This. Podcast
A podcast experience about friends sharing their views on society and culture. Hosted by Jay Cain, with Courtney Hysaw and Damion Wright. They have compelling stories, amazing guests, and more. Topics range from politics, music, sports, you name it they'll talk about it, but for the most part they like to have fun and laugh!
This. Podcast
#116 - "That Black Tech" (ft. Kham Ward)
In this weeks episode the Jay and crew sits down with Kham Ward CEO and Co-founder of BLK Men in Tech.
We kick off the conversation by discussing the impressive growth of BLK Men in Tech, an organization that champions diversity by creating spaces for black men to interact and build strong communities. Shifting gears, we get into a candid conversation about the pressures of diversity in corporate settings, the impact of nepotism in professional sports, and how power structures within organizations can influence team diversity.
As we round off our chat, we dive into a spirited debate about our favorite NBA teams, and the importance of self-taught individuals in hiring decisions. We continue to shed light on the organizations Thrive and Black Women Tech, their future events, and the paramount importance of mentorship. The episode concludes with a deeper look into the importance of grit and perseverance in achieving success, and the need for equitable opportunities in access to education and job markets. Join us for an episode filled with lively conversation, thoughtful insights, and a good dose of laughter.
This podcast Bussin' Bussin'.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this dot podcast. I'm your friendly host, Jay. Join by my friends. We got Co. Man, what are we talking about? And we got Big Flight, big man, big Red.
Speaker 3:Big Spill.
Speaker 4:Big Kool-Aid, he's here today, huh yeah, big Spill, big Spillage.
Speaker 5:You know, when he was sitting in that chair over there by himself in the corner, he thought of that. What?
Speaker 2:Oh, Big Kool-Aid. Yeah man, you looking rigged, you looking good.
Speaker 4:Big drainage. Man, what are we talking about? Big drainage?
Speaker 5:Big spillage. That's funny man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome to this dot podcast. This is episode 117, and we're at the beautiful Lawrence and Larimer. You could catch them at 3225 East Covax Avenue, or you could come, yeah, or you could check them online. Laurencelarimercom to get your hottest summer gear.
Speaker 5:Black on the wrist.
Speaker 2:Your drip gear. I took it back to the 90s. There we go, you know. Hey y'all, how's your week been? You were in Atlanta, I was. How was that?
Speaker 5:Yeah, man went to a Braves game, that was cool. Got to see my daughter, that was cool.
Speaker 2:Did you stop by any excitement? You talking about wing places? If that's excitement for you, I was thinking about something else, but if food is where you went, to you know I'll spend my money that way, what wing place you check out?
Speaker 5:Man, it was called Crazy Ass Wings.
Speaker 2:You had a good. Tell us about the, Listen y'all Okay.
Speaker 5:I had, hey y'all, I had lemon pepper, Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Can you get them some seeds please? I got some lovely ladies. Let's talk about the guests real quick, though, because we have an audience that came. We got some old friends and also the lovely wife of our guest, eric Award. We got Janelle Hayes to me, you, janelle Hayes to me, all right. And then Bobby Alexander is in the building round of applause Good to see you.
Speaker 4:Look, y'all got your sunglasses on and looking nice. It's Bobby's second time man.
Speaker 2:It is Bobby's second time I see shorts.
Speaker 5:I don't see sun dresses. Well, sun dress, yeah, got them cut.
Speaker 3:Yeah, daisy Dukes, them colors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right Wings.
Speaker 5:Crazy Ass Wings is what it's called.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 5:Lemon pepper sauce with honey, hot Mmm. Hey, jesus, take me home. My life is fulfilled.
Speaker 2:Was this so good like you started sweating.
Speaker 5:I didn't sweat because it wasn't hot.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, ac inside.
Speaker 5:But you know when you like pause and you smile when you eat.
Speaker 4:That boy was in bliss Boy. He was at better than sex wings Nice.
Speaker 5:Much better.
Speaker 4:That boy was in heaven, heaven.
Speaker 5:And the things are still nice and hot.
Speaker 2:Like woo Nice.
Speaker 5:Like big, like big wings. Yes, here he goes.
Speaker 2:Watch Big wings you had to beat him to it right, you had to beat him to it.
Speaker 5:That's funny. No, it was bomb though, all right.
Speaker 2:What about you, cole? How was your week?
Speaker 4:man, oh man it was cool, man, it was cool. Yeah, it wasn't much. It wasn't much. Going on Just work and football.
Speaker 2:Nice peanut butter, yeah, football. What do you mean? Just getting ready 7-on-7s.
Speaker 4:No, you know, Park Hill, pirate stuff, y'all starting up, you ready? Yeah, what's the team.
Speaker 2:You going to bring it back home this year or what man, shit man.
Speaker 4:Our 10-U won it last year. 11-u, the 10-U is not 11-U. I'm pretty sure they're probably going to win it again. Our flag level is strong. I think our 8-U is going to be pretty good. Our 10-U is going to be good as well. So I think, overall, I think we're going to be pretty solid. We're shaky numbers-wise at the 13-U because for some reason in the hood or at least here in Colorado, I know, in Florida, man, it's not an issue At the 13-U level we struggle with getting kids to play football In a gentrified neighborhood. Yeah, in a gentrified neighborhood, it's not the same.
Speaker 5:Got it. What age are you coaching?
Speaker 4:I'm not coaching anything, I'm just doing the work you shouldn't, because y'all lost last year anyway.
Speaker 5:I didn't coach. I didn't coach You're talking about. You look like it on all your Instagram.
Speaker 2:Hey have you ever won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4:Wait, wait, wait. You know what I did.
Speaker 2:Well, I do work for the Pirates, See here it goes.
Speaker 4:I do work for the Pirates.
Speaker 2:You ever won the Super Bowl as a coach?
Speaker 4:As a coach. No, no, I didn't coach, since we were born lost.
Speaker 2:Sorry. You had a nice team though, right.
Speaker 4:What you win. Damon the Wings, God damn I'm on a win contest. God damn, god damn, nathan's Glyzzy, nathan's Glyzzy. I didn't want to Super Bowl Glyzzy, yeah, glyzzy balls. Nathan's, yeah, nathan's Glyzzy ball. Anyway.
Speaker 2:I heard y'all, my week was good, but it ain't about me. And we got this wonderful guest that is joining us from Fort Lauderdale, florida, florida is in the building. Talk to him. Huh, florida Two Ways is in the building. We got Fort Lauderdale and Orlando in the house. Shots for the yeah. Yeah, I used to be in Florida for a couple of years.
Speaker 5:I don't know that you should use shots for Florida. That's probably it. It's a little bit too close to home.
Speaker 2:A lot of shots in Florida.
Speaker 4:Yep, some school shoots out there, you're some school students out there, man.
Speaker 3:Paul.
Speaker 2:That's a shout, paul. Yeah, let's do that again. This boy's been a got a shadow band.
Speaker 4:I don't think so, but hey anyway, this world's pretty sensitive man.
Speaker 2:No, well then that'll be good for us, because then we could get our views up To get viral. Right, get viral. Anyway, we got a diversity and inclusion executive with 12 years of experience leading diversity, recruiting, engagement and social impact strategy, and he's CEO of Black Men in Tech. Give it up for Kim Ward, yes, round of applause.
Speaker 6:Hey thank you all for the new part man.
Speaker 2:I remember you saying that.
Speaker 5:And we get that through the slow clap yeah. You need a new joke, man no but anybody I invite gets a slow clap. Why? Just because they're lukewarm.
Speaker 4:He's such a hater that corny joke he's corny he just won't let nobody live man.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome to the show, Cam man. I know you're coming from Florida, you know, and we're glad to have you. We've been. I think you were supposed to be on maybe a while ago, but you're super busy man and we're glad we could get you out this time.
Speaker 6:So yeah, I appreciate it man. Yeah, this is cool, Like it's good Coming in. Even appreciate what we just hanging out. Man, this is cool, so I really appreciate it, Nice man.
Speaker 2:You could tell he's from Florida because see it's not. It might be cool to you right now because he got the hoodie on like it's cold outside man, we all feel yeah, it's hot to us, but he's like nah, I'm used to that Florida weather.
Speaker 6:And it's 100 degree weather. Man, that's lovely.
Speaker 2:It's lovely.
Speaker 6:Everybody brought a jacket, just in case.
Speaker 4:Man, your thighs is dry right now. You're just dry heat yeah.
Speaker 5:Look at that Sun's out knees out.
Speaker 4:Them thighs. Yeah, you know you getting. Well, you go down south. You got to really get in between them.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you got to get in between them thighs when you take the shower.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you got to get in between them, whatever they know man, yeah, hey, because he wears tidy whitey.
Speaker 2:So real quick, since we talking about.
Speaker 4:They be white too, boy, and they stay that way. Last. Caroline Talk to us, talk to us. They stay that way. Shit, they don't fucking be pristine. I take them, I take them all they be pristine boy.
Speaker 2:No streaks, right?
Speaker 4:No streaks, maybe just like you got them out the package.
Speaker 3:Just like you got them out, the package man.
Speaker 2:If I Caroline, can you?
Speaker 5:go get the tie pin.
Speaker 2:Can you go get the?
Speaker 5:tie pins. Can you go get some oxy clean?
Speaker 3:He's like all right, I'm sorry, cam.
Speaker 2:Back to you, man. But yeah, I'm excited about this because I'm in the tech industry. Ok, also, damon is too. I don't know how techy he is, but like I'm for real tech because I'm like a software engineer, oh, so you're going to pull that card early.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'm going to pull that early, man, because no, he's a senior manager at Salesforce, like somebody who needs to come speak at your conference.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's what I'm saying, so you're going to pull that card early though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to say that, but yeah, I'm doing a little bit. Thanks for putting me on the spot, but tell us a little bit about why black tech, black men in tech and why you decided to start that 100 percent.
Speaker 6:So in November of 2020, right Post, george Floyd a lot of people were asking a lot of diversity officers to stand in spaces and have these conversations. The thing was that we wasn't protected. I couldn't go to another black man and say man, now this day has been telling, this day has been rough, right. So I decided that, out of my own selfish needs, decided to start this organization, and it's basically an organization where we make a space for black men to have conversation, we give them a point to have this camaraderie amongst each other, and it's a space where we're just trying to grow the community, not taking away from anybody else's space, but growing our space. We started two years ago with eight people.
Speaker 3:Got it, that's over 12,000 people.
Speaker 2:Both men and women.
Speaker 6:But it came out of pure need. Honestly, I was looking for a space after I clocked out or closed my computer where I could talk to brothers like y'all about what I'm going through, and not even just job, good, bad, different family, anything we got going on and the organics that I wanted about our organization. So that's why we started, man. It was a space where we just wanted to do good work. It was no plan and we could talk about the bumps in the road and along the way, but it was all about giving back and then making sure that we have a space for us.
Speaker 2:I like how you put that, because I did have a question for you when it came to why you created it, and I was listening to the Work Human podcast I think you were on there maybe roughly a year ago or something like that and I like what you said about for your community and why you wanted to start this or what the ambition was. Is that for us, we tend to focus on two areas right, sports, entertainment and you said you would like to make a third option, which is tech, and to bring that into the community. I think a part of that is because of being your authentic self, so when we're in those spaces, we can be black. When you talk about tech and corporate, it seems like we have to curb our blackness.
Speaker 2:The version of yourself to bring it to work, Exactly to make it work. Tell us why that's so important.
Speaker 6:It's a learning skill, right? So as a diversity officer, you deal with all the things of the company, and sometimes corporate executive leaders. You become part of them, so they say the stuff to you that they wouldn't say to you. Oh, it's just, you're part of us, right? It's important because you want to be able to show up as your authentic self, like accessibility and inclusion to two things that we pride ourselves on access and education as well. It's nothing like you walking into a space. They want to walk into a space. You walk into a space and you can be who you are, what you are, and then later they learn what you do, right. And that's important to me because access is one of the first things. I read a book called Making White People Uncomfortable, and in the fourth, bre said if Aquaman was in the hood, a lot of more people would know how to swim, because they have some visibility to an individual. We have no superhero that look like us.
Speaker 6:I want to take us in a tech space. Black man, we have our fun, we do a hangout and chop it up, but then we can go out into the community and say you know what? You boy, you girl? Tech is an option for you and everybody in technical like you. Now Some people work like myself, absolutely. They're more in a space where we just do the work as well. But it can change your generation.
Speaker 6:And that's the most important piece is that we want to bring out in Black men in tech and I named it that intentional because I wanted everybody to know Black men running this organization.
Speaker 4:Yeah, remember. So what are you guys doing? Man for outreach, what does that look like? You know what I mean In terms of trying to get like you talked about. So James Jay talked about.
Speaker 2:It's James, jay, it's one of the hardest things when she nails hairs, James.
Speaker 4:Yeah, james, all day. You know what. You know what the hardest thing about doing a pod man is. You know when you with your guys you grew up with Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I tell a story real quick, go ahead. So when I told people at my job that you call me killer, right, so anyway, I'll tell them this story. And then white dude, he tries to throw that out there. Killer, yeah.
Speaker 5:Oh, so we're in the meeting, right Head killer.
Speaker 2:He was like hey, killer or a killer, I can't remember, I was just. I was like nah, man, you're good, Just chill. Sorry, I asked you a question.
Speaker 4:Stop no, no oh man.
Speaker 4:But so we talked about, you know, sports entertainment, right, and it's funny because I saw a pod where a guy was talking about how it's crazy how African-American people are taught through and heavily influenced by music. So you put anything in the song and we going to connect to it. You know, like back in the day, you know, a lot of the rap was conscious, right, and then now we're in the space where we're like Pound Town. I knew it was going to say that, yeah. So that being said, man, what are the outreach efforts, man, for young African-American people out there from the tech industry?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so Black Men in the Tech and the Whole. We have three pillars. We focus on care. That's our outreach pillar. We give back to schools, we feed students, we go out and do these things called real men can read. It's about being in the community and in the school we always adopt a couple of third grades, because third grade is that first time that students go from learning to read to reading, to learning Right. So we want to capture them at that space and then we give our scholarship to students Like we try to be on every scene where we can give back. Because if it wasn't for my Kappa League advisor, I wouldn't probably be sitting here tonight today. And the way he crafted my path is because I saw him as a person Right and I wanted to be like him Again. Access and education Right.
Speaker 6:I played sports all my life. I was going to college to play sport and I was going to UF. So imagine taking me from South Florida to UF. If I didn't have someone to help me navigate, I couldn't be where I am today. So I'm big on philanthropic efforts. I'm big on showing up in the community. I'm big on taking care of community. I'm a firm believing in to who much is given, how much is required. So much been given to me, so many things been implanted in me at my outreach. I'll say yes more than I'll say no, and sometimes my team killed me because of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I got one for you. Did you see, like when you talk about much is given and much is required and then being blessed, right, did you all see? Did you specifically see Magic Johnson in the interview with your dude from the Today Show?
Speaker 2:I didn't.
Speaker 5:So his financial group was a part of the Washington Commander's Purchase. This dude was literally in tears like talking about, like hey, I've been blessed, and like I just want to show, like you know from my family, and he talked about the philanthropic efforts and all that and it was powerful to see.
Speaker 6:Cause. Think about this now. Think about this real quickly. We say athletes, we say entertainment, we didn't really talk about it, but the drug dealer.
Speaker 2:The drug? Yes, right, so think about those three.
Speaker 6:Those three cats always come back to the community and give back right. So if the ballers come back and do football camps, you know actors sometime come back and help out the drug dealers. Give you a dollar or two to go to the ice cream store. Thanksgiving Turkey or something you want to be like them, like I remember in Little League. You know I was an athlete in Little League so I was a baller right, and I remember air quotes yeah.
Speaker 6:And you remember and I remember cats used to come up to us and be like yo, if you score this next touchdown, I got $20 for you. Yeah, you know you score that next touchdown y'all. On our street. It was all the boys, y'all. I'm gonna buy y'all the four wheeler to be able. And you saw him. He had all the gold you like. Who is that Right? Why can't we do that in time?
Speaker 4:Man is it. It might be access.
Speaker 5:It's it's, it's, that's what you just said. Yeah, yeah, that's what.
Speaker 4:I'm saying I'm saying cause computers cost Right.
Speaker 3:And, and and the kids. That's as far as what he's doing, yeah.
Speaker 4:And the kids, and the kids would rather have to. Playstation five Come on. A Mac computer Come on.
Speaker 5:Sauce one thing Talk to him. Yeah, so one thing that that he, that Cam and Tamonte Tamonte he has like an entertainment side and gaming side to his, to his conference, that he puts together and it's like okay, you really like this game, I'm going to give you access on how this game is put together, Right, and so he's teaching kids how to code.
Speaker 2:Right, that's dope.
Speaker 5:You know what I'm saying? The stuff that goes into the game to make whatever game that you're playing.
Speaker 6:Right, really strong. And then also you monetize game. I met a. I met a mom at one of our events that said my five year old is bringing in not my fifth graders, I'm sorry is bringing in checks for $2,000 from gaming.
Speaker 6:So so when we teach them things like that again access and education when we teach our students that at a very young age, then they can say you know what? I can be the software engineer. You know I can work in diversity, I can do the things that we do, but we have to be, we have to show up in the community to make that happen.
Speaker 2:You're right, man Cause for me math major right, so I didn't really have access to the coding part until I got to high school there we go Right.
Speaker 2:So when I thought about cause, my dad would always say, hey, instead of playing video games, why don't you learn how to make them? Right? And it was like cool. But there's an element of there which you're plugging that gap where you have a center somewhere to go to, even go play in that area, Right, so I'm good at math, but I don't know how to apply it cause I'm not in those spaces and things like that. So that's dope that you're trying to provide those opportunities for those kinds of kids.
Speaker 6:And then it's cool because it's not only the kids, those little adults as well. So I thrive conferences for the adults piece, cause we need each other as well, like I send a demo of a guy in a text message hey man, check this cat out, he might be good for his job. Boom, they on call, they talking to each other. Right, it's the power of networking that's really important in this space, something that we don't do very often. Right? Women, black women do it often. They get together, they have a good time. Black men really don't.
Speaker 5:We don't just do it different.
Speaker 6:Right, right. It's not for the purpose of like socializing, it's.
Speaker 5:Hennessy and hot wings.
Speaker 4:That's how you do it Football.
Speaker 6:Football games right, no, no you write that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's alright.
Speaker 6:This is our opportunity to do that as well. You know, do both. It don't have to be either, or it's yes or no.
Speaker 2:Got it. Well, let's dive into that a little bit, and I would love to hear your aspect too, cause y'all basically do the same thing. Sure, when it comes to D, e and I.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I gotta say that.
Speaker 2:Cause I always say D and I, but it's like now there's an E in there. You talk about the pipeline, yeah, of feeding said company or those opportunities, networking, so you can get black people in the door. Black men, black women tell us understand why it's so important. But when you look at things, maybe you I could throw affirmative action in there. You know, like it kind of I don't think it's affirmative action, but it just people tow that line right.
Speaker 2:They think that's what it is can you tell us just how that separate similarities, or what are your thoughts when people throw that out there?
Speaker 6:man. Let me just be clear and say this piece immediately that affirmative action helped more white people than black people talk to what?
Speaker 3:white white women.
Speaker 6:I am one of the people that's why, yeah, so so when you talk about a demo, definitely get into this. When you talk about pipeline and for diversity, automatically people go where we got a Lord of all. I tell them you never. Lord of all, we are excellent, we dominate everything. You think. If we learn how to play lacrosse at a young age, we want dominate that sport. What about yachting, you know? What about selling that sort of thing? Black people dominate everything, they do so pickleball that's next, but we dominate everything.
Speaker 6:We just need access and opportunity to get there and our access and opportunity are is honestly forced in society and systemic oppression, like we haven't had the chance right. But when we show, we show up approved. So that's why a demo role is so important, because he provided the gate, he let the floodgates open, letting people know these are chances for you. So when you talk about that's all he do all day man, it's a, it's a, it's a this job is for you.
Speaker 3:I would have known what he do.
Speaker 4:Wait, hold on.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad you're here breaking down man, I wouldn't know what he do all day because he like Tommy, he just a. I'll help.
Speaker 6:Like you, I tell people color out my lunches I buy lunches and breakfasts yeah, kind of describe what this man does and what you do so so demo role, honestly, is probably one of the most important roles that is at his company because he's allowed to get a set budget to go out and and help on nonprofits and help groups and build partnerships and pipelines. So so honestly and this just true story, and I always give him his flaws when you talk about it like he believed in black men and tech and I'll thrive conference in this first year when there was a vision and energy. That's all I had. I had nothing else.
Speaker 1:I had nothing else, but he came in he saw it.
Speaker 6:He said you know what? I'm a partner with you because I see what you trying to go right and you need more black people, especially in the corporate tech space, that believe in that way. You know they may be at every conference. You know he texts him and he'll put through a job break, that sort of thing. You need that type of brother at the door telling you how to get in these companies. So I mean probably about box box lunches, box lunches too, but it's all about and that's important and that's what we need. But we need real people in those roles. You know people like him that's gonna go in and say, yo, you need to look at this candidate for real and no he's not a he's not a affirmative action candidate.
Speaker 2:This candidate is top quality yeah, it's not somebody that just checks a box.
Speaker 6:Right, right, I got you so yeah, so, yeah, so you could have said what you know.
Speaker 2:Thank you sir yeah you don't want to add nothing to that well, no, like.
Speaker 5:I think there's many dynamics, but it's not like today's, not about me and, in the bottom line, is like what? What we do is like open up the floodgates for the pipeline but how does the decision on affirmative action affect your it?
Speaker 5:doesn't. It doesn't affect my role any, but long term it may. Okay, let's talk about that. So we're talking about Harvard University and we're talking about University of North Carolina, right, yeah, got it so long term if that goes up. So I won't get into the history of it. So, long term, what happens is a flywheel effect and it says, let's say, university of Virginia once, let's say, you know, said other Ivy League wants to do it. Then it starts to create a ripple effect, right, right. And then what happens is somebody raises some noise and says, hey, I can't get into corporate America because of quote unquote affirmative action, even though but I don't even, I couldn't even tell you the last time I heard the word affirmative action that's what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's my job that's so it's not about that.
Speaker 5:It like people like oh, you have goals and you have targets, um, no, like we measure what we do. Yeah, like that's, that's, that's all we do. But it isn't like hey, um, this software engineering role needs to be filled by a black woman, absolutely not. Like that's a class, that that's a lawsuit in the making. You can't do that right. But what you can do is say, hey, I went to thrive conference. I have 25 high level software engineers that just happened to be black women.
Speaker 5:Yep, we have 10 wrecks open. Yep, absolutely, let's get them interviewed so like that's the lens you have to look at it through. So, like, when you think about, like what y'all were talking about with affirmative action, there's some things that could trickle in the corporate America and I could see it happening three, five, seven, ten years from now. But, like, if we're intentional and we're progressive about the way that we do things and the actions that we take to be successful, we're gonna be alright this is demos like overly optimistic point of view.
Speaker 5:You know, like I am, I'm an eternal optimism, right? Right um, but we we've all been blessed in certain ways and doing the right things on a daily basis right you guys ever feel do you guys ever feel handcuffed at any point? No like handcuffed. For what?
Speaker 4:no, say more. See a lot like this.
Speaker 6:A miss little too dark in here yeah, I've been said, I've been told that before.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah yeah, see, see, they won't go say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, it's too dark in here, really absolutely my who like. Where, where does that pressure come from?
Speaker 6:oh, my executive staff, but I've been told that before, literally been told that a a cam. I need some more diversity on your team and I was like, oh cuz, you think my team is all black, but you don't know. This person is Jewish, this person is part of LGBT community, this person and I walk it down right right literally like a cam. I need you. I need your next hire to be I'm like no that's interesting that's interesting.
Speaker 5:Let's think about the other way around. Let's think about when said company hires. Let's say a company goes through a major riff or something like that. Yeah, that's in a force, and then they are stacking to build their leadership team. Yeah, are they asking any questions about how the leadership team is built? It could be all white males and they nobody saying nothing. It could be all white females. Ain't nobody saying nothing? No, because females are diversity yeah, no, yeah in tech. Yeah in tech too, but not like, but I mean it's always.
Speaker 2:The majority is usually all white males, so that's why nothing's really said. Yeah, in most companies like if you go across the board.
Speaker 5:That that's cool and you know what. So I'll even take it even further. Even in professional sports, I've heard that nepotism is frowned upon with black coaches. I like somebody that I know is highly qualified to be in this position, and I'm not talking about anybody that we know. Yeah, I know somebody that's how highly qualified to be in this position and I cannot hire them right away because of the handcuff.
Speaker 4:Okay, but you're too dark in here, wow, okay, but yes, but the vibe was, you wouldn't really vibing with that. That's that's kind of I came off at first no, I don't vibe with that light.
Speaker 5:If that, that, if that so so. So you have it blacked out, like that thing out there. Let it be blacked out, okay. So let me be clear.
Speaker 4:No, so let me be clear the question why not like?
Speaker 2:but they won't. They won't, that's an instrument. No, I'm with the question.
Speaker 4:Interesting, the question is have you ever got to a point to where you felt handcuffed, to where they say like, look, hold up man, hold on, hold on man. This is. This is getting a little too ethnic up in here. I have gone to bring it back.
Speaker 5:Right, I haven't experienced that.
Speaker 2:You haven't personally.
Speaker 5:But like, even if it's ethnic, it doesn't mean it's homogenous. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:So like yeah just like can't explain yeah we're not a monolith dude.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, no no, but I'm not speaking, just I'm no. So when I say I'm not speaking, dress black people. Then what are you saying? It's a little too clear. It's too many hues up in here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the hues are still got you diverse, yeah, and so that's so. That's what I'm saying. They most so the power structure is what at pretty much every corporate company? Okay. So when, when they started saying, hey, you're starting to have started to have too many lgbtq plus people in here, they started to have too many black people in here, you start to have a little too many indian and people in here, how to me, ispanic people like let's, let's kind of bring this back to baseline.
Speaker 2:That's a lawsuit, but no, but, but, but it's Never heard.
Speaker 4:It can't. No, no, out loud. It's a lawsuit. But but like we talked about, we talked about nepotism. We talked about, like, for example, the NFL owners saying hey, wink, nod, nod, wink, wink. You know I mean let's not Fuck with Kaepernick. Yeah, you know, I mean like being the fact that you guys are in D, de, ai, de AI.
Speaker 2:DE and yeah, yeah, diversity equity and inclusion.
Speaker 4:Okay, there it is, um yeah we're dea.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's the airport. Yeah, accessibility Okay, okay.
Speaker 4:Since you guys are in the in the uh, in the uh realm of accessibility. You know what I mean. Like Do you guys ever feel the push not to be radical and the push not to have it as equitable as it should be?
Speaker 2:on the work? I don't. So, speaking from my team, I don't, because I got. So my team consists of uh for women, four guys, black, two I'm the leader, so two black people on the team, brown, asian, uh, then Rest are white. Okay, so I mean, I mean Just speaking from the company. I work for it. This is to your point. The first time, though, that I've been at a company that kind of uh encourages or, you know, looks for quality engineers in the diversity. Right, they're not concerned about color or whatever it's like. They throw whatever at you, but they do recognize like, hey, it's a lot of uh, white males, yeah, and white people, yeah, in general. So I hear you like this is the first time and I've been in the industry for 20 years that I've been at A point where I was like, all right, you know what. It's all right, like I could, I could deal with this, you know.
Speaker 4:I mean I just position is young.
Speaker 5:No, it's not what do you mean what do?
Speaker 4:you mean Young ish. Okay, so it's like we're not young.
Speaker 5:What you said. The position is young, yeah, the position.
Speaker 4:The position is to have a specific that have a specific young to you like?
Speaker 5:define, that is it 20 years old.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, at what level? Yeah, so yeah, that's great. No, no, no, I didn't know. So I need there, no, no no, so?
Speaker 6:so, um, diversity spawned out of this concept in uh you're they talk about like not seeing color, but seeing people, right? So 20 years ago or more, like in the 80s, right, something like that it was like, oh, we don't want to see color, we want to see people. And that was a thing, right? Um, fast forward, moving forward as it progressed, and it's fastly progressing now because of all the things that's happening in the us, in the world, people like yo, it's not about seeing color. I want you to see my color, I want you to see me. Uh, lgbtq, ia, plus, in at every other leather. You see, it changes every day. They take back words, they give for us. They say this is bad, this is not bad. Talking to black people, you say, well, you are you African American? Are you black? Are you Hispanic? Are you latina? Are you latino? You know, you know it's so, it's so progressive. But it is over 20 years old because they started with this rhetoric about Not seeing people by seeing the quality of work. But that shit didn't work too well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but the idea, the idea versus the position.
Speaker 6:No, we've been. We've been in position forever. It was just highlighted now because of all the mess that the world is going through, like, like, oh. For instance Of somebody I say hey look, hey look, guys, I gotta I got one and it's like Right but they're trying to promote it more, because it's it's seen in social media. It's seen through social media. You know, we handcuffed to our phone, we do everything internet.
Speaker 6:That's what makes it more prevalent, but we've been around for forever you know some of the older people have been in diversity from mid 80s, but it's not, it's not been a publicly social thing, because it was just someone at the job.
Speaker 5:So there's a consultant that we work with and I know, I know that she's been in the industry for 35 plus years. Yeah, got it as a as a practitioner.
Speaker 2:Because I feel like when I was out, uh, lockheed, it was like ee, o kind of position. Yeah, it was yeah, but it was more like government compliance, especially with Lockheed Right.
Speaker 5:I think you have to it's yet and it's so much different. Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:So anyway, all right. Well, uh, we have this game called this or that, all right, and I think it's a good time to play it because we've been super serious. Yeah, have a little fun. I like this up.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely so, uh we gotta pull our black socks up with the white chuck tailors on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he got them tight.
Speaker 5:Hey, pull them up, pull my socks up as high as I can.
Speaker 4:Hey them balls, hold them balls against. Squeeze tight Paul.
Speaker 5:Hey, them things look like my compression socks yeah.
Speaker 4:Them copper fits, them copper fit specials. Hey, look like.
Speaker 2:That boy don't want no more kids, right they're none, none.
Speaker 4:I didn't want to put a laptop in my balls. Man, get them tight.
Speaker 3:I.
Speaker 4:Had with that temperature, like like uh, over 130 degrees. Heat them up. Heat them up, man.
Speaker 2:All right. So with this or that, you get to choose either. Or all right, no context, like you can't explain, like Because of that, now you just stick with the answer, or you can pass, all right man, no consequence.
Speaker 4:That's the important part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you don't have to have you drink.
Speaker 4:We're not gonna let you sniff. No hair on or nothing, damn.
Speaker 2:That's nuts Like coke. But I'm with you, I got you. I got you the most extreme. All right, here we go. Yes, paul, okay, all right, we're gonna try to get geeky too. Techie All right, iphone or android. Iphone, all right windows or mac os, chrome or firefox. Call threads or twitter Instagram.
Speaker 4:But he's what he's diversity, equity inclusion position in tech boy.
Speaker 5:They just don't fit.
Speaker 4:Hey, hey, man, hey. But jay J Lo J Lo keep you turning his nose up at y'all, because he really want to know what they won't do all day. I'm sitting here cold. He's in up here just talking about a. I think you, I think you're good. Yeah, you're black. Yeah, yeah, I think you're good for the job.
Speaker 2:He said he could give me a job. I still ain't got no job. He said this all about network.
Speaker 5:Tommy Fumart.
Speaker 4:Man, I've seen Killa practicing on his code for hours. Man, he can't give you a job. Come on, man.
Speaker 2:Instagram Snapchat.
Speaker 6:Instagram.
Speaker 2:All right, cheese grits or sugar grits.
Speaker 6:Don't know what sugar grits are. Cheese grits all the way.
Speaker 2:Miami or Tampa.
Speaker 5:Miami.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 5:Damn. That took a little bit.
Speaker 2:I know the answer to this one, fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach?
Speaker 6:Fort Lauderdale All right. On base.
Speaker 2:Denzel Curry or Kodak Black Kodak OK. Rick Ross or DJ Khaled.
Speaker 6:Ross, you know my Ross.
Speaker 3:You going with Ross? Yeah, go ahead, yeah.
Speaker 5:Breakfast burrito or empanada Well, I don't know either of them. Things hey.
Speaker 3:Wait wait, you don't know. Empanada.
Speaker 6:I think it's like the thing where the album my wife is going to kill me man. I can see like I love empanada.
Speaker 2:Is empanada Cuban though?
Speaker 5:No, oh, beef patties, you're making beef patties.
Speaker 4:No, it's, it's it's, it's, it's basically what it is.
Speaker 2:Is that Cuban Empanada?
Speaker 6:So, cuban, it's good what you, what you putting yours.
Speaker 4:Man potatoes, eggs and cheese.
Speaker 6:Hey, real quick. I don't know how that work.
Speaker 5:No, real quick. Cam doesn't know what a breakfast burrito is.
Speaker 4:Man, potatoes, eggs and cheese.
Speaker 2:It's mushy, that's a good audience Breakfast burrito. Yes, sir, get down with him.
Speaker 5:Do you eat breakfast burritos, yes or no? Well, breakfast tacos.
Speaker 6:Would you call? Would you call the burrito bread Burrito bread?
Speaker 4:You know you cut your burrito bread, mexican bread. Okay, go ahead Ask the question.
Speaker 5:Burrito. Is a tortilla, a form of bread? Yes or no?
Speaker 2:No, yes, yeah.
Speaker 6:You compared it to like a French toast, though.
Speaker 5:No, no, no, no no. We were talking about next door. I had nothing to do with this. Oh, okay, I had nothing to do with this, like that was two separate conversations.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 5:Cam said he's never heard the concept, concept of a breakfast burrito.
Speaker 4:Maybe because he's from the south man, that's maybe a west like a west southwest thing. Breakfast burrito.
Speaker 6:Do you?
Speaker 2:put serve on it, sir. I don't know, janelle, you live in Florida. Can you get a breakfast burrito or have you had one recent?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what I'm saying Eat me down with breakfast though I don't.
Speaker 2:I do, but you can't go.
Speaker 4:But, no, but I can't.
Speaker 2:I guess down with breakfast Go part of the floor.
Speaker 6:See, that's not really south Florida, yeah, but so you think it's just a south Florida thing.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, so, so, so to agree with you. So to agree with you. You can't go to New York and go to a bodega and get a breakfast burrito what I've never been there, I've never gotten that. I've gotten that, I've gotten, I've gotten a roll Like a sweet roll. No, like a breakfast sandwich, you either get a roll or a hero.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, I could see that in the car.
Speaker 4:I've never. I've never been a tortilla. I've never been. No, you get a tortilla? Well, like, like Mexican food isn't. Isn't is now starting to pick up, but for all the years I've been in New York City, I never see they don't have a lot of Mexicans. They don't have Mexican restaurants in New York City, that's not a.
Speaker 5:Thing.
Speaker 4:So so, like, so like to go to somewhere and buy a breakfast burrito. No, no, no no, atlanta you can, atlanta you can, oh, okay.
Speaker 5:Hey, so it's moving your way, brother. Oh, hopefully Get ready.
Speaker 4:So no, but so here's my, before we end KOD or Tootsies.
Speaker 6:Pre-marriage Wait, wait, wait, throw it out there.
Speaker 2:That's the safety net. No, I'm not. I'm not mad at that. I have a couple. Hey, listen, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 4:So go ahead. So can I get some of that sand right. So KOD right, but also Tootsie got really good food. Like lobster like lobster, crab lobster.
Speaker 6:Oh baby, I was going to have lunch. Oh, baby, I was going to have lunch, so I'm going to have lunch, so I'm going to have lunch, so I'm going to have lunch.
Speaker 4:So let me tell you about what would happen if you try to use your P card at KOD? Oh, what's your P card? What is that? Oh, okay, okay, Like there's a merchant code that's associated with the P card, so you know you can use it. You can use it, you can use it, you can use it, you can use it, you can use it, you can use it, you can use it.
Speaker 3:You can use it.
Speaker 5:You can just negotiate it with somebody trying to oh what is that code? Who knows?
Speaker 2:what it is Entertainment right.
Speaker 5:But you swipe it and that thing declines. It will not go through food or not Its like you're at the wrong location. So no Tootsie's, no Kings diamond no, nah yeah, they serve good food Cool go on your own dawg.
Speaker 6:Listen, tootsie got some amazing food bro.
Speaker 2:They made you a stack.
Speaker 3:A.
Speaker 2:Pterchus code. Oh God, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so my, my, this, or that is Miami Heat or Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 6:So when I got there, no, I don't know.
Speaker 5:I heard your coach talking.
Speaker 6:So why is he talking? Why? Why can't the mayor talk?
Speaker 5:They did. The mayor used to talk all the time. We just got a new mayor, ok.
Speaker 2:So answer the oh you're talking about through the terminal and train. I got you, Got you.
Speaker 6:I'm a heat fan through and through man, I go for the 14.
Speaker 2:Ok, so, yeah, oh wait, Tampa Bay Bucks or Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 6:Definitely the dolphins.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 6:Really, and they're great man.
Speaker 2:Ho, ho, ho, ho ho, they won a Super Bowl twice.
Speaker 6:They had a perfect season yet, but Charlie won a Super Bowl 72.
Speaker 2:They went and they went before he was.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, that's always the card to play like oh, I had a perfect season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brady, almost got it.
Speaker 6:But no.
Speaker 3:OK, Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2:You ain't got no more. I thought you had another one.
Speaker 5:Fifty dollar bet or a hundred dollar bet. Honey, it's got it. I got my fifty dollar gift card to me.
Speaker 6:So so we make this random bet right in. Atlanta and he was like Denver and five or something like that and I'm like why would you go for Denver, burry black, I forgot to live here.
Speaker 4:I seriously forgot he lived here.
Speaker 6:You ain't see his haircut.
Speaker 4:But those definitely go for the.
Speaker 6:I was like why would you even care about the Denver Nuggets?
Speaker 2:Forgot to tell by his haircut.
Speaker 5:Specifically my hair a lot.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Rockies.
Speaker 3:But welcome to the Rockies the.
Speaker 5:Rockies In all fairness. Yes, I don't have to give card on the campaid up on a bet. Thank you Respectfully lost.
Speaker 2:Yes, Ah, yeah, because he was going for the heat. Airbnb gift card yeah who's the best player to ever come through the heat?
Speaker 6:The Brown James or the way away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, come on now. Who's the? Best.
Speaker 6:Yeah, the Browns. Yeah, this park, that was a long distance.
Speaker 2:That was we got into the burrito yeah the burrito really. We're going to have to take you. We might just, tomorrow morning, get you some breakfast, burrito now.
Speaker 5:They're going next door tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2:They have to, they have to, they got to check. It's like that though huh, that's fine.
Speaker 6:Oh, it is the same the person, the biscuit company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Before I go, do y'all have a question about anything? All right, this plays in a little bit about the position of the E and I. I'm curious because we talked about the value and why we need it. In a utopia, are you going to put yourself out of a position and out of business, right, like where there is no need for what y'all do? Is that? Is that the goal? I think that's you for it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I think that's the goal, but the problem is humans like it and probably never happen, because there's always going to be a need for us to be in the space telling people why it's important for people like us to be on teams, like they talk about you know AI and all the stuff that's come with AI, like you know whatever, but you need people like you at the table that's saying, hey, this product needs to do this because it don't represent the black culture or don't represent women or don't represent LGBTQA, whatever the diversity is, and that's what we're moving towards more. So, not only pipeline and getting a man, but now we like yo, they need to sit at this table because you don't want to have an incident like Dove, where you, you know you take a shower and everybody turn white. You don't want to have an incident like like like you know or H&M with a monkey shirt or the soap this remember?
Speaker 6:soap dispenser didn't see black hands at first because, nobody on the team thought about it, yeah. So I think it's going to be in the medical talk about it. I think it's going to be a shift from not only just saying, hey, we need more people. It's like, hey, this is why they need to sit at the table, so I don't ever think we're going to work or I'll set fire to a job.
Speaker 4:Man, but so so is there any? Like you know, I think one of the illest things I've seen was I listened to Joe Rogan interview at Rosnoda and you had a white man who had the whistleblower yes the whistleblower. Whistleblower, you had a white man.
Speaker 2:I had to hit you with your own medicine.
Speaker 3:Hey.
Speaker 4:I ain't blowing the whistle. There's no, there's no blowing the whistle. Too short, that's too, yeah, too short blowing the whistle Not me, oh man.
Speaker 2:So now, this is how I go.
Speaker 4:Yo. So I'm listening. I'm listening to Edward Snowden, the whistleblower man, and I watched this. I watched his white man raise, like kind of rise up in the governmental system without a degree he just had. I'm not going to say he had a basic train of computers, but he was kind of self taught in terms of how to use computers, how to access tech, and he got in the government and he was able to obtain all of these top secret clearances and get all of these jobs right. Right, do you guys have the power to take a chance on just a raw self taught? Hey, I've just been playing on computers since I was seven years old. You know what I mean. I know how to code. I taught myself how to do this, but I don't have a degree and his talent is proven. All again. Can you guys?
Speaker 5:do you guys have the power?
Speaker 4:to say like look man, this dude is a savant at can, at computer programming. Maybe he doesn't have the paperwork, but he's. He's gotten under a killer, he's gotten under this guy, he's learned how to code, he's taught himself. Can you guys kind of bring him up and give him an opportunity without the actual paperwork? That's a great question. Yeah, no, that's a great question.
Speaker 6:And I think yes, and you have to find the right hiring manager, the team and the company. So if you got my man's over here that's going to coach him up, we can get you in the door. But you got to show up and most of the people like that, that grind, they got that guy, they tip on their shoulder so they ready to go 100%. They just probably need to be polished a little more, you know, to be able to talk the language of the individual and that's why you got senior managers here that does that. So for me, I was able to do that once. Oh, it actually worked out really well for the individual because he didn't have the credentials stacked up. But what he had is that grit, what he's had, is that, that, that in it in them. You know, I'm saying they got to do it like, like kind of walk us through it. So it was a. It was a guy that was self-talk, okay and but he did a lot of other cool projects On the side. So he worked with some celebrities and did another app, he did this and that. So he had a stack resume.
Speaker 6:I went to he was looking for a job. I went to a hiring manager said hey, listen, this boy right here, this cat right here, he going to be the next one. I said you had Google, you had all these other companies fighting over him, but I said this going to be the next one for you. The hiring manager looked at it and was like, hmm, let's talk now, because I had a relationship with the hiring manager. It wasn't a hard sale because you know we bring top quality canons. They won't know. You could call a higher manager that you know and say, hey, you got to open it. Here's one for you and they'll take you because you're your situation. That cat excelled at the job. Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that is awesome, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I think there's yes.
Speaker 1:And the vast majority of hiring managers are going to say no to that.
Speaker 5:Exactly the vast majority yes. But you're going to have to go to the top, but you're going to find somebody who was the dark horse. Yeah, that.
Speaker 2:I know I was qualified. That's what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:He's like hey hey, hey, hey, hey, hey hey hey.
Speaker 4:I was going to say you dropped out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just dropped out. Oh yeah, the dark horse, he dropped all, he dropped out the grade here we go, j-mos going on his rent no, but like yo the Madrid because when he ever says dark horse, he talked about himself. No, that's what I was, yeah, yeah, he's been self-loathing.
Speaker 5:But nine out of ten managers are going to say no, but you're going to get that one manager that says yes, and there's just art. So let's think of it from a different perspective. Let's say a old girl who was on the show that started the Lemonade Company.
Speaker 6:OK gotcha.
Speaker 5:She started a lemonade company. How?
Speaker 3:old 10. Yeah, seven, seven, something like that, seven.
Speaker 5:And then she has lemonade being distributed all across Denver, Colorado.
Speaker 2:It's like 10,000 hours of being a businesswoman at that age, at that age.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and you mean to tell me she shouldn't go through some accelerated entrepreneurship program. Right, but there's going to be so many people that say no, but there's only one person that says yes. So that 10 percent or the one percent or 10 percent, whatever that says yes, if it's the right person, she's going to go.
Speaker 4:Nobody's ever going to how do you guys transcend that? No, no, no, no. How do you to?
Speaker 3:transcend that, because we talked to.
Speaker 4:OK, sorry.
Speaker 5:I'm not done, sorry.
Speaker 4:Sorry, yeah.
Speaker 5:Sorry, no. So you have to have the right person to his point. The right manager Number one you have to have number two. The right company Number three you have to have the right individual Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 5:Number four you have to have the right resources. And number five, you have to have a plan. And if you, if you have all of that, then you get your answer.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so the trend. So my question falls into are you willing to do that? I'm willing to do it. I did it. Ok, let's talk about your story. Let's talk about no, it's not about me man. No, no, no, no, but. But we're trying to get the message out.
Speaker 4:OK to people who, I think, don't have the paper because, because we had this conversation yeah, I love it About two months ago with the guy who was the educator, and we had the conversation in terms of if a college degree is necessary or not. Yes, so so that's what's driving this question in terms of you guys, of being over diversity, equity and inclusion.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:How far are you guys willing to go for? A person who is self taught, self trained, who doesn't specifically need the paperwork because he demonstrates the fact that he knows how to do the job, but the job requires him to have to produce this in order to get this Matisse more junior. Ok, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2:Well, real quick before you go, though. But I think the part that we don't acknowledge is like, if you think about if a person wants to go to an NFL, yeah Right, think about that journey of trying to get there, right. Usually is the person that has been playing young, takes the steps. The next thing you know he goes to a major, a major college, because he was top ranked, and then from that major college, those are the creme de la creme, right? You do have those instances where it's somebody that didn't go that route Might have came from a juke code, just had a rougher path and just has the time is the grit, there you go and then next thing you know they just they're there, but they just took a different path.
Speaker 2:I think and I'll let you talk about T's is that you can do the same thing of what they're talking about, right, but it has to be the right opportunity. You got to be right.
Speaker 6:It's like everything got a line it does.
Speaker 2:I couldn't do that, as where I'm at right now Right Like I couldn't just be like oh, you have no, just high school and that's it. But you're a beast. You got to go to another company that'll give you that opportunity. Maybe smaller startup prove, get that on a resume, then come talk to me after you got some experience from them, then we can have that conversation, or your GitHub got to be tight, or that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no like your hacker rank your lead code, like all that has to be superior where you're like, oh, you're like the top 10% coder at high school or whatever, Then we'll probably consider you.
Speaker 5:So, courtney, tight in from the Saints. What was his name? To play basketball? Kin State.
Speaker 4:Like, like, no charges. Oh no, jimmy Grant. No, no, no, no, not the same.
Speaker 6:This is the charges you're talking about To this he played with your breeze and you talk about 10.
Speaker 5:No, Tony basketball in college. Tony Gates he, OK him to will use him. So he barely played a lick of basketball or football. Got to NFL, right system, right. Personally, you see what I'm saying Everything lined up. That doesn't happen often because you have some of the great people who go into shitty systems that don't exist so or don't make it. Yeah, and it's the same. It's no different in our world, man. If you get the right resources with the right person, they're going to succeed. Man, but for people, right.
Speaker 4:But for there's no, but for Caucasian people that's kind of ultra-perm Well see they didn't them jobs. So I'm saying how much juice? How much juice do they allow? Y'all know, it's just a little bit less.
Speaker 2:It's a little yeah.
Speaker 5:And then you look at those.
Speaker 2:That's honest. But they're doing the code at that age, like, if you look at Zuckerberg, steve Jobs, anybody that Bill Gates, like they was doing that when they was 10, of like just messing with a computer, didn't really know what they was doing, opening up the console, hit, run, execute a program, and it's like, oh, dad, look what I did. And it's like awesome, son, keep doing that, right. Next thing you know he's on there for hours.
Speaker 5:Here's somebody in our network we can connect you with.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's going to get an internship. Black and brown.
Speaker 4:It's black, it's black, it's black, and it's black, brown and yellow kids doing that too. That's what I'm saying. So so you guys just position.
Speaker 5:Accessibility isn't there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's when they come into play.
Speaker 4:So that, so that and that's, and that's where I'm at Right, that's I'm at you guys's level. Do you guys have the autonomy to say I believe in this young man or woman hiring? No, because, as as they're not the hiring manager. No no no, no, but they're not the hiring manager. But I'm saying how much weight does y'all work? They trust me. It's like that was all there for it.
Speaker 2:I'm with y'all are the gatekeeper to make sure I'm trying to figure out what his mate is, because he's like I got you guys are the gatekeeper to say this.
Speaker 4:This is where it's our job to make this job equitable, right, listen.
Speaker 2:I talked to this man. I thought I had I was in. I got zero calls. I was like man, you're the director. Man, what do you do? If you can't give me a call? What do you do? I bring the way. So your resume, your resume's format was off, but I'm at a comparable company.
Speaker 5:It actually worked. And now you are.
Speaker 4:Oh, that boy double spaced.
Speaker 5:It's good to see you Probably a level up now. Slack Come on.
Speaker 2:No, you weren't there for the size of the company For the size.
Speaker 5:You were a placeable dude.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 5:Yes, you were.
Speaker 2:Was I? Yes, but that's my point. I went from placeable to slack.
Speaker 5:Because somebody believed in you right.
Speaker 2:No, because I went there and killed the interview.
Speaker 5:Got it Point taken.
Speaker 2:You didn't give me an interview.
Speaker 3:That's my point this is your resume format. I'm sorry, hey.
Speaker 4:Hey you said that shit fell flat. But I threw Davis' Dave out there and made you. It was like who the hell are you man?
Speaker 5:You don't win them all. Dude, I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I didn't get a chance to win one. That's my point. You the pipeline, I didn't get any calls.
Speaker 5:It happens.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not mad yeah.
Speaker 5:I forgot what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:Some bullshit no.
Speaker 5:I was an aggressive dude over you. No, no.
Speaker 2:No, that's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 4:No, honestly, the question was.
Speaker 2:The question was for YouTube and then Cam. We'll get back to you.
Speaker 4:No no, so Cam. The question was for YouTube and I know Damo, he's the first person to say this isn't on me, but you guys are in the same field. You know what I mean. You guys do the same work. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to say Go ahead.
Speaker 5:Oh dude, it's like a credit score OK. So if I tell Jay, say hey, I have somebody for you, you need a higher, Give it and I'll hire him. Give this person a look.
Speaker 2:I was at Ibotta, not placeable.
Speaker 5:But go ahead yeah.
Speaker 2:Kupon's great, do you use?
Speaker 4:that. I know you use that. I used to yeah All the wings you could get hey you got fired and I was like I'm done with it Bogo wings.
Speaker 5:My bad.
Speaker 4:Go ahead.
Speaker 5:No, so it's like a credit score. So you're a hiring manager and I go to you and I said I have somebody and that works. My credit score with you now is 800. Thank you, you see what I'm saying. I go to you hey, hire, like hire, talk to this person and it works out that they get hired 800 credit score. I go to this dude and they don't get hired. My credit score is zero. Why, though, dude? It's human nature, because you're black. No, I'm just pushing you. I'm just pushing you. No, it's because I'm saying you need to spend time with this individual and you the hiring manager.
Speaker 4:Each of them at the hiring manager.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you said time is the most valuable asset. Yes or no? Yes, got it Got it.
Speaker 3:You see what I'm saying, as far as referrals.
Speaker 5:Yes, I'm with you and you spent 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour with this individual and they failed. They literally didn't prepare. That's part of your role.
Speaker 4:So what is you guys' role in terms of hiring the hiring managers?
Speaker 5:You don't hire the hiring manager.
Speaker 2:No, but you put them in the pipeline.
Speaker 4:That demo what you do. That's what I'm saying you put hiring managers.
Speaker 2:So what is your Seeing? Your engineer managers? You put them in the pipeline. I would imagine that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:So what is the yeah? So you have input on who the hiring managers are, because that ultimately affects your ability to hire the people that you feel is mobile the hiring manager. No, no, a demo. You're going to the extreme, no not stupid. You're going to the extreme.
Speaker 2:But that is part of your job to have a pipeline that qualified individuals that come through.
Speaker 3:They're not being hired.
Speaker 2:Then there is some performance attached to that of like demo. You're not getting high quality people Hiring managers.
Speaker 5:I miss that point.
Speaker 4:That's my point, because you guys are supposed to have a say in all of that right In terms of, but not only, the software engineers.
Speaker 2:Well, no, he's like the scout he doesn't have a say, but he'll tell you.
Speaker 4:yo, this is a great player to come through, and that's what I'm saying. You guys are the scout, so I'm saying so it's all about. So what is you guys' role in terms of building the juice in order to create a level platform across the board? To say, hey, I'm going to make sure or hold my company accountable to hiring, hiring managers that are going to make my company diverse.
Speaker 6:So I would say immediately that frozen middle is the hiring managers right. Most of them have already been there before we got there. Most of them already got there the way they think and operate, so what?
Speaker 6:you're saying is that we're going to have to reshift all the hiring managers. Now, they won't know, like I know we can count five or six that we can go to that we scouted and say, yo, that's the one you know, giving them a good look, and they and they teams are going to flourish. They're going to be in the product meeting and the engineering meeting, and the CTL going to be like well, why is J team doing so? Well, blah, blah, blah, because you got a dope scout. That's not the hunt for you. What you're saying, though, is that we're going to have to. It's going to be a long shift that we can't control.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know, like we, we can only do so when we get to the company, to where we want to take it. We can only influence that piece. Yeah, outside of that, some of them. You ain't going to get like diversity. Every time you do a program, 10% of the people you're not going to get, so don't worry about it.
Speaker 3:It might even be more than that. That's a good point. I was being nice.
Speaker 6:But yeah, you know what I'm saying, so you just leave that alone, but you focus on the people that are listening, that want to get with you, and you build the juice, the credit score with those people. Y'all continue to run it up.
Speaker 5:So that's one point there the consultant that we work with. She says I will not work with anybody that's not teachable and reachable. Yes, Mm. Yes, got it Like if you're teachable and reachable, she's going to mess with you. Yeah, but otherwise like that that, whatever percent is not reachable, yes.
Speaker 6:She did.
Speaker 5:Like it's. So think of it as a spectrum. Zero being hey, you don't believe in diversity, equity, inclusion? Yeah, all right. 10 being you're all the way in. Yep, if you're at a three, four or three or four, maybe even a five, she might not even work with you. I got you, but if you're at five through seven, she's going to pull you to a 10. Yep.
Speaker 2:Word. Hey, I'm not mad at them this podcast. All right. Well, daniel, I should question man.
Speaker 5:Hey, kim had a good time. Man yeah, pre-podcast and during the podcast. Absolutely, we're kind of a little all over the place, but it was fruitful. Man yeah, who would you invite to be on the show? Who would you want to sit in that?
Speaker 6:seat this cat named Marlon Avery. Oh tell us more. So Marlon Avery is a self-taught engineer. He worked with Ha Ha Davis on his app that became the number one app in the world overnight, oh, ok. He worked with different. He worked at different companies. But I don't have a degree, but he's super solid in what he does.
Speaker 6:That's dope and I think Marlon perspective is special on this AI workshop there so that they know what's going on. It would be really insightful. You know y'all can geek out on the engineer side of it, but his story is so cool, so raw, so real. You know we need more of the Marlon Avery's of the world to come and be on podcasts like this and come in and, you know, tell a story for access and also for education and for the people that watch it to know that you can make it too, you could go different routes, you don't have to go to school and that, and you could do your own thing and get there. Yeah, that's awesome, and this podcast.
Speaker 5:The audience and the viewers. With one last thing about Thrive and Black women tech about what we're doing through or what you're doing through the end of the year. Tell us about it.
Speaker 6:Hey, listen y'all. Thrive is back October 19th through the 22nd in Fort Lauderdale, florida. We're excited. We work from his speakers, companies and we're trying to get people hired. Last year, honestly, four people got offers from Thrive on the spot from a company and it's absolutely amazing. It's an opportunity for us to get together as people black people as a whole and really have a good time for a couple of days. Outside of that, at the end of the year we always do our givebacks and that sort of thing. We do our winter give back and we're really looking forward to the conference. Man, I'm excited because every year you learn something new and they may have been through it all with us. So he knows, you know, the levels that we're trying to go and take it and he's a believer. So definitely excited about the conference. Follow us on all socials at blkmntechcom. It's our website and we look forward to welcoming you all to South Florida.
Speaker 4:Oh man, that's awesome, that's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, big round of applause for Cam Ward. Thank you for coming through. Shout out to the audience Janelle Hayes, bobby Alexander and the lovely wife of Cam Ward, erica Ward. Thanks for coming through. Y'all fine out there, sorry.
Speaker 4:Cam, they look good in Florida, don't they? Hey, hey, make sure you go. She let them know.
Speaker 2:And you never stumble upon the unexpected If you stick to the familiar. So get the Florida Tell them about it. Ah, this podcast button button. This podcast button button.
