Latest / #TheTechHustle Podcast 🎙 / Backstage with BobbyD featuring Daniel Adeyanju

Transcript

Backstage with BobbyD featuring Daniel Adeyanju · #TheTechHustle Podcast 🎙

0:00
Speaker 1: I'll be anywhere and I'm where I'm supposed to be.
0:02
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
0:03
Speaker 1: And I usually tell the story of growing up watching my dad build computers to put food on our table.
0:07
Speaker 1: And it's later in life when you realize how powerful that image is and the through line is that I found that that created this desire in me that more people could have that kind of experience.
0:21
Speaker 1: So, through line in my career, coming to the point where I am now, I'm a speaker, my company is called Be Great Today.
0:27
Speaker 1: So I do speaking, I do consulting, I do some writing as well.
0:33
Speaker 1: My whole goal is to unlock human potential and to get people out their head and solve the world's problems with intent and focus.
0:55
Speaker 2: Welcome, welcome, welcome, what up.
0:58
Speaker 3: D-Hustle.
0:58
Speaker 2: What is going on?
0:59
Speaker 3: there, guess where we at player.
1:00
Speaker 2: I love the Big Apple baby, I know, every time we come to Big Apples, you always be all happy.
1:05
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
1:05
Speaker 2: How have you been enjoying the weather?
1:07
Speaker 3: Beautiful.
1:07
Speaker 3: Better than Florida?
1:08
Speaker 3: Ah, look at you Right now.
1:10
Speaker 3: Better than Florida?
1:12
Speaker 2: Always better than Florida.
1:13
Speaker 2: Big shout out to our family here in NYC.
1:15
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, the Florentinos they.
1:25
Speaker 2: But as always, I want to say Thank y'all so much For pulling up to Backstage with Bobby D.
1:27
Speaker 2: We out here In New York City Having a great, great time, but I got a really Great guest for us, who we got, who we got.
1:32
Speaker 2: We got my guy Daniel Adianju.
1:34
Speaker 2: What up my guy?
1:36
Speaker 1: How did I do?
1:37
Speaker 1: How did I do?
1:37
Speaker 1: You did it perfectly.
1:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you did it perfectly.
1:39
Speaker 1: I was trying to train you the Nigerian version.
1:40
Speaker 1: Fact but even my grandpa would cringe.
1:42
Speaker 1: But you did excellently.
1:43
Speaker 2: I appreciate you, my brother.
1:44
Speaker 2: Go ahead and give me but you got to give us, the Nigerian, the real way of saying it.
1:48
Speaker 1: The closest I can get.
1:49
Speaker 1: I day on you.
1:50
Speaker 1: So, for my Yoruba folks.
1:51
Speaker 1: Don't cringe, I'm doing the best I can.
1:53
Speaker 1: Fact I day on you.
1:53
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to connect.
1:54
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:01
Speaker 3: I day on you yeah, I did that's what it's up, my god, I love it I like it.
2:07
Speaker 2: Daniel, thank you so much for pulling up the backstage with bobby d.
2:09
Speaker 2: Uh, it's one of our uh ventures that we go out across the country, around the world, speaking to like-minded people, but also people that I really respect in the industry and what they're doing.
2:19
Speaker 2: Um, I'm not sure if you've seen some of our content.
2:23
Speaker 2: It is all chill here.
2:24
Speaker 2: I got my guy D Hustle in the cut holding it down.
2:27
Speaker 2: We love you, d.
2:30
Speaker 2: They're always screaming for him, but Daniel for sure, man, I wanted to give you a quick second and actually more than a second to introduce yourself to the audience, because we're really excited about our conversation today, because my guy went from the Bronx to the Bay, back to the East Coast, from from Bronx to New Jersey and holding it down.
2:48
Speaker 2: And let me tell you, it's international baby International.
2:51
Speaker 2: I like it and whenever I'm in the scene, I always see my guy, daniel, there.
2:54
Speaker 2: So what's going on?
2:55
Speaker 2: Man, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you came from, and, yeah, kick it off in conversation, my guy.
3:05
Speaker 1: Man I got to say first, all glory be to God.
3:06
Speaker 1: When you say it, just hear it from you.
3:07
Speaker 1: I know it's a God thing.
3:07
Speaker 1: The Bible says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
3:10
Speaker 1: So how powerful that image is.
3:13
Speaker 1: And the through line is that I found that that created this desire in me that more people could have that kind of experience.
3:21
Speaker 1: So I was born in Jamaica.
3:23
Speaker 1: Shout out to my Caribbeans.
3:25
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm connected to my Aitans.
3:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we out there, Ait, ait, all of my.
3:30
Speaker 1: Caribbeans right, so I'm connected to my Dominicans, my Puerto.
3:33
Speaker 2: Ricans.
3:34
Speaker 2: Oh, shout out.
3:34
Speaker 2: That's the stop of a moment of pause there.
3:36
Speaker 2: Y'all know how he is right the audience, right the caribbean, you got most of the world this is not a paid program.
3:42
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, everybody no camera com sponsored you know, and um.
3:47
Speaker 1: I was born an immigrant.
3:48
Speaker 1: Both my parents are nigerian yoruba ethnic group.
3:51
Speaker 1: Um.
3:52
Speaker 1: From um ocean state, ogun state.
3:55
Speaker 1: Um.
3:55
Speaker 1: I've been ocean state, ogun state.
3:58
Speaker 1: I've been to my village where my dad is from Obaile and I've met my grandfather.
4:07
Speaker 1: He just turned 95.
4:08
Speaker 1: Oh shout out to him so my story began before I was born.
4:11
Speaker 3: Facts.
4:12
Speaker 1: Back home in Nigeria and my parents left Nigeria knowing that they wanted to put God first.
4:17
Speaker 1: They wanted to serve God, they wanted to manifest his glory.
4:21
Speaker 1: So, coming to Jamaica, it was a God move.
4:23
Speaker 1: They came before we had the email and internet.
4:26
Speaker 1: There was a job.
4:28
Speaker 1: They they heard rumors about jobs in jamaica and they showed up with nothing.
4:33
Speaker 1: Signed up and god's orchestrated the step.
4:35
Speaker 1: But they got jobs there, they were able to work and then they had me and my brother, um, and starting off in jama, clearly I had a Jamaican accent, that's how I learned to read and write between Jamaica and then Antigua ultimately, but the whole time my dad was building computers.
4:52
Speaker 1: He would come to the US, come to trade shows, take classes, and at that time my dad would tell you they were gatekeeping like crazy.
4:59
Speaker 1: It was really the electrical engineers.
5:03
Speaker 1: If you think about Silicon Valley, these were PhDs that were hobbying.
5:07
Speaker 1: There was a certain milieu that they had, so there was a lot of gatekeeping.
5:12
Speaker 1: So even the folks that would learn it would be like no, you have to be an electrical engineer to touch this.
5:16
Speaker 1: And my dad has studied electrical engineering so he had that entry point.
5:21
Speaker 2: He was ready.
5:21
Speaker 1: He was ready and he's a great gate cacher.
5:24
Speaker 1: He's like let's simplify this, there's some simple concepts that you can use so you can start fixing computers and putting them together like he was on our table.
5:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
5:32
Speaker 1: So that there was a mixture of entrepreneurship there.
5:34
Speaker 1: He wanted to be able to serve God as a pastor without having to necessarily take a salary, which is.
5:41
Speaker 1: Being a pastor is a legitimate job.
5:43
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work, but he had a special anointing and assignment to be able to get into technology at this very critical stage.
5:50
Speaker 1: I like to joke that this is the AI of the 90s.
5:53
Speaker 1: That's the AI of the 90s just having a computer in your house.
5:56
Speaker 1: So he would build those computers in Jamaica, then Antigua, and he would teach others to do the same, and then he brought the whole family to California at six years old via California.
6:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, oakland, California.
6:10
Speaker 2: Ah, so he was out in Oakland In the Bay.
6:12
Speaker 2: Big shout out to Oakland.
6:13
Speaker 2: So the Bay.
6:15
Speaker 2: You see that through line yeah, the.
6:16
Speaker 1: Bay.
6:17
Speaker 1: I remember my first memories of the Bay was seeing liquor stores everywhere and I recognize that in Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor.
6:24
Speaker 1: Yeah everywhere and I recognize that in Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor.
6:25
Speaker 1: Food and Liquor's on every block, food and Liquor stores on every block.
6:28
Speaker 1: His sister said that poem.
6:29
Speaker 1: That's what I came into.
6:31
Speaker 1: Yet in my house technology was being built Fast forward.
6:35
Speaker 1: I had this interest in technology.
6:38
Speaker 1: I didn't pursue it at first because in reality it was only technology was really only happening in my house.
6:43
Speaker 1: In high school I had some folks that I would rock with.
6:46
Speaker 1: One of my boys shout out to Jake Zhang we used to rock in high school together and we would do technology together.
6:53
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until I graduated from my undergrad which was actually a combination of Africana and biology that I realized tech is eating the world and none of us are in it.
7:04
Speaker 1: So I felt like I have a responsibility, because I know what's happening and I know I have the acumen for it.
7:11
Speaker 1: And I've been doing it, Like in church.
7:12
Speaker 1: I would make websites, I would take my dad's C++ book and crash the code and then move on to Dreamweaver.
7:20
Speaker 1: Growing up in the Bay, taking all those lessons that I had learned just growing up in the church, making things happen, it inexorably led in this direction that I would be in tech in the 20 aughts, in the 2010s, and I had the opportunity, through this friend, to connect with a founder who had previously been a product manager, previously computer science at Columbia University and I saw a pathway.
7:50
Speaker 1: I had never heard of product management, the concept of starting a startup and the possibility of this.
7:56
Speaker 1: Could.
7:56
Speaker 1: I could run this up, or at the very least I learned a lot Now build relationships.
8:02
Speaker 1: So I went on that ride with Jason Liang with a company called Bring Me that it was an online food ordering platform, and I just learned so much about product development, running a team, sales and marketing.
8:15
Speaker 1: So many lessons there.
8:17
Speaker 1: So that really started my career in tech.
8:19
Speaker 1: And then I said I want to be a product manager, I want to be a builder that actually can get technical.
8:25
Speaker 1: So I did a second badge as computer science, I did a coding boot camp and then I got a job as a software engineer at Macy's Big shout out.
8:34
Speaker 2: So that brought me back to the Bay.
8:36
Speaker 1: Macy'scom.
8:37
Speaker 2: You already know.
8:37
Speaker 1: Soma no longer in that particular location.
8:41
Speaker 1: They've since moved everything to Atlanta.
8:43
Speaker 1: But, that gave me a great time in the Bay, but while doing that, my nights and weekends I would reach out to people from my alma maters, both my college and my high school, and just try to put them on tech.
8:55
Speaker 1: Like are you thinking about tech?
8:56
Speaker 1: I know you want to be a doctor, but can you get some tech in that too?
8:59
Speaker 1: I know you want to be XYZ a lawyer.
9:03
Speaker 1: Let's get into tech.
9:04
Speaker 1: So in the 2010s, I just feel this urgency to tell as many people as possible we need to get these tech skills.
9:10
Speaker 1: So that ultimately led me to take a role at CUNY CUNY Lehman College, where I had done my second bachelor's in computer science as a career coach for computer science majors and an ecosystem builder.
9:21
Speaker 1: So I would just bring people from the industry to the Bronx, bring people from the industry to the Bronx, bring people from the Bronx to the industry and just connect the dots.
9:29
Speaker 1: So I just started this through line of just being a connector and mentoring as many people as I could.
9:34
Speaker 1: While doing that, I felt there was a limit in the throughput.
9:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in higher ed, right Like, people are taking five, six years and not always getting what they need when they graduated.
9:46
Speaker 1: So I saw the coding boot camps and the tech boot camps as an opportunity.
9:51
Speaker 1: So I had done one while I was in school, so I doubled up, got the tech experience.
9:55
Speaker 1: Wow.
9:56
Speaker 1: So shout out to CodePath because they're doing them both at the same time.
10:00
Speaker 2: Amazing.
10:01
Speaker 1: And I saw them coming up and I just said this is exactly what you need.
10:03
Speaker 1: You need to retrofit higher ed.
10:05
Speaker 1: So, by the grace of God, I connected with a brother by the name of Richard Rivera who knew a tech titan by the name of Sheldon Gilbert who had started, who was in the process of starting a DevOps boot camp, hip to what DevOps is the infrastructure layer, kind of connecting my dad's IT background and that I kind of was running away from and the software engineering that I ran to and putting the two together in the sense of really serving engineers so they could do better work and increasing the quality of the software through delivery.
10:42
Speaker 1: So, and one of the things that really captivated me about that work is that it's actually very people-centered yes, it is, it's about culture.
10:48
Speaker 1: So picked up a lot there.
10:51
Speaker 1: And then, after that time at Cura Labs, I decided to take on another role at the Knowledge House as a director of first programs and then partnerships.
11:06
Speaker 1: So, working with Joan Rodriguez, we helped hundreds of students find meaningful work, upskill themselves, develop their soft skills, get mentorship, connect to companies.
11:17
Speaker 1: So, through the line of my career, coming to the point where I am now, I'm a speaker, I'm a John Maxwell certified speaker.
11:25
Speaker 1: My company is called Be Great Today, so I do speaking, I do consulting, I do some writing as well, and my whole goal is to unlock human potential and to get people out their head.
11:40
Speaker 1: So they can solve the world's problems with intent and focus.
11:45
Speaker 2: Let's give him a big round of applause for that.
11:47
Speaker 2: And let me say, daniel, first of all, I didn't know the backstory.
11:51
Speaker 2: Now I know why you pushed so hard my guy and it's very appreciative and I hope your audience can see that having a family around you and setting standards, setting ways that you can level up without you know, following other pathways and utilizing the resources and access that you have, like being a child of an immigrant.
12:12
Speaker 2: But it's like two layers of immigrants.
12:14
Speaker 2: Right, because you went from Nigeria to Jamaica, jamaica to the States is like even more impactful, just for mindset wise, because I can see the hustle in you.
12:24
Speaker 2: But I respect it respect it, though, because it has passion behind it.
12:27
Speaker 2: Right, it's not only just trying to check a box off, but it's trying to make sure that you make an impact, because the way that you were describing like even after I was done, I was calling my friends that went to the yo go check out tech.
12:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you need something, I got you.
12:40
Speaker 2: I become the plug, I build a program.
12:43
Speaker 2: I actually learned and seen a gap, because you called out a gap from software engineering to infrastructure devops.
12:48
Speaker 2: Hey, let's find ways to close that gap and then actually work in the environment and get that experience, because now you can really stand on it.
12:56
Speaker 2: You know I'm saying so.
12:57
Speaker 2: First of all, big round of applause for my guy that was amazing story and big shout outs to your pops and your family.
13:04
Speaker 2: Right, because I always tell my son this, and sometimes he's going to be cheering what up, big boy, I'll be like yo.
13:10
Speaker 2: The reason why you see a king in front of you is because I grew up in front of a king.
13:13
Speaker 2: Right, you can't be a king unless you see a king.
13:15
Speaker 2: Right, you have to be in that presence.
13:17
Speaker 2: Right, and the mindset of what you saw your dad doing, like the, the challenges, that he came back home and told you the gatekeeping.
13:24
Speaker 2: But then you kind of see it like, wow, we got these computers here at that house, right.
13:28
Speaker 2: It's like that's the thing that we need to see and set examples, because then you make even greater kings as the generation goes forward.
13:35
Speaker 2: So big shout outs to pops for holding it down and mom and all that good stuff.
13:39
Speaker 2: And and you say you also have a brother, a sibling yes, yes, my, my brother Israel.
13:43
Speaker 1: We are co-founders with three other folks at Co Cafe, a coffee shop in Jersey City.
13:49
Speaker 2: So tell me a little bit about we won't get all into stuff, but I love when you know you're doing things outside of the normal lane.
13:54
Speaker 2: So tell us a little bit about that venture.
13:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
13:56
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for how you just connected all the dots there and I was just.
14:05
Speaker 1: There's so many different parts that I have to.
14:06
Speaker 1: I constantly need that support.
14:08
Speaker 1: I'll do that as well, and I always like to point back to the beginning.
14:10
Speaker 1: So as I mentioned.
14:12
Speaker 1: We grew up building for the kingdom of God, building for God, building for people, right.
14:19
Speaker 1: So the coffee shop Ka Cafe is the Nigerian pronunciation you're about.
14:25
Speaker 1: Ka means to build, to go.
14:27
Speaker 1: It really comes from us growing up in the church and seeing opportunities for people to grow.
14:33
Speaker 1: We've seen so many people grow and develop in their lives and when Israel and I were living in Jersey City together during the pandemic, we used to run past this empty space and we'd both independently been thinking about coffee shops like this idea of community as space for people to develop their skills, a clear business model.
14:54
Speaker 1: We saw a vacancy and we jumped at it.
14:58
Speaker 1: Really, credit my brother at the time for just saying hey, you want to make this happen, let's throw out the bread and make it happen.
15:04
Speaker 1: Brought five of us together and that was in 22.
15:08
Speaker 1: And now we are still running.
15:10
Speaker 1: We're a beacon of the community.
15:12
Speaker 1: People love to come through.
15:14
Speaker 1: We're having an event today for poetry, so it's a space for people to build, be creative, find those other expressions, but so much networking happens there.
15:23
Speaker 1: So, yeah, tech people come through every single day because they want a place to work.
15:28
Speaker 2: Ah, that's what's up.
15:29
Speaker 2: That's right, yo, this is on our list.
15:30
Speaker 2: Next time in the city we're going to dirty city right journey trains to get us over there?
15:34
Speaker 1: absolutely yeah, and we, we do poke.
15:36
Speaker 1: We have a podcasting space, so the space has five jobs.
15:39
Speaker 2: Ah, you know you got to make it multiple streams, right, and but big shout outs to you and your brother for making that happen.
15:44
Speaker 2: But the other thing is is that it wasn't just isolated, but you also allowed other people to be a part of it, because it's a collaborative effort to execute on things like that.
15:53
Speaker 2: Um, so big shout outs for setting those sample examples.
15:55
Speaker 2: You know, I'm saying, uh, we're going to jump back into tech, but we'll probably come back to the coffee shop because I'm trying to pull up, you know.
16:00
Speaker 2: But in terms of tech, wise, um, and I really hear, is that your pops gave you some means of influence, right?
16:09
Speaker 2: And in terms of when you went to school, was that something that also helped drive that decision in terms of what you were going to study, or you were just, you know, looking for what your path was?
16:18
Speaker 1: Great question.
16:19
Speaker 1: So, starting out, when I first went to college at Binghamton University, upstate, new York, my goal was to go into medicine.
16:28
Speaker 1: My mom has a practice in the Bronx.
16:32
Speaker 1: She's been practicing over 20 years in the Bronx but longer throughout her life in the Caribbean.
16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, big shout out to my mom.
16:38
Speaker 1: And you really just see the helping healing professions right spiritually and physically and technologically.
16:44
Speaker 1: It's an important part now as well, um.
16:47
Speaker 1: So I saw medicine as a pathway to helping people, um, and I saw it also as a funding mechanism.
16:55
Speaker 1: I originally wanted to become a senator because I could see it, though right well, yes, and now we're seeing that all they do is just sit around and talk, depending on the different, but what you actually started to see was the rise of the technology.
17:11
Speaker 1: So I was seeing it in real time.
17:13
Speaker 1: Actually, first I saw Mitt Romney as a prototypical tech leader.
17:18
Speaker 1: I mean, if you think about Bain Capital and the kind of mindset that they have, he's really a technology, he's really an entrepreneur and the kind of mindset that they have, he's really a technology, he's really an entrepreneur and he's a prototype for some of the you know, not so great things that we see now sometimes, but the power that they have to do.
17:34
Speaker 1: Good from my perspective.
17:35
Speaker 1: But I ultimately finished my degree in Africana Studies.
17:41
Speaker 1: I took in a lot of biology coursework, but I was really passionate about understanding the black diaspora.
17:46
Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, For sure.
17:47
Speaker 1: So it was very interdisciplinary writing, reading, thinking.
17:52
Speaker 1: There was an aspect of psychology and sociology and public health.
17:56
Speaker 1: So I got this really well-rounded education.
17:59
Speaker 1: But really a lot of that education that I had was in student government and I was the vice president for multicultural affairs.
18:05
Speaker 1: I was constantly connecting in community yeah so when, when I started to see that things were shifting, I knew that in service of community, I need to lean into technology and that's where that previous exposure came into came in handy.
18:20
Speaker 1: In high school it came to be that a lot of the people I went to high school with not even college.
18:25
Speaker 1: We're moving to tech very rapidly.
18:27
Speaker 1: I went to Bronx science um, a great school in the Bronx that's really difficult to get into in the state Um.
18:34
Speaker 1: So community and relationships came into hand.
18:37
Speaker 1: I told you about my friend Jake, who made that connection for um, my first role in tech, and then um, in terms of getting the second bachelor's degree, I had many different influences.
18:48
Speaker 1: My dad was encouraging in terms of being able to get to the first principles.
18:53
Speaker 1: My dad is always reminding me the first principles, First principles, Right, Like I could just go do a boot camp and I saw many people doing that, but getting the fundamentals from folks who know the fundamentals was a value.
19:05
Speaker 1: So I always encourage folks to go do the boot camp, get the skill, get the job and still do what you have to do.
19:12
Speaker 1: Now you can learn online or you could even get your company to pay for undergrad, grad school, additional learning.
19:19
Speaker 1: So the first principles is what my dad really encouraged me to attain.
19:23
Speaker 2: That's what's up and big shout-outs to Pop-Top bringing up the engineering practices and frameworks early in your life in terms of first principles.
19:29
Speaker 2: Um, I bet she was really excited hearing that you wanted to get at the keyboard like that for sure, right?
19:35
Speaker 1: oh, absolutely, absolutely, like just being able to build, yeah we have to build.
19:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure a quick question, real quick.
19:40
Speaker 3: So I know your dad bought um was working on computers.
19:43
Speaker 3: Have you built your own computer?
19:45
Speaker 1: that is such a great question.
19:46
Speaker 1: No, to this day, I have not.
19:49
Speaker 1: I've had this aversion to doing it and I think it's like the father son, like I don't want to do exactly what my dad does.
19:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, and I'm never a gamer, so I never had a real reason to build a laptop and especially as things come towards the laptops, I haven't.
20:03
Speaker 1: As things come towards, the laptops?
20:04
Speaker 2: I haven't.
20:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, my son and I have that same thing right, but the only reason it forced him because he wanted a gaming computer.
20:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
20:12
Speaker 2: And then he was like I want a gaming computer.
20:14
Speaker 2: I was like we're going to build it from scratch.
20:16
Speaker 2: I actually found something, a quick story.
20:18
Speaker 2: I believe it was during the holiday times that I found something on Offer up that this guy was rebuilding computers.
20:23
Speaker 2: They were like older computers with gpus and stuff like that, and I called the guy.
20:26
Speaker 2: I was like yo, I want to.
20:27
Speaker 2: You know cop this, you know computer this, that and this, but I want you to take it apart.
20:30
Speaker 2: He was like, take it apart.
20:31
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, um, just send me the picture that you can boot it up and then take it apart, put it in a box, then I come and scoop it up, type stuff.
20:37
Speaker 2: And then he was like all right.
20:39
Speaker 2: Then he was like but I'm not going to give you technical support.
20:41
Speaker 2: I was like, don't worry about it, I got it and then my son goes with me to go pick it up and he's like, but it's not put together.
20:46
Speaker 2: I was like, guess what we're going to do now?
20:48
Speaker 2: Right, forcing his hand right, and we have a memorable experience with that in terms of me and him and actually my nephew uh, jordan, big shout out to to jordan, uh, uh, because he was there too and we were actually able to build the computer all together from all the pieces laid out talking about all the pieces, stack it up, press the button and it, you know, loads the window prompt.
21:10
Speaker 2: I was first of all, I was like please, please, please, please please everything worked very well, but it's like that same situation that I've forced that, that opportunity for us to do it.
21:18
Speaker 2: Um, but it was because of gaming.
21:20
Speaker 1: Yeah I love that.
21:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, you created that opportunity for your son to see everything together.
21:27
Speaker 1: But it's really about the intention yeah, I wanted him to know that you can do this, and he is going to, over time, see the benefits of that experience oh 100.
21:35
Speaker 2: He's already looking for upgrades.
21:36
Speaker 2: He's like yo pops I want the best buy.
21:38
Speaker 2: I've seen that I was like yo hold on first of all, bro who you went with and why are you going to go look for computer parts?
21:45
Speaker 1: without me.
21:47
Speaker 2: But big shout out to my son, big boy, I really do appreciate him giving me the opportunity to go through that and go through that experience with him.
21:53
Speaker 2: But I know it's going to, like you said, level him up as you go.
21:55
Speaker 2: But back to your story.
21:57
Speaker 2: So definitely like going to college, you know, pursuing that magnificent degree, and I kind of feel like a historian, african knowledge or African experience, like, tell me a little bit about that.
22:10
Speaker 2: Like, because from the diaspora, you know, obviously my ancestors, you know, flowed from Africa through the Caribbeans and we find ourselves in the States.
22:19
Speaker 2: And big shout out to my mom and pops because they're the first generation that came here, I'm the first one born here, but I've never really been able to find, uh, like that connection back to the, the continent, um, and I'm really want to be, you know, hear, um, your experience and you know developing and going deep into there and then also you know, the connections that you were able to make yeah, thank you so much for um for that question, um, so I think it's pretty.
22:48
Speaker 1: It's a blessing to be able to know where my family from, the exact town that they're from.
22:52
Speaker 1: And when I had that experience I think I was like around 10 years old of going to Nigeria for the first time, my grandfather my dad's dad, who's now late lifted me up and said he was so happy to see me.
23:06
Speaker 1: He was so happy to see me and he told me a couple of things.
23:10
Speaker 1: One never remember where you're from.
23:12
Speaker 1: You're from a town called Obaile, that means town of kings.
23:14
Speaker 1: You never remember where you're from.
23:18
Speaker 1: And then he told me there's a phrase that Yoruba, my ethnic group, always use, which is never forget the father of whom you are.
23:29
Speaker 1: So that speaks to lineage.
23:32
Speaker 1: Yes, and I grew up in this Nigerian household.
23:36
Speaker 1: So, beyond just visiting a few times my household, my parents bring Nigerian values in the house.
23:41
Speaker 1: Christian values first and foremost, but Nigerian values.
23:43
Speaker 1: Parents bring Nigerian values in the house Christian values first and foremost, but Nigerian values.
23:47
Speaker 1: Then it's on me to do the extra work to learn more about Nigeria, learn more about my culture, learn more about how the world works.
23:55
Speaker 1: I think that really should be everyone's focus in a broad way, starting with your own world and parts of your own experience.
24:06
Speaker 1: So, growing up in the Bronx, I spent a hot second in South Carolina as well.
24:09
Speaker 1: Growing up in Oakland, I think it created this curiosity about the black diaspora.
24:13
Speaker 1: I grew up seeing so many different people looking at each other weird, like you know, african-americans looking at Africans, nigerians or Africans looking at African-Americans Caribbeans.
24:25
Speaker 1: It's just this.
24:26
Speaker 1: I came to understand over time that everybody's looking through somebody else's lens.
24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right.
24:32
Speaker 1: So, and now I have the language, I want to know what God says about me.
24:37
Speaker 1: What does God say about all of us?
24:38
Speaker 1: And there's gold in all of these cultures.
24:41
Speaker 1: That's what I came to understand.
24:43
Speaker 1: So in my Africana Studies degree it was very, as I mentioned before, very multifaceted.
24:51
Speaker 1: We looked at public health so I got to understand the social determinants of health that have resulted in really shorter lifespans and things of this sort.
25:02
Speaker 1: So it built my empathy, just caring about other people and I think that's the through line of my life, just learning how to love and learning to serve.
25:10
Speaker 1: So my curiosity is driven by my desire to serve.
25:14
Speaker 1: And Africana is again the diaspora, so African-American.
25:17
Speaker 1: I remember taking a class learning about African-American history and realizing that a lot of people will never have this opportunity to learn this.
25:24
Speaker 1: So I became an ambassador for folks, even just coming from the Caribbean, coming from Africa, like hey, take some time to learn this because you may be looking from another lens.
25:36
Speaker 1: So that's been a great benefit, just being able to empathize, just see the resilience, and then I can speak to someone and say, hey, do you know how much resilience that we have?
25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, even as a connected black diaspora coming to the diaspora, the, the resilience of people still in Nigeria right now who have no opportunity.
25:56
Speaker 1: They're looking at us in the U?
25:57
Speaker 1: S like, what are you going to do with your opportunity?
26:00
Speaker 1: Because they don't have any?
26:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, but they're still surviving, they're still showing up, they're still building families.
26:05
Speaker 1: So when I think about the Black Diaspora, I think about resilience, I think about the grace of God that gives us another day.
26:10
Speaker 1: I see culture.
26:12
Speaker 1: We build stuff, we make stuff.
26:14
Speaker 1: We have inventors Right, we have the Bobby D's of the world.
26:17
Speaker 2: I'm out here.
26:26
Speaker 1: I'm out here, anthony Mays, the Latimers of the world.
26:27
Speaker 1: What's up, anthony?
26:27
Speaker 1: We have so much to build, we have so many problems to solve and we are problem solvers.
26:31
Speaker 2: That's what's up.
26:31
Speaker 2: Big shout out and big round of applause.
26:33
Speaker 2: The reason why I'm tying this back together into the intersection of technology because the impact that I see you making every time I see you moving is you are recognizing those that are from the diaspora and making connections.
26:48
Speaker 2: So how has that early studies helped influence you as a technologist?
26:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
26:53
Speaker 1: I think it's made me people-centered.
26:55
Speaker 1: It's made me people-centered and, I think, on a macro level.
27:02
Speaker 1: So people are the center of everything.
27:04
Speaker 1: And then you can also think about different systems.
27:06
Speaker 1: I mean, we have to be systems thinkers, right?
27:08
Speaker 1: So understanding the, the people systems, and how the world works and how, um, some of the, the ravages of of history took place and the, the reverberating effects, but also the triumphs, I think has been very helpful.
27:25
Speaker 1: I also did some coursework in biology as well, and it's crazy how that comes out.
27:30
Speaker 1: Like classes in Java, yeah, it comes from biology.
27:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there's nothing that's just created out of nowhere.
27:36
Speaker 1: They're using other models.
27:39
Speaker 1: So, in my public health class with Professor Okoro she's actually Nigerianian and she had come probably towards the end of my tenure, but we did research, we asked questions, come to find out a couple of years later.
27:55
Speaker 1: That is one of the core things you do when you're building a startup.
27:57
Speaker 1: You're getting feedback constantly.
27:59
Speaker 1: You're doing these needs, assessment, what do you need, what is your?
28:01
Speaker 1: You're doing surveys.
28:03
Speaker 1: Right, you're doing research.
28:04
Speaker 1: So that was very formative in giving me a lot of the skills and, of course, what I just did on the campus, which was as vice president of multicultural affairs.
28:15
Speaker 1: Vice president for multicultural affairs, I was in the business of bringing people together, so I would have events, I would have forums, I would constantly try to troubleshoot issues and understand why weren't people getting together.
28:28
Speaker 1: I would constantly be building.
28:30
Speaker 1: So by the end of, I think, around the time I graduated or shortly after, I came up with this ethos for myself Always be building, always be connecting and always be learning.
28:41
Speaker 2: Let's give that again.
28:42
Speaker 2: Let's give that again One more time Always be connecting as first.
28:44
Speaker 1: Always be building Always be learning.
28:45
Speaker 2: Let's give that again.
28:45
Speaker 2: Let's give that again One more time Always be connecting as first Always be, building, always be learning.
28:50
Speaker 3: So it starts with the people first.
28:51
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes.
28:52
Speaker 1: Then you build in service of those people, and learning happens in order to build Facts.
28:58
Speaker 1: A lot of times, people put learning first.
28:59
Speaker 1: It's learning.
29:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
29:01
Speaker 1: And nothing is built.
29:01
Speaker 1: You have to build, and you're not just building in a vacuum, you're building for people.
29:06
Speaker 2: Facts, facts, big shout-outs to that.
29:07
Speaker 2: And let me tell you, that mindset that you're uh displaying here today, uh is why I'm seeing you out here, my guy, um, because it definitely gives me, in my spirit, you know, um hope that it's not just me out here pushing for the for, for the, for the right reason, not for the reason that most people think we're chasing right, because that that, that mindset that you're setting right there, is going to help change the next generation that is tuned in so big shout out that chair is on fire right now and that's what's up.
29:43
Speaker 2: And and the other thing that I like that you also brought up um, because now we're going to dive a little bit into tech, as you were talking about bio and java right is sometimes I think a lot of you know those that are tuned in is like hey, I'm pursuing'm pursuing this one thing.
29:55
Speaker 2: How does that even ever intersect with tech or has some basis behind it, right?
30:00
Speaker 2: So let me know, in terms of what technology has helped you, or, I'm sorry, what in your past, in terms of your development, has helped with your learning and development technology and then some of the technologies that you've used.
30:13
Speaker 1: So when I think about my past, including my schooling, my upbringing and how it led into technology, um, I think that first, knowing that anything is possible, like just hearing stories from my dad, just like one moment, the bank account not looking right, there is an ad that's thrown up with the tear-offs and um, they come and call him in for a problem that no one can solve and he prays, he doesn't know the answer either.
30:43
Speaker 1: Overnight God gives him something and the answer is solved.
30:46
Speaker 1: So knowing that everything is possible has been with God.
30:51
Speaker 1: Anything is possible.
30:52
Speaker 1: The scripture says that's been a major key for me as a technologist Working as a software engineer, seeing tough problems for me anyway at that stage um, and constantly learning, seeing my dad with all the books, constantly learning.
31:05
Speaker 1: Um, when you learn in school that you constantly are referencing different sources, um, I think seeing great technologists, just reading about them, uh, seeing their examples, has been really helpful.
31:20
Speaker 1: You mentioned the biology aspect when I studied biology.
31:24
Speaker 1: Of course, everybody has biological systems, but even just like that practice of studying a complex system and understanding how the parts work, diagramming them, when you come into software engineering you're doing the same thing in a different way and then you find that many of these systems that we make as man are actually reflections of the systems that God made.
31:47
Speaker 1: So when you study biology, you're studying humans are understanding how things are put together, and then we kind of mimic that technology.
31:55
Speaker 1: So that helps me understand classes and object-oriented programming.
32:00
Speaker 1: Um, even thinking about automation as a way to reduce toil right, you talk about that in devops.
32:08
Speaker 1: Um, you reduce toil so you can get to the stuff that matters the most.
32:12
Speaker 1: Facts.
32:12
Speaker 1: Get to your family.
32:13
Speaker 1: Uh, get to more interesting technology problems.
32:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, get to more interesting business problems yeah, yeah, you talk about language now.
32:21
Speaker 2: When you say toil, right, and then being a reason why you focus on getting rid of toil so that you can do more interesting work, right, um, I have a mantra that I always mention to my mentees and every time I say they're like what my goal has always been to automate myself out of a job, right, the job that I don't want.
32:37
Speaker 2: Like, I want to go do some more interesting things, and during my time at Twitter, I was actually able to really accomplish that, but also see how much it opened me up to even do more right.
32:47
Speaker 2: So big shout-outs to you.
32:49
Speaker 2: Bringing you know the concepts from where you first started, the experience you had with your father, seeing that frameworks, like you said, first principles, principles, and then get into a point where you're actually able to put into practice.
32:59
Speaker 2: Uh, big, big, big shout outs because, uh, it's not.
33:02
Speaker 2: It's not many of us that have a chance to come back and talk about this type of stuff, right, and then when, when we have individuals that are looking into tech, they they have a whole misconception of what it is, right.
33:13
Speaker 2: Um, and when you're able to break it down in terms of skill sets, like that, a big shout out to you on that.
33:17
Speaker 2: So talk about DevOps.
33:19
Speaker 2: So tell me, like the concept of DevOps I know it's probably like five or six years old Before when I was in the industry, they didn't even have that title DevOps engineering but tell me how DevOps has really like shown you the value around you know the developer, the operation side and ultimately creating a way for you to have more free time to develop more funner or bigger problems or solve bigger problems.
33:42
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
33:43
Speaker 1: And I think it's helpful to just think about it in a historical context and this mental model that's emerging in my mind of how we get to AI now right, that's emerging in my mind of how we get to AI now, right.
33:57
Speaker 1: So if you think about the first kind of tech boom in the late 90s, oh, we can use the technology to sell books, we can use technology to do all this stuff.
34:06
Speaker 1: And then there was the big burst in the early 2000s, and then you still had many of the same people who had built stuff come back for another round in the early, in the latter years of the 2000s.
34:20
Speaker 1: But I think the 2010s is when things really took off, things really accelerated.
34:25
Speaker 1: And then you saw an era where they're talking about Web 2.0, where Web 2.0 is when you can actually do the things that you thought, that you know people thought they could do in 1.0.
34:36
Speaker 1: Like everything started to get put online and when things are online now you can see it happening.
34:43
Speaker 1: Like a lot of things, if they're not connected to a system where somebody's, it's like taxes, right.
34:48
Speaker 1: If somebody doesn't see the transactions, it's as if it doesn't happen right.
34:52
Speaker 1: But when you digitize everything now, people can be gatekeepers, they can be intermediaries, people can capture value, and then you get have all this data where you can understand human behavior.
35:02
Speaker 1: So we get big data really blew up.
35:05
Speaker 1: So you have people that had to, you know, really figure out ways to manage large amounts of data.
35:11
Speaker 1: Data warehousing, hadoop, spark all these different things kind of come into being and we go from waterfall.
35:19
Speaker 1: During this process we go from waterfall to agile Facts.
35:22
Speaker 1: Facts Right, because they need to build fast and break things.
35:27
Speaker 1: Facts Right Mark Zuckerberg famously said this at Meta, formerly Facebook, and then at some point he's like we are a billion-dollar company.
35:38
Speaker 1: We can't afford to.
35:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, we need to move fast and have stable infra.
35:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:47
Speaker 1: So we need to have our cake and eat it.
35:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
35:49
Speaker 1: And we're going to make it happen, right?
35:50
Speaker 1: So then you see the need for the rise of DevOps coming out of Agile and bridging the gap between the mythical server creature, right like this bearded big white dude that barely sees sunlight, and this software engineer that is constantly building, building, building, building.
36:14
Speaker 1: So there had to be a bridging of the gap and there had to be building.
36:16
Speaker 1: So there had to be a bridging of the gap and there had to be more shared responsibility.
36:19
Speaker 1: There had to be a level of teaching, right, the DevOps I'll call it the infrastructure person, because the term DevOps engineer is also controversial.
36:28
Speaker 1: But this infrastructure-minded person is also thinking about how the software works.
36:35
Speaker 1: The infrastructure person is actually learning software.
36:36
Speaker 1: Learning software is actually getting into automation.
36:39
Speaker 1: The infrastructure person is educating the engineer, the software engineer, on how the info works and the infrastructure engineer is, as you said, automating himself out of a job.
36:52
Speaker 1: He's saying, hey, you are the infrastructure engineer now because I've given you the tooling to be able to do that Facts, so that you can move faster.
37:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I mean, I can articulate it now, but I know that when the process, when I first started getting into it, the kind of definitions I was seeing were very simplistic.
37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, devops is a combination of development operations, and I found that to be one of the most meaningless definitions.
37:20
Speaker 1: So I got to the heart of what it is by talking to DevOps engineers, sres, understanding what are the differentiations, knowing that something can be called one thing in one place and mean something completely different.
37:32
Speaker 1: But to get to the heart of the matter, one of the principles that really stuck out to me is calms right, and it starts with culture, and I know that's something that is you, that's very important to you as well.
37:44
Speaker 1: Culture as this, uh, I think on an individual level, it's actually character yeah right, what do you care about?
37:52
Speaker 1: what are your values?
37:52
Speaker 1: Are you here to serve?
37:54
Speaker 1: Are you just here to extract?
37:55
Speaker 1: Are you willing to take your time?
37:57
Speaker 1: So all these values, if you will, I think are such a core part of DevOps and should be a core part of everybody's work.
38:03
Speaker 1: And then you talk about automation right, why are we automating?
38:07
Speaker 1: To reduce tolls?
38:07
Speaker 1: So we can do more interesting work, so we can get home to our families, so that our customers can have a great experience.
38:13
Speaker 1: Then you have lean reducing waste.
38:16
Speaker 1: You have measurement.
38:17
Speaker 1: You can't manage what you can't measure.
38:23
Speaker 2: I used to say if there's no metrics, then that means it's broken.
38:25
Speaker 1: Right.
38:26
Speaker 1: And then the last one is absolutely, and it's sharing yeah Right, which almost is a loop back to culture, but a culture of sharing and good documentation.
38:34
Speaker 1: I mean, these are life skills.
38:35
Speaker 1: I'm like reading about this DevOps stuff and helping folks get up in DevOps.
38:39
Speaker 1: Of course we're teaching AWS.
38:40
Speaker 1: I taught Python.
38:43
Speaker 1: Teaching is hard, y'all.
38:45
Speaker 1: But, it's so rewarding, but sharing right.
38:49
Speaker 1: That's why it's so important for us to be writing right, even outside of documentation in the tradition sense.
38:54
Speaker 1: When you write and I see your 30 days that you're doing you're putting things out there to serve people and they can come back to that and that's actually an extension of yourself too.
39:04
Speaker 1: So sharing as one of those core principles is really exciting.
39:08
Speaker 1: So DevOps in general now things are moving towards more AI, but it's still the same automation and there's still the question of what are your goals and how are you approaching it.
39:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure, and I think you hit the nail right on its head in terms of being able to describe DevOps in a way that's just not surface level but actually really give you some foundational understanding, because you are right in terms of the gap from dev and operations and closing that gap so that now the software engineer is almost the infrastructure engineer.
39:40
Speaker 2: Right, that's the interface and it's interfacing at a programming level where there's not a person in the loop, and it just changes how we operate.
39:49
Speaker 2: It changes how we scale.
39:50
Speaker 2: One thing that I definitely feel you're calling out is culture.
39:53
Speaker 2: Right, I definitely lean on that.
39:55
Speaker 2: That's something that I picked up working at Twitter.
39:57
Speaker 2: It's like I used to go in the office and you know I'm buttoned up, whatever, and my manager's like Bobby, when are you just going to come in and be you, type stuff.
40:03
Speaker 2: I was like you sure y'all want Bobby D to pull up and I was like all right, then you'll see.
40:09
Speaker 2: And then eventually, what it really did is empower me in an environment that allowed me to have myself, and when I came in, I came in as myself rather than putting up a front or flexing, right, and as soon as I had that, it actually has a trigger for me to be even more innovative, right, because now it's like, hey, I don't have to put up a front when I'm coming off.
40:28
Speaker 2: Actually, I'm feeling good coming into the office.
40:30
Speaker 2: You know what?
40:32
Speaker 2: It's Friday, it's 4 o'clock, let me turn this up so everybody can feel this type of culture type stuff.
40:36
Speaker 2: And then, soon as I started to create that, you actually started to see other people being more innovative and also all the other things that comes with being a and I call myself a diplomat for the customer, as an sre, because I'm the one that represents the customer, right, and we have slas, we have defined up times and if we're not meeting that, you got to come talk to me because you're affecting my I'm diplomat.
40:57
Speaker 2: I'm diplomat for them, right, that I'm representing them, and it just changes the way that you operate as soon as you put these practices into play um, actually into put these theories into practice.
41:07
Speaker 2: But the value system around it is so massive and the thing that's really good about where you're at right now is that I'm behind this big old thing type company trying to orchestrate this stuff and you're able to articulate in a way that's very receptive.
41:20
Speaker 2: You don't have to go to that thing level to get that, because that was always the barrier.
41:23
Speaker 2: Oh sre is google or these big old companies, but the concept and way that you broke that down, big round of applause get my guy I told you I told y'all better be ready to tune in.
41:34
Speaker 2: I told you I better be ready to tune in.
41:36
Speaker 2: I think, in terms of next point in the conversation is I cannot, we cannot, end our conversation without talking about AI, because you mentioned something about there's.
41:49
Speaker 2: This thing that we've been doing in engineering and technology is almost mimicking what has been created right, a mind right or consciousness, or the way that we learn and thought process, and now it's somewhat developing a computing, um, you know, resource or tool called ai.
42:04
Speaker 2: But I want to see what you thought about ai, oh, how you feel about this wave, here we go, here we go um, and definitely some advice for you know, the next generation, because that that's who's tuning in give him a little breath, take some water.
42:15
Speaker 1: He said I got it.
42:16
Speaker 1: I got it.
42:16
Speaker 1: Take some water real quick.
42:17
Speaker 1: You know when you get that eight.
42:17
Speaker 1: That's the question of the moment, I know, and it's only two letters too AI bro, it's wild, it's wild.
42:23
Speaker 3: There he goes, take one more for the culture.
42:26
Speaker 2: You see, I told you.
42:39
Speaker 1: D got.
42:39
Speaker 1: Shout out to the Bronx.
42:40
Speaker 1: Out there, bronx Bombers, let's go.
42:41
Speaker 1: But how do you feel about AI?
42:42
Speaker 1: One of the best I just saw this recently.
42:44
Speaker 1: Ai is amplified intent.
42:45
Speaker 1: So the question is what is being automated, what and from what intent?
42:54
Speaker 1: From what data set?
42:56
Speaker 1: Right, because AI comes down to data that is being essentially fitted on a graph, as you said, oversimplification, right?
43:06
Speaker 1: So AI is basically going to.
43:09
Speaker 1: These AI LLMs have a ton of data that are fed into them and they are approximating and they're, you know, all right, they visibly look as if they are, they're thinking, yeah, but they're really just going based off of the data that's provided.
43:24
Speaker 1: Right, so enter that problem already.
43:27
Speaker 1: What was the intent of those folks that you know the the what, what was the intent of those folks that were essentially created that data?
43:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, not that it was created out of thin air, but, um, what processes led to the intent of those folks that were essentially created that data?
43:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Not that it was created out of thin air, but what processes led to the creation of that data?
43:40
Speaker 1: What realities in the world led to that data?
43:43
Speaker 1: Without having to talk about, we know about algorithmic bias.
43:46
Speaker 1: If you don't, please look it up For sure.
43:48
Speaker 1: There are biased data sets out there that could be essentially automating decisions that are not good for many people, especially black and brown communities, marginalized communities.
44:00
Speaker 1: So I think about that.
44:01
Speaker 1: That's a place that I go, but from a place of love.
44:04
Speaker 1: I believe that we can either think of from a place of fear or a place of love, and from a place of fear you can stick your head in the sand and run away and just be like, oh, I'm going to live in an island, I'm not going to touch this, I hate AI, I'm not going to do anything with it.
44:17
Speaker 1: But that only makes the folks with negative intent and simply just a money-focused intent.
44:25
Speaker 1: The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.
44:26
Speaker 1: So there's some people who really love money that will do evil things to get money that's a fact or they'll make it look good.
44:34
Speaker 1: So I have a lot of hot takes I can give you about something that's coming out these digital twins, where people are in relationships with AI.
44:43
Speaker 1: I think that's just weird.
44:45
Speaker 1: God put us here to love him and to love each other.
44:49
Speaker 1: So if you're spending your time not doing either of those, you're just loving on AIs.
44:54
Speaker 1: Somebody actually just saw today.
44:55
Speaker 1: Somebody said that's a self-own of humanity, because we're supposed to hear and build families.
45:00
Speaker 1: So some people are not going to build families.
45:02
Speaker 1: Oh, that's too hard, that's money I have to give up myself.
45:05
Speaker 1: I could just have a relationship with this AI, and then it's going to be robots too.
45:09
Speaker 1: So we have to get back to basics.
45:19
Speaker 1: Our intent is so important.
45:19
Speaker 1: That's why I started a group called Christians Innovate to empower builder believers to build for the next 550 and 500 years, because what's in us is what's most important.
45:24
Speaker 1: So if I'm in the word of God, I understand.
45:26
Speaker 1: What does God say about me?
45:27
Speaker 1: What does God say about how to relate to each other?
45:29
Speaker 1: I can draw from these timeless principles and I can build good.
45:34
Speaker 1: Well, as opposed to, what can I build so I can make some money?
45:40
Speaker 1: You can build a lot of things.
45:42
Speaker 1: So I think our intent is more important than ever before.
45:44
Speaker 1: We need to be connected to each other more than ever before.
45:48
Speaker 1: If you look at the trend and if you talk about I talked about the rise of big data because they got the data, yeah, and they want to monetize that data um, it's actually about extraction.
45:57
Speaker 1: That's why they said data is a new oil.
45:59
Speaker 1: To get oil, you must extract right.
46:03
Speaker 1: So if data is a new oil, they're taking data from us and using that to connect us to systems that feed our flesh.
46:12
Speaker 1: So you look at gaming.
46:13
Speaker 1: There's like this immense focus on gaming.
46:16
Speaker 1: People are spending all their time on games.
46:17
Speaker 1: That's their life now.
46:18
Speaker 1: That's their reward system.
46:20
Speaker 1: Same thing with social media the endless scroll, doom, scrolling, right.
46:25
Speaker 1: So all of those things actually take us away.
46:28
Speaker 1: Even before AI, these things were being built.
46:30
Speaker 1: Ai is just the.
46:31
Speaker 1: I don't want to call it a conclusion because it should not be the end of the story, but it is very Matrix-like in that we are hooked up to a machine, we're powering this machine, our time is being taken and used and extracted and monetized.
46:45
Speaker 1: So we have to get back to basics.
46:47
Speaker 1: How am I solving problems for my family?
46:49
Speaker 1: How am I spending time with my family?
46:51
Speaker 1: How am I loving my family?
46:52
Speaker 1: How am I getting closer to God?
46:55
Speaker 1: Am I building things that serve?
46:56
Speaker 1: So I think there's tons of opportunities For me right now.
46:58
Speaker 1: I'm really passionate about communication skills as a baseline, for how do we connect with each other?
47:05
Speaker 1: How do we put out messages right?
47:07
Speaker 1: So I want to see people who are great with technology but are also great at communicating ideas, because that's how we build and we solve problems.
47:14
Speaker 1: I want to see a generation of problem solvers, people that have identified.
47:19
Speaker 1: I like to say I'm from the Bronx and I live in Jersey City and I'm in Newark a lot.
47:25
Speaker 1: These are problem-rich environments.
47:27
Speaker 1: I just did the keynote at WellFest for Counter, an organization called Counter, and you see so many problems.
47:34
Speaker 1: If we trained ourselves on those problems and we saw AI as a tool to solve those problems, that love that we have for our communities, that's what's going to make us go learn the calculus.
47:43
Speaker 1: That's what's going to make us learn the programming.
47:47
Speaker 1: And it's because it's directed at solving a problem, not just to have the tools, just to have the tools, just so I can have some money, so I can flex.
47:54
Speaker 1: It's because there's people I want to serve.
47:57
Speaker 1: Even folks who hate AI.
47:58
Speaker 1: Go to law school right.
48:02
Speaker 1: And be one of those people that helps to mitigate the negative effects and amplify the positive effects.
48:08
Speaker 1: Right, go and study business and understand how the economy works, right.
48:13
Speaker 1: So what we can't do is nothing.
48:15
Speaker 1: We must build, we must build.
48:17
Speaker 1: We must build for our communities.
48:19
Speaker 1: We must learn how to be better communicators.
48:23
Speaker 1: I am working on helping people connect with each other better and get out of their heads One of the big secrets out there is that improv is really great for that.
48:32
Speaker 1: Improv right.
48:35
Speaker 1: So getting people out of their head, talking to folks.
48:37
Speaker 1: So I'm looking at how can I use AI to approximate that experience.
48:42
Speaker 1: But also, in addition to that, how do I bring people into physical spaces engaging in improv exercises so we can grow as communicators.
48:52
Speaker 1: And we know that even just to get a job in these days, it's a tough economy.
48:57
Speaker 1: It's all about relationships.
48:58
Speaker 1: It's all about can you connect with people.
49:02
Speaker 1: So we need to focus on that skill.
49:04
Speaker 1: So the irony of it is that the robots are better than ever at being robots, so we need to get better at being human.
49:12
Speaker 1: We need to learn how to connect with each other.
49:15
Speaker 1: We need to learn how to love one another.
49:17
Speaker 1: We need to learn how to love one another and we need to learn how to build for one another.
49:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what's up, daniel, and big shout outs to you on that, because I think sometimes the perspectives of AI sometimes get so clouded and all of these big shiny you know, two new toys, this new bag that you think you're going to get, and stuff like that versus the actual underlining impact that could happen if we all really understand what's happening.
49:39
Speaker 1: You get what I'm saying.
49:41
Speaker 2: That's where I'm grateful to hear you have this mindset, and I know that you're shouting from the mountaintop, so keep pushing, and actually that actually draws in.
49:49
Speaker 2: Another question here is public speaking.
49:51
Speaker 2: So I noticed that TED Talk has definitely been something that you've hit up.
49:55
Speaker 2: You've hit up a TED Talk stage and you're also writing a book also, and you also provide a space at your tea shop or is it a coffee shop?
50:03
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
50:03
Speaker 1: Yes, we have a coffee shop.
50:04
Speaker 2: But how has public speaking, like utilizing that platform, really, you know, allow your voice to be, you know, broader and reach the audience that you're looking for?
50:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a great question.
50:16
Speaker 1: I think, if we just start at the point of speaking in general, that has opened up so many doors for me and I really credit that to the opportunity that I've been given to speak.
50:26
Speaker 1: So, just growing up in the church, youth Sundays, youth ministry, going to different churches and speaking, and even in high school, my senior year, when we started rapping, I felt like I was too shy.
50:41
Speaker 1: I I'll rephrase that I knew that who I was was not who I needed to be in terms of just being able to communicate with people.
50:51
Speaker 1: So a lot of times we think, oh, this is how I am, I'm just shy.
50:54
Speaker 1: Oh, I don't like to talk much, you know what I mean?
50:56
Speaker 1: Mean, like, I like to be behind the scenes, and a lot of times that actually prevents our growth.
51:02
Speaker 1: How can people hire us, work with us, collaborate with us, if they don't know who we are?
51:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, if we don't leave an impression, even one-to-one, not to speak of public speaking.
51:13
Speaker 1: So God has really empowered me, through these looks that he's given me, to be able to to, to stand up and to speak, even just in the classroom.
51:21
Speaker 1: My heart used to palpitate, but I knew I didn't want that.
51:25
Speaker 1: So I would go against that.
51:27
Speaker 1: And then I came to know the psychology of it, like it's a fight or flight response and the right response is the fight and not to run away.
51:35
Speaker 1: So I chased that fear away and grew in confidence in speaking.
51:43
Speaker 1: And then I saw the power of every time that I'm able to speak.
51:47
Speaker 1: So even I go to a networking event and ask a question, so many people see me and they would come up to me.
51:52
Speaker 1: When I'm at work, when there's an event, I'm able to articulate something.
51:58
Speaker 1: So many people are appreciative and I found that speaking is actually service.
52:02
Speaker 1: People think it's about you, it's not about you.
52:04
Speaker 1: And that's actually where your heart rate goes up, because you start getting really prideful and you're thinking about oh, what are people going to think of me?
52:11
Speaker 1: Even here, before, before we start this, I prayed.
52:14
Speaker 1: I said God, allow this to meet the point of everyone's needs.
52:20
Speaker 1: I met a brother on the subway coming here and right before he got off the train I waited too long.
52:25
Speaker 1: It was a brother and I was just like, what do you do for work?
52:28
Speaker 1: He's like I'm about to go to Macy's.
52:29
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I used to be a software engineer there.
52:31
Speaker 1: So, coming here, I'm like I hope he can hear this.
52:35
Speaker 1: What?
52:38
Speaker 1: Coming here, I'm like I hope he can hear this.
52:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, what does he need to hear today?
52:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the key to public speaking is the heart posture of service and, like anything that we want to get good at, it's doing it over and over and over again, but it starts at the heart posture and that's what I coach folks on right now as a coach, as part of my business.
52:52
Speaker 1: How do you identify the problem you want to solve?
52:56
Speaker 1: How do you come up with a message that solved that that problem?
52:57
Speaker 1: How do you identify the problem you want to solve?
52:58
Speaker 1: How do you come up with a message that solved that problem?
52:59
Speaker 1: How do you find opportunities to keep spreading that message?
53:04
Speaker 1: And that's put me on stages in Newark.
53:05
Speaker 1: I've spoken at companies like PayPal, I've spoken on panels for ERGs.
53:12
Speaker 1: I've spoken, of course, at TEDx, and that's given me a big platform as well.
53:18
Speaker 1: So I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak into people's life.
53:23
Speaker 2: That's what I do I speak life big shout outs to you and thanks D for that round of applause.
53:27
Speaker 2: Daniel, this is the thing, man, it's like.
53:29
Speaker 2: The first time I ran into you you were like yo, connect, connect, connect.
53:33
Speaker 3: I was like alright, we can connect it, and then I go and check your page.
53:36
Speaker 2: I'm like yo you, I'm over and then I go go somewhere else and you're there and I was like yo, what's up, daffy up I go this over here and you're there, I'll daff you up and then just that, that presence that you have and and the impact that you're having, I I can see how public speaking um, in terms of just developing but executing on it has really allowed you to be in the right place so that people can receive what you are pouring, because it's all coming from that center, that place of like pureness you know what I'm saying Like there's no front or, you know, you run into somebody and they'd be like yo, can you get me a job tomorrow?
54:09
Speaker 2: I'm like, hold on a second, let's just talk about life.
54:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to see what's going on with you, right?
54:14
Speaker 2: And then when I run into people that really can see what I'm doing, and then I can see what they're doing.
54:20
Speaker 2: That's why we're crossing these paths as we're on this time.
54:23
Speaker 2: So I want to say, first of all, thank you so much for your time today.
54:27
Speaker 2: We're not done yet, because I have one more question, and this is more or less for the audiences what would be some of the closing mindset, tips or advice that you have for the next generation coming up, especially here in the field of engineering and technology that will service the next five to ten years going forward?
54:45
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a great question.
54:46
Speaker 1: So I'm going to answer that in two ways.
54:48
Speaker 1: One is think ahead of the trends to come, since you're talking about technology.
54:55
Speaker 1: So, yes, you're a computer science major, yes, you are a society and technology major, but what are you doing about quantum?
55:03
Speaker 1: So, you can be the expert in quantum before it even comes out.
55:07
Speaker 1: There's programs right now where you can learn the cutting edge.
55:11
Speaker 1: The government has an interest in you learning, so go for the future.
55:17
Speaker 1: Robotics Go build some robots, go program.
55:20
Speaker 1: Some robots, go rock with some drones.
55:23
Speaker 1: Get into the habit of automating away toil, making things easier for people using the technology skills that you're learning.
55:32
Speaker 1: The second, my four P piece framework is people, projects, problem solving and packaging that's what I did my tedx talk on so people first.
55:41
Speaker 1: So fall in love with people, get develop those people skills, learn some psychology, learn some economics.
55:47
Speaker 1: Um, that's a little tangent in terms of business, like how the business system works and economics works and then there's the um.
55:53
Speaker 1: There's the behavioral economics of how people work with incentives and just get out there and just love people and serve them.
56:01
Speaker 1: One of the best questions you can ask somebody instead of asking can I get a job?
56:04
Speaker 1: I hate that.
56:05
Speaker 1: I hate that Because it's kind of an automated thing that people learn.
56:10
Speaker 1: Because you know closed mouths don't get fed.
56:12
Speaker 1: But there's something about building a relationship and serving.
56:15
Speaker 1: How can I serve you?
56:16
Speaker 1: Bobby D is working on so many different things.
56:23
Speaker 1: If you're an intern, if you are a high school student, you have a college student, you have the gift of time, if you can contribute something, if you can find an opportunity for him.
56:29
Speaker 1: I've used that.
56:30
Speaker 1: Yeah and and, uh it's.
56:32
Speaker 1: It's opened up doors.
56:33
Speaker 1: So people first build for people.
56:35
Speaker 1: So think about what projects you can build to do that and identify what problem you want to solve and then, last packaging, be able to tell your story.
56:44
Speaker 1: So, if you can, I would center just to close out.
56:47
Speaker 1: I would center identify a problem to solve.
56:50
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a final problem.
56:52
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow this problem for the rest of my life.
56:54
Speaker 1: People put so much weight on it, but do some thinking what problem do I want to solve right now and get to solving it.
57:01
Speaker 1: Then, if you feel sufficiently that you saw the problem or that you want to move on to something else, move on to another problem, the skills you learned solving the previous problems will transfer over very seamlessly to future problems.
57:16
Speaker 2: You solve, roger, that.
57:16
Speaker 2: My guy, daniel Cue that music up D.
57:18
Speaker 2: Oh, he tried to take it all the way back.
57:21
Speaker 2: Cue it up, cue it up, daniel.
57:25
Speaker 2: I appreciate you my brother, Thank you so much for pulling up you, my guy man.
57:29
Speaker 2: I'm going to see you in these streets as we move in and we're going to be connecting even more.
57:33
Speaker 2: And we're going to be connecting even more because I think moments like this allows me to really build a bond, because we had a chance to break bread in the conversations like this.
57:42
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
57:43
Speaker 2: So we're going to be chatting up some more Now for you audience.
57:46
Speaker 2: Where's the best way for them to get connected with you and find out more about your journey?
57:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely so one.
57:54
Speaker 1: You can find me on LinkedIn, daniel Adiyanju.
57:57
Speaker 1: That's A-D-E-Y-A-N-J-U.
57:57
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can find that in the show notes On Instagram.
58:00
Speaker 1: I am at BGreat and I have a little community there.
58:04
Speaker 1: I would love for you to join At BGreat, bgreat.
58:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah Is my message to you.
58:09
Speaker 1: My company is called BGreat.
58:10
Speaker 1: Today that is my assignment for you.
58:13
Speaker 2: Facts I love it.
58:14
Speaker 2: I love it.
58:15
Speaker 2: So, just like you said, check the show notes in the descriptions below.
58:18
Speaker 2: We'll have all the links and all the ways that you can access my guy daniel.
58:21
Speaker 2: Again, thank you so much for tuning in, or actually coming in and definitely having them tune in to see you right, my guy d hustle, you got any last words player.
58:31
Speaker 3: I'm speechless, I know right this is fire, right, yeah, that's that's the move.
58:36
Speaker 2: He's usually never speechless, right but I will have a lot to say I will say D Hustle helped mark the episode with a special sound.
58:43
Speaker 2: Give him the special sound.
58:44
Speaker 2: So if you had heard this sound throughout the conversation, there's a button that's called a rewind button.
58:49
Speaker 2: Press that back a little bit and listen in, because we are definitely, definitely got some gems that were dropped today by my guy, daniel Tune, in Keep following.
58:58
Speaker 2: Let your friends know about it.
58:59
Speaker 2: Check my guy out if you're here in Jersey City and you need a coffee spot to pull up and chill for a little bit.
59:04
Speaker 2: But, as always, I want to say thank you so much for tuning in to Backstage with Bobby D Holla at your boy.