't have my hands
on everything. You'll get burnt out like that real quick, right, So
you definitely want to build a team, find out what people are good at,
empower them to do it, give them a role, get you know,
give them some goals and really you know, create roles that from an
organizational standpoint makes sense and let people do their thing and and and watch everybody
kind of grow and flour. So so I appreciate you saying that, Yeah,
and man, your leadership skills. Just from that segment alone, it
lets me know that you're the right person to be doing this because you're you're
you're you're the type of person just you know, hearing you speak right now
that you're you're you're not micromanaging, You're you're allowing people to do what they
do best and bring that all together, uh into something that will make the
team stronger. Uh. And you're more of that that servant leader like,
hey, like, I'm here to support what you want to do. Yeah,
I have ideas. I'm gonna run it past you all. See how
that how that pans out, bring all of your other ideas together, the
things that you're good at and the things you know, and I'm and I'm
gonna be hands off, you know with with with certain things. Let you
all do that and empower empower you all to do it, and that makes
for a more healthy environment uh as a whole. Anyhow, right when when
you're like that, so absolutely, I just let them cook. I don't
I don't got to be all in the kitchen and all in the pot.
Just let them cook. And they and they everybody they do incredible stuff like
like okay, great, so right right it's easy when it's like that,
right, Yeah, definitely easy. So tell us a little bit about the
LinkedIn the Black Creators on LinkedIn man like for your bio, you were recently
named to the Power fifties top Black creators on LinkedIn. So tell us a
little bit about what that entails. Yeah, so it was, you know,
last year in twenty twenty three. You know, I really, you
know, wanted to make it a point of not being a recruiter that only
posted just jobs. You know, those things are important, right, but
I really wanted to find ways to you know, give tippits of perspective,
advice, wisdom, you know, to an audience that I believed it could
benefit. Right, So it was really just like you know, posting little
nuggets of wisdom. I did the thing last year called free Game Fridays.
I was just giving people, you know, interview tips, resume advice.
But I also tried to make it engaging. I didn't want it to be
playing and ordinary. I wanted to make it so people could, you know,
resonate with what I was saying, but also they could take something practical
and use it. I've been on a number of different podcasts in the industry,
so when you know, the host send me things I posted on you
know, LinkedIn, you know, and hopefully it helps some people. So
I did it. I want a whole podcast tour last year that you know,
smoke smoke at some conferences. You know, if some snippets came back,
I posted it on there, you know, so people would know I
was speaking, and I was always on podcasts, but also I used to
hand pick stuff like okay, let me use my discernment. What is the
people, what are the people saying? What do they need to hear?
They need to hear this? So I would put it out there, and
without even knowing or not even looking for any accolades or awards or any self
aggrandizement, I got a message saying, you know, from a pretty well
known content creator in this space, uh, saying, he congratulations, You've
been named to the Power fifty and you've been voted on by your peers in
the industry. So I was very very excited and very honored to be that.
That wasn't what I was going for, but you know, you know,
I'll receive it, and I think it meant a lot to me because
you know, when you're when you're voted into something on a list or a
top list, or you're getting award of some recognition and it comes from your
peers, I mean, that's that's a that's a real big you know,
stamp of approval because they're doing the work that you're doing and they see you
as somebody that they respect. So yeah, I really, really, you
know, appreciated that honor. We'll see if I'm you know, named to
the list again in twenty twenty four, So well, good luck with that,
man. That's that's definitely something to be proud of, for sure.
Tell us a little bit about the book you're writing. Yeah, so I'm
a I'm a first time author. You know, I'm writing a book.
I'm in the process as we speak. I started writing a book back in
October of last year. And this was actually a presentation that I did at
a couple of tech conferences last year and it got rave reviews. Like you
know, people, you know, multitude of people were talking to me after
you know, I spoke and you know, people were just in my DMS
and inbox. Hey man, can you expound on this? You tell me
more about this and the presentation I did. You know, you know,
when you go and speak at these conferences, you got to give your your
you know, what do you want to do? What are you going to
write about your deck? And it was cracking the code ten possible Reasons you
didn't get the job. That was That was the presentation and I had,
you know, I had some slides went through it and like I said,
people loved it, and I was like, how can I expound upon this
because people wanted more? And I was like, well, I think I'm
I think I might turn this into a book. So basically that's the name
of the book. It's called Cracking the Code. Ten Possible Reasons you Didn't
Get the Job. It's very candid, I'm honest, truthful. What it
is is that it talks about some of the common pitfalls that job seekers face
when they're looking for a role. But one thing it does also do as
well, there are reasons on here and I wanted the audience to know this
and I'm working through this now that sometimes these reasons why you didn't get an
opportunity has nothing to do with you. There's certain indicators and environmental factors that
are happening in the job market right now that have nothing to do with you.
Right So there's going to be a level of accountability on the corporate side
and from it to my fellow recruiters in the game. But it's also going
to really be telling people why. I don't think we tell people as career
coaches and tech recruiters, we tell people what to do, but we don't
tell them why they need to do what they need to do. So this
this is fifteen years, sixteen years of experience that I've had talking to people
at multiple levels across various industries, and I want to give the people why,
right. So there's going to be data in there, studies that I'm
going to reference that are going to support my professional recommendations and theories and notions.
It's going to be somewhat out of biographical too, because I'm going to
pull from instances as a tech recruiter, but I'm also going to pull from
instances as a job seeker as well, because we've all been job seekers at
one point. So there's there's a mixture of reasons to have more something more
to do with the job seeker, but there are reasons in there in the
book that have something to do with what's going on in the world. And
you know, I think I'll give you an example. There's one chapter that's
going to be talking about a tight job market that has nothing to do with
you as as a as a candidate, that's just you know, the factors
around. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about these
layoffs, why the layoffs are happening. There's a lot of missing information going
out there by people that are speaking about layoffs, and it's just not that's
not why people are getting laid off. So people are gonna know the truth.
People are gonna know why these things are happening. We're gonna talk about
unconscious bias and bias in general in the selection process and broken recruiting practices.
So it's gonna hold people on the other side of the table, my peers
accountable as well. And if it don't apply to you, then let it
fly. But but the book is coming. I had to cover reveal about
a month or two ago and a publisher. Yeah, and it's we're looking
at a summer twenty twenty four release date. Man, that's that's huge.
Man, that's congrats on that. Man, that's gonna be that's gonna be
good. It's gonna be good. And when it comes out, definitely let
me know because I definitely love to promote it just from a stamp. I
mean, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're part of the
BIT organization, but just being part of the community. Like, that's something
that I like to do as well. It's like when I want to see
that someone is doing other things that it doesn't necessarily have to do with the
organization itself, and they're doing some other things to help like the community,
I love to to spotlight that type of stuff, right, So when it
comes out, man, let me know and we'll we'll do a feature on
that for sure. Yeah, we'll do. I appreciate it. Yeah,
I'll definitely Yeah, I definitely keep you posted for sure. Okay. The
Bit Foundation has established featured partnerships and programs with companies such as Amazon, AT
and T comp, t i A, tech Stars, and more to provide
our members with the resources we want and need to thrive and succeed in this
tech ecosystem. To learn more, visit Foundation, dot blacks and Technology dot
net. Join now, and remember membership is free. Okay, So a
couple more questions before we get out of here. So what do you enjoy
most about being the chapter president of BIT already here, Like, what are
some of it, like some of the things that you're just like, Man,
this is this is amazing. This is why I do this, you
know, I'll say, you know, just the really the response from our
members and the just the black tech community and Roley Durham as a whole.
Like you know, we put on a lot of events. But you know,
I'm I'm the chapter president. You know, I'm like a somewhat of
a micro influencer in the industry. I'm a top voice. But it's not
really about me. It's really about the members. Like I said, I
grew up here, you know. I you know, I've seen Raleigh Durham
grow and develop into this tech hub and one of the key things, you
know, even you know, being a black professional in general and just being
highly networked here. You know, we give people when we do these events,
we give a people a place to belong, right, That's what they
want. They want a place to belong. They want a place where they
feel safe and not necessarily I'm not talking about, say physically from danger,
but just you know, just safe like I'm home, right, And we
also do a lot of work to make sure when we partner with these companies
that just some sort of talent acquisition pathway. And these are the things our
members want. And when I go to an event, like sometimes I just
kind of sit back and watch and just like, you know, we're doing
a good thing here, you know, And I just love to see the
smile of people's faces. I love to see people making making connections with other
members and other people people that are non members that come and see if friendships
formed at a B I. T Roley Durham event, you know. And
you know it was a we had the Diversity Connect mixer here in Durham not
too long ago, which was very successful, and it was this group of
girls over there talking and they like hanging out now outside of bit stuff,
you know, and they talking about like their careers and you know, I
do this, I do that. Have you experienced that? So it's a
it's just having that place where people can make connections and get real information from
each other, you know, like as leaders, they may not always get
you know, get the information from us. But we have smart, right
intelligent members who know a thing or two as well, so we don't always
have to be as leaders the source. You know, they can be the
source for each other and to be able to curate that and put that those
people in a room where we can find a topic that they care about.
And get trusted people to talk about that create a talent acquisition pathway. But
then at the same time having them have that place of that that that pocket
of affirmation, that's what I love most about it, you know, you
know, that's that's that's what it is for me. It's always for me,
it's always about the members, and it's always about the community I grew
up in. So that's what that's why I look. Yeah, I have
to say bitcoin is always like the pinnacle of the year when it comes to
just happiness and and because you you know, you go to bitcoin and you
see all these different relationships being formed and just friendships being formed, and not
only that, Like you said, man, there's there's something very powerful about
people engaging with one another in a in a way, uh that they're not
able to like maybe in their workspace like there they see another black person in
tech and their ods lot of and it's just like oh wow, Like I
can go and talk to you about tech, but I can also talk to
you about hair problems, right, Like there's there's there's a specific I think
like there's there's this cultural part of that that that like you said, like
that safe space and it doesn't necessarily mean safe from physical harm, but that
just one of my and I think this is kind of like a premier example
Smart Dudies. He's out of Austin, Texas software engineer, one of the
smartest people I've ever run into. And he he was part of BIT,
like way back in the early two thousands, like when I first started BIT,
and I got to know him through BIT and I ended up going to
south By Southwest and Austin one year and actually stayed at his house. And
he said, like, it's not about the tech part, he said,
because I can go to any conference and talk about tech, right Like I
can talk tech with anybody. It's hey, can I talk to you about
tech and then pivot from that and talk to you about Wu Tang? And
I was just like, wow, Yeah, you're right, like those types
of conversations. Not saying that white people don't listen to Wu Tang. That's
not what I'm trying to say. I'm saying that commonality, that cultural piece
that that that that we have. It's huge from a from a you know,
a safe mental space, right, Uh, just being able to talk
about that period like out of the blue, like it might not have anything
to do with anything. Yo. You see you listen to that New So
and so album? Yeah, I did. What do you think about?
Oh man, that's dope. I like this, like those conversations and it's
not necessarily about music, but it could be about other things might not happen
at any of these other, you know, type of conferences. Uh So
that level right there is powerful and I like seeing that because I've seen even
I've seen it at Bitcoon, like you know, we did the step Show,
but even outside of that, they were like there was like this segment
that that's it's captured on video where uh these people are dancing to Beyonce,
right, Like, Okay, what are you gonna see that? Where when
are you going to go to another tech conference and see a group of young
men and women all there excited about tech, excited about being but in dancing
to Beyonce like loving like that that that camaraderie, that fellowship that you feel
right there, Like that's that's what I love to see. Yeah, that's
what I was saying, And I'll be if I could say one more thing,
I'd be remiss as like if I don't say this as well, we
like our chapter We we helped black owned businesses in the area too. Because
we have such a huge member base, I think we're over like I think
last time I checked, we were like seven hundred and thirty one. I
know there's like chapters that are larger, but that's that's pretty sizable for Raleigh
Durham. Yeah, And so we use our platform to make sure that we
support black owned businesses, right, like even like the ice cream social for
the culture, Like you know, she's always supported our chapter and then when
she was going through trouble she called upon us. And sometimes when you know
that there's something's going wrong in Roley Durham, sometimes God will send a chapter
like RDU to come help solve a problem, you know. And that's what
that's what we do a lot of. Like even though we have a photographer
that we use as a friend of mine, he's an entrepreneur and he's done
photography for about three or four of our events and from our events, he's
gotten so much business. He the first time, the first time he did
did something for us was the melanim mixer. I wanted him for the SaaS
event but he wasn't available. But if we ever run it back with sas
again. I like, yo, you got to use my guy Rio So
did the melanim mixer. Man, he was washing my car here because he
has a car detailing service. He was like, dude, I don't know
what you do, man, but I see you all the time, Like
what do you do? It's like, yeah, I do this. I
He's like, hey, man, I do photography. I saw y'all be
having events. He's like, man, y'all ain't got to pay me.
I'll come do it for free. I was like, you sure, because
we want to support you. He's like, no, brother, let me
just come show you what I can do. He came to the melan and
mixing. Man, those photos that you see, man, that was all.
That was all him. And from that event he's been booked and busy
ever since October. That's nice. Ever since members use his services, other
companies using services. The company that was hosting it, Ovalert, they called
him for an event, a corporate event. He's been booked in busy ever
since. So's and the last two events we made sure he got paid.
He just all the photos from the Diversity Tech Connect mixing. That was all
his photos, the video recap and every time I talk to him, Man,
I'm booked me. I'm booked for the next three weeks. Man,
If y'all got another event, they gotta let me know. And all the
black owned businesses like they've gotten new business because of us highlighting them and people
coming to our events. Oh, I've never been to bert because so oh
wow, I'm gonna bring me, me and my girlfriend gonna come back here
next week. So that's I wanted to make that a point as well,
because that's another thing that I love to see, and I think that's another
thing that we all on our leadership team love to see. You know,
we support we support the black owned businesses here in the Rollydrum area. Every
event for us is not gonna be a tech event. Sometimes it's just gonna
be a community event. Sometimes it's just gonna be a gathering of like minds.
That's that's what it's gonna be. And I think that's what people love
about us, is that I don't have to be intech to come to an
event. We tell Nesby hey Nesby is like our cousins. We tell them
to pull up, come through, come through National Black NBA, Latina's in
Tech North Carolina. They are new friends. We tell people to come.
We want to be a beacon in the community, you know, and then
somebody who's not in tech an event they come to may inspire them to get
intech, and there you go, you got a new member, you know.
So that's what we do. Not to be too long winded, but
I had to say that, no, no, no, I love it.
I love it, man, and I love you. Touching on having
other organizations be a part of the festivities of the events as well, that's
one thing that I wish there was more of in general. I think they're
I think it's getting better, but I would like to see it get much
better. And I say that because with this, like the Cincinnati chapter,
we we we just co hosted an event with with the road Pitch, a
young lady who's actually here. She's been going to different various different cities and
having like this traveling like uh pitch competition. One of the things that you
know, I kind of spoke a little bit, but one of the things
that you know, I said was like, this is this is something that
we need to do more of, like this level of support for one another
because this DEI, this attack on de I is real. I just read
a a an article today that talked about how they were about to try to
use like civil rights era laws, uh to go against what they consider anti
white racism, right, and I was just like, it's it's it's it's
at a point that I haven't seen it before. And I don't know if
it's because it's like social media and all that stuff being but it's still like
at a fever pitch right now that this attack. Like over the past couple
of years, they've they've taken words like woke and made them into something negative.
They made DEI into something negative, anti black racist, like they made
that into negatiwit anti, like all this stuff like to attack. So I
think it's important for for for organizations like ours to support one another, you
know, the nasbys, the b d p as, the efforts like I
really do. And it's been hard over the over the years to do that,
but I would like to definitely see more of it. So it's good
to hear that already US is doing that and and and kind of and making
sure that you all maintain those, uh, those type relationships with those organizations.
Before we get out of here, let's let's talk about like what's next.
For you, and let's talk about what's next for RDU, Like what
are some of the things you all are putting together for the spring and the
summer that you that you feel people should know about. Yeah, for sure.
You know, for me, I'll spend a short amount of time on
me when I'll spend most of my time on the chapter. You know,
we just mentioned the book, so I'm I'm writing that I got a deadline
coming up. So you know, that's very exciting being the first time author
getting ready to you know, just experiencing all the things that you didn't know
when to authoring the book. So that's next to me speaking at Dreaming and
Color in uh in New Orleans in June. And I think we're actually in
the process of myself and also some other big leaders forming a partnership with them
as well, you know, for for for our entire national member base,
and you know, just you know, continue to forge a way at my
you know, my talent acquisition career, continue to grow. But for the
chapter, you know, we got a lot of exciting things coming up.
MetLife is expressed, you know, a minse amount of interest in being a
chapter sponsor, and I think I talked to one of my vps today,
Uh, Tanisha, I think she said that they confirmed. So she's been
really vital in spearheading and cultivating that relationship with MetLife here locally. They got
a big campus just like probably twenty minutes for me. They've expressed interest in
doing three events with us, so I'm really excited about that. That's what's
coming up for us. I know we we have with our calendar, our
program of calendar is pretty much already booked up. We know we're gonna do
an event with Cisco, Like I said, three with MetLife. I think
we got an event with UBS also known as Credit Sweet coming up, you
know, starting to plan with that. I know Lashanda she just forged a
relationship with Durham Tech Community College, so we got some things coming up with
that. Just a litany of things, you know, you know, just
it's just so much going on, but those are the key things. The
met Life chapter sponsorship is going to be huge for us. You know Lenovo
there, they're gonna do some stuff with us as well. You know,
Durham Tech. You know what Lashonda was able to forge for us, Cisco.
I think we're going to do something later on yeah, got a lot,
and I'm probably forgetting something because we're doing a lot of incredible things.
But you know, but yeah, that's that's really what's it for the chapter.
I'm really proud of the chapter. I'm really proud of this, this
kind of community and nucleus that we that we forged. And thank you for
your vision and starting all of this. None of that, none of this,
none of this, none of this happens if you don't have that vision
and that passion to start all of this. So appreciate you. I appreciate
that. Yeah, yeah, it's it's funny, man. I've always done
audio podcasts, I've done like some video here and there. One of the
things that one of the reasons and this is not me, like I don't
I don't have an ego, Like I feel like I'm the same old Greg
I was from you know, before I started bit. I know that,
you know, it's it's it's different now, you know. Wait. But
at the same time, like I don't want people to uh, there's I
just I feel like I'm a I'm like a servant leader. Like I don't
I don't need the accolades, I don't need the you know, the spotlight
and everything like that. But someone was telling me that they felt like it's
important that you show your face, right, It's important that people see you.
Because I go to like bitcoin, like and this happens every year.
I'm walking around, people don't have an idea of who I am, right,
and I just which is cool because I like being able to just sit
down with people and get like they're true out there. Not saying that people
are fake around me, I'm not saying, but I'm saying like people might
change. They might change up depending on you know, who you are or
whatever. So I'll go and I'll talk to people and they'll be like,
yeah, so you know what brings you to bitcoin. I'm like, yeah,
I'm the founder, Oh yeah, the founder of what like a bit
And they're just like really, yeah I am. And they're just like I
would you know, I've had to the number of people I would have had
no idea, Like you're just walking around here like you you're just a regular
person, Like I am a regular person, Like that's how That's how I
am. But you know, doing the video podcast is more so for you
know, like I just I would like for people to recognize me a little
bit more. Uh, and just to put a face to the name,
so to speak. Right, It's not you know, I don't I don't
need you know, news cameras around me and hey, you've done this,
you've done that, Like that's really not me. But I like the visual
aspect of what of this and not just the voices, so that other people
in our community can see this conversation, see two black men talking, you
know, and as I'm interviewing more and more chapter leaders see a black man
or a black woman talking about the tech industry, about community, about all
those things and and and can see themselves in us. And I think that
that's important. So yeah, I definitely agree, Like, especially in our
in our community and our culture, images matter, but most importantly positive images
matter. And a lot of our young brothers and sisters coming up, they
they need to see positive black men, positive black women, and not only
like you said, not only hear their voice, but see them. So
yes, they can see us in themselves and vice versa, right, because
I think, yeah, I one hundred percent think like the imagery is one
hundred percent important, So I love it. Yeah, well, Bobby,
this was fun. Man. I'm really excited that you were the first person
that I interviewed coming back to the podcast, because, like I said,
it's been man, that might it's been months since I did a podcast.
Uh and it's been like the first video bit Tech Talk podcast. You know.
I'm glad you were the first person I interviewed, really excited about what
already you was doing, really excited about you being the leader there. Hope
to see you a bitcom Are you Are you coming to Big hone? Oh
yeah yeah, we definitely gonna be a big con. Yeah yeah, we
yeah, yeah, we definitely gonna we definitely gonna pull up. It's gonna
be this year. We definitely come. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's gonna
be exciting. Man. So so yeah, Man, I appreciate you.
Appreciate everything that you all are doing, all the you know, AREDU leadership.
Uh and let me know about that book when it comes out, hit
me up. I'm gonna put it everywhere. I'm gonna promote it, you
know. Uh So just let me know. Man. Yeah, appreciate you,
Greg, Thank you, Thank you man. Definitely appreciate having you take
care of all right. Thank you everyone for checking out this episode of the
Big Tech Talk podcast. If you like and saw what you heard. Smash
that like button and subscribe to our channel and stay in tuned with us for
our next episode. Until then, keep stopping the divide. Yeah,