Technology Thursday | Hello Tech Pros

Anthony M. Verna III, is the managing partner at Verna Law, P.C. Anthony has his Bachelor's degree in computer science from Case Western Reserve and his J.D. from Rutgers Law School. Not only practicing at his own firm, Anthony has lead multiple continuing education classes and professional development seminars including "Practicing Before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board" at Lawline.com.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/anthony-verna-entrepreneurship/

• What could happen if you don't read the End User Licence Agreements.
• The first step every entrepreneur should take to protect their intellectual property.
• Who owns the content when two or more parties collaborate.
• The tricky boundaries when authoring software using open source contributions.
• When Creative Commons is appropriate for your work and when to choose a different license.

Paula Paul entered the workforce as a software engineer after an internship with IBM in the early 80's. Since then she has shipped commercial software, evangelized .NET for Microsoft, and held executive positions in corporate IT. After 'flipping the table' mid-career, she came back to technology through a passion for teaching people to code. Paula is currently an architect with AmWINS Group, Inc. and enjoys work in the community as an ABI (Anita Borg Institute) Syster, diversity speaker, and mentor.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/paula-paul-people/

• Why this is the perfect time to get into the technology industry.
• The demographics of awesome software developers.
• Why "TechnologyPeople" is an awesome glitch.
• The hardest part of working in the tech industry and why we struggle in that area.
• How to get around the passive-aggressive resistance of engineers.
• The win-win scenario of being wrong.
• Why we need to tap into the emotions of the people we are serving.
• The fears and anxieties that hold people back.
• How to find the companies that will support your skill set.

• Career Hyperdrive Course

Brandy Semore has over fifteen years of management experience in various fields with a strong grounding in internet, data center operations and business management strategies. She graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and holds a MBA from Oklahoma City University, with an emphasis in project management and is PMP certified with the Project Management Institute.

Beyond being a working mom delicately balancing her career with her family – she is passionate in helping and serving others. Brandy is dedicated to coaching others in managing successful projects, regardless of one's background or training, as seen from her blog articles Project Success: Six Factors. She is also an advocate for equal pay and equal opportunity for women working in technology. She serves as the volunteer President and Executive Director for Oklahoma Women in Technology (OKWIT), which she co-founded in March 2016. Since its inception, OKWIT has attained over 350 members and expanded from the OKC metro area into Tulsa. She is also the Director of Operations for Pinnacle Business System, a information technology solutions provider.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/brandy-semore-technology/

• When you have women in leadership positions in technology, businesses see an increase in productivity and profit.
• Sometimes men stop talking shop when women workers walk in the room.
• Women built the first computer.
• In the 1980s, women dropped out out of tech jobs and STEM degrees.
• 35% of computing jobs filled by female workers in the U.S has dropped to 26% today.
• Women as a whole have to be guarded about what they say about their careers to not damage the relationships with their male colleagues.
• Many women in technology are introverts and don't like speaking out.
• Groups like OKWIT are connecting women in a safe environment to talk about these issues.
  • Women are starting to feel empowered. They are asking for raises, asking for promotions and getting in leadership.
• Women in technology starts at home as parents. Introduce girls to technology, Legos, telescopes, microscopes, Scratch camps.
• High school admins need to introduce girls to tech opportunities and STEM activities.
• Collegiate professors and administrators need to make females feel comfortable and welcome.
• Don't say things to make a girl feel bad about herself for being interested in STEM.
• When planning an offsite event, include activities that are more inclusive.
• Men tend to ask for raises and promotions more while women wait. Managers need to be aware of this and look across the entire talent pool.

• OKWIT
• Ada Lovelace
• Scratch
• Osmo Starter Kit
• Osmo Genius Kit
• Osmo Coding Kit

Kevin Jean-Charles is the Founder of Transparency Financial Technology Corp which owns and operates Finslide brand, a personal cashflow technology that services families and individuals.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/kevin-jean-charles-leadership/

• What is the #1 priority to your brand? Are you enabling your employees to be successful in that area?
• Support your employees but don't be a "helicopter boss." No hovering.
• Don't count the hours, count the moments and conversations.
  • Your life can change after one conversation. Make sure each conversation will have a positive impact on the people around you.
  • Make each day a masterpiece.
• To engage an audience, whether it be with technology or conversation, you have to make it relevant to them.
  • Helping youth understand personal finance and cash flow means you need to engage them using the user interfaces that help them the best.
• Think before you speak - you don't have to be an abusive boss.

Theo Priestley is the CEO of Cronycle, a content discovery and collaboration platform. Priestley has a wealth of experience in senior positions at software companies and advisory roles working with diverse startups such as Cupenya, and Novaquark (developing the E3 hit Dual Universe). Priestley is very active in the startup community mentoring within UK and US accelerators.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/theo-priestley-productivity/

• Documentation for the sake of documentation is unproductive.
• Kit bags are project and document templates to build on quickly instead of creating from scratch.
• Find like-minded people who are willing to run with POCs and then proving it works.
• Information is everywhere and we are poor at filtering the noise.
  • It feels like we are drowning in a content tsunami.
• Groups tend to fall into the relevance paradox. They don't know to look for different types of information because of the lack of experience and knowledge. (You don't know what you don't know.)
• Automation should be used to augment the filtering process, not replace it.
• Who are the sources that are providing real, diverse value and who are just posting memes? Filter the memes.
• If you have to create a new channel to replace the channel that is just filled with noise it is past time to implement a channel moderator or curator.
• Some content is designed to be point-in-time just for that project and some will be evergreen.
• Be more selective about content you consume.

Kindle Rashod is a motivational hip-hop artist targeting other creative artists and entrepreneurs. His brand involves more than just making music. Through blogging, writing books, podcasts, and videos, Kindle wants to provide information on motivation, productivity, innovation, and faith.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/kindle-rashod-motivation/

• Most people don't have the mindset to be motivated and become successful.
• Successful business leaders, motivational speakers and best-selling authors put a lot of emphasis on having the right mindset.
• Unmotivation is a gradual thing. You can become comfortable at the level you're at and stop moving forward.
• emphasis on attitude about the world
• Prepare your mind and body for success.
• You are the company you keep. If you hang around unmotivated people, you will be unmotivated.
• Stop watching television to increase your productivity.
• Medidate on images of goals. Print out pictures of black checks, money, pictures of audience.
• Write a life plan (business plan for life). Describe what it is you want.
  • How do you want to be mentally? How do you want to grow your mind, education, think stronger or faster?
  • How do you want to be physically? Do you want to grow muscles or build strength?
• Create a supportive environment.
• Whatever your goals are, make it 10x.

Fleshing out the First Campaign Arc

This is Part 5 of a multi-part podcast series.

Part 1: 10 Business Lessons Learned in Roleplaying Games

Part 2: Interview Players for Your D&D Campaign by Playing Board Games

Part 3: Picking a Genre and System for your RPG

Part 4: Developing an Epic D&D Campaign Story

More info on this campaign.

• All the notes for this campaign are for subscribers only. Use the signup box below.

• Info on how to play this campaign.

Priest Willis, Sr is CEO of Affiliate Mission – the fastest growing affiliate management startup in North Carolina. Priest got his start in affiliate marketing in early 2000's where he cut his teeth building a few niche affiliate sites and eventually started managing company programs like Lenovo, Atomicpark.com and BuyCostumes.com.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/priest-willis-entrpreneurship/

• Affiliate marketing is not MLM, get rich quick scheme.
• Amazon was first to put together affiliate programs.
• Entrepreneurs are hungry.
• Many millionaries have 7 streams of income.
• Affiliate marketing is a pay-for-performance model with no inventory.
  • Little risk is involved because no inventory.
  • Build up an audience and be an influencer.
• Subscription boxes are doing really well.
• As a merchant, it's a cheap way to extend your marketing program.
• Find a hot niche right now like Suicide Squad and then sell costumes.
  • Position yourself to look for the new hotness.

Bill Schmarzo is the CTO of EMC's Big Data Consulting Practice and a frequent industry speaker, a blogger, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management as well as an author. Schmarzo wrote "Big Data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science" and "Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business".

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/bill-schmarzo-people/

• The companies who are successful with Big Data addressed the cultural or people issues.
  • How do we get people engaged in the process so that we're delivering the analytics in a way that is actionable to our stakeholders?
• Many companies tend to start with implementing Hadoop and then waiting for magic to happen. It doesn't happen.
• Data science is really identifying the variables and metrics that MIGHT be a better predictor of performance.
  • "Might" is a license to be wrong and in many companies the idea of wrong is bad.
• In the BI space, the IT departments over promised and under deliveredwhich has lead business leaders to be skeptical of Big Data initiatives.
• You have to have a tight alignment between the business and IT to ensure that we are working on the right problems.
• Pick a topic / problem that business users find is important, focus on strategic business initiatives.
  • Create a link between business and data scientists.
• Create a culture of creativity across the whole organization.
  • Creativity is a contagious event.
  • All ideas are worthy of consideration.
  • We want people to be unafraid to be creative and sharing their ideas even if they may not work.
  • The best ideas come from front line.
  • Most large organizations struggle with protecting their own fiefdoms which leads to data silos.
• Big Data is not about big, its about small.
  • Learn as much as possible about individual person, event and situation instead of looking at the average of the data.
  • Aggregated data is the devil. You need to work with raw to serve the individual.
• Big Data initiatives tend to fail because the teams are focused on too many opportunities instead of being focused and priortizing the most important business problems.
  • Focus on one decision which has high value and high feasibility.
• Big Data is a team sport.
  • We need everyone involved, including the business, the IT and the data scientists.
  • Success breeds success. Quick wins will catch the attention of other people and build a grassroots movement.

Nick Rust has spent the majority of his professional career working in Healthcare IT (10 years), with a particular emphasis in Health Care and Medical Device information security.

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/nick-rust-technology/

• It's common that most people don't have experience in healthcare IT.
• When medical devices first came out, it was an instrument, not a piece of information technology.
• Radiology has more tech and devices than most other departments.
• Biotech been around for decades, IT came in 1980s.
• New biotech are computers integrated into the instruments.
  • The facilities and instruments are not good at network segmentation.
• FDA recently said that the industry is far below standard.
• The most basic security features are missing in many biotech areas.
  • No network whitelisting.
  • Running Windows XP.
• Gaining network access to medical devices is an excellent way of escalating level of access across the network.
• If you can gain control of one hospital in a network of 75 means you have a greater chance of gaining access to the other 74.
• If you change how you practice medicine every 18 months, people are going to die. The practice can't keep up with the development of enterprise and personal computing advancements.
• Data security is the best growth area in healthcare IT.