Every so often, you get that guest that flips the script of what you thought you could accomplish doing a tech podcast. This week, we were lucky to chat to Lou Maresca of This Week in Enterprise Tech (TWiET) on TWIT.tv.  Lou has been podcasting as long as us, since 2013 and has produced over 500 episodes. If you've ever listened to his show, you know he truly gets into the weeds and his knowledge of the industry shows. We started talking about the talent gap and what we...

This week, we were joined by Scott Smith, Generative AI expert to do a deep dive into the topic: what it is, its rise to popularity, corporate governance, and ethics. We ended the show with some fun and asked ChatGPT for some date night in Detroit suggestions, and to respond as a pirate. Here's the result: Arrr, matey! If ye be lookin' fer a swashbucklin' date night in Detroit, here be some fine ideas to consider: A Stroll Along the Riverfront:Set yer sails for the...

In this episode, Jacob Ennis from Center for Simulation & Innovation joined us to talk about the applications of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Last time we talked about AR on the show was episode 158 with Spellbound. Plus, we find out why people confuse AR and artificial intelligence (AI) and we hear his thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro. Plus, Jacob is a hobbyist brewer and we're networking Detroit one beer at a time, so we had a few questions about his...

*Disclaimer, I work with Katie; however, candidly, I didn't have a great grasp of project management and delivery.—Bob This week, we spoke with Katie Schulz, Director of Business Advisory Services & Strategic Delivery at Slalom Consulting. Being a sales guy my entire career, we always assume once we get the PO, the hard work is over. The team behind delivery would think otherwise and Katie spoke of the evolution of project management from being simply a reporter to taking...

This week, we got the chance to talk to Steve Panovski from UBX Cloud, probably the biggest company you may have never heard of in Metro Detroit. Steve and Bob have similar backgrounds, both growing up in the BBS world, dial-ups, and LAN parties.  He has since grown to 25 data centers around the world and has won multiple partner of the year awards. Steve claimed he made storage cool again, we didn't believe him, and he proved us wrong (which wasn't hard to do).

This week, we were very lucky to chat with our old friend Caston Thomas. Cybersecurity consultant, security visionary, radio host, and all around great human being. Caston dropped some knowledge on getting through the vendor fog and dropped the three things you need to do to be ahead of the game in securing your environment (not click bait, #3 will not shock you, hah). We ended talking about his time on WJR Internet Advisor show and what Foster Braun had meant to him. The...

Workforce Performance Network is a fitness industry startup co-founded by Jason "JD" David. In this episode, we talk to him about the origin of the business, who it's for, how it works, and what's next.

In this episode, we were joined by Tom Lawrence of Lawrence Systems and CNWR IT Consultants. He was on the show over a year ago, and his YouTube channel has just kept growing since then. In fact, it's become so successful that he's merging his business with CNWR so he can continue to focus on the YouTube channel while CNWR manage the business projects. Recently, Meta launched Threads and Tom shared his take on the various social networks and how he uses each one. Finally, Tom...

Long time friend of the show, Jer Staes of Daily Detroit, is back! Jer was last on Episode 425 where he talked about being close to recording the 1000th episode of the daily podcast. Now, Daily Detroit has over 1200 episodes. First, we had a chat about a subject near and dear to our hearts: dive bars! Daily Detroit recently had an episode about them and we told stories about which we've visited. Then, we talked about changing Detroit—what we've seen happening in the city over...

This week, we talked with our friend and long-time guest Michelle Gilbert, VP at Comcast (last time was episode 428, still relevant!) and she's got plenty of news. Comcast launched NOW TV, a streaming service that includes over 40 premium channels, plus Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST), and Peacock Premium. It costs $20/month. We dove into was the $42B infrastructure bill that was recently signed to give high speed broadband access to literally everyone in the country. Michigan will...

Astronomicon—usually in February—is doing a summer “0.5” edition of their pop culture convention this weekend! Organizers Mike and Dustin joined us to talk about the convention, and also about their favorite con moments. Check out Astronomicon 6.5 at Burton Manor in Livonia this Saturday and Sunday, June 24– 25, 2023!

This week we had a great conversation with Erik Wille, CISO at American Axle and one of the hosts of The Great Security Debate. We started by mocking “what keeps you up at night”, but in all seriousness, we got into how he views security for a global company. We then got into the giant vendor landscape, and how he made sense of this madness. Lastly, we talked about his podcast The Great Security Debate with his hosts Brian and Dan. This was a great episode, super fun to...

This week, we got to chat with Steven Childs, founder of Dorsay Creative, a digital marketing agency. Bob was excited to talk with him for a number of reasons, but mostly because we haven't spoken with anyone on SEO in probably 5–6 years and we could use a refresh. And wow, did we get into it: we wondered what Google/Bing are doing to combat ChatGPT and fake indexed pages, and how they've updated their algorithm to combat those that are trying to game the system. We also...

Publishing this one early so you still have time to grab tickets! Ming Chen of A Shared Universe PodcaStudio and “AMC’s Comic Book Men” will be appearing at Astronomicon 6 this weekend! We reminisce with him and he talks all about the con.

This week we met with Wolfgang Goerlich. Not only is he a well respected CISO, he was our guest on Episode 1 (and episode 112).  We had fun catching up, talking about security then vs. now, changes in philosophy, and mocked marketing jargon for commonly used tech.  We ended by talking about Securing Sexuality, his conference and podcast, prompted by his wife, who is a relationship and sexuality therapist.

This week, we chatted with Eddie Eadeh, CEO of E&E Tech.  We started talking about making the jump into entrepreneurship, got into data security for small business, and the layoffs going on in big tech. We ended up talking about his podcast, the Power On Podcast and his favorite episode, "Why IT companies suck".  Eddie is a natural conversationalist and it was a fun talk—enjoy the listen!

This week, we were super lucky to chat with David Williams, CIO and CISO of Gold Star Mortgage Financial.  Since it's end of year, we started by joking about how many sales reps are currently calling him to make their end of year numbers. We then got into what it takes to be dual role CIO and CISO, how he chooses his vendors, methodologies, and best practices. We ended by talking about how he picks his team, interview questions, and what it takes to get into his...

This week, we were super lucky to talk to serial entrepreneur, branding expert, and all around great guy Hajj Flemings, CEO of Rebrand Cities and founder of Modern Athlete. Hajj was one of the first people I remember talking about your "personal brand", so we dove into that, as well as what it means for smaller neighborhoods and businesses to have a digital voice. We also got into how he mentors for Tech Stars Detroit.  

This week, we got to chat with change and strategy consultant Stefanie Krievins. We immediately got into change management, and not in a software/project way, but in a human way and how it is difficult for most people. We discussed DISC methodology and how it applies on how we work with others. This led to how to lead kick ass meetings (something I think we can all improve on!) 

This week, we chatted about all things cloud with AWS Ambassador and all around great guy Troy Dieter.  Troy has an impressive list of certifications and just received the title of Cloudius Maximus for obtaining his 7th AWS cert. We got into the path on those looking to start and build their career in cloud.  We also talked in length about AWS re:Invent and what it looks like having 50,000 people converge in Vegas.  If you are in or around the cloud, this episode is a...

This week, we talked with management consultant Zach Boguslawski about his journey from being in the military and transitioning it to working in technology in the private sector. We also got into what it means to be a "management consultant", overused terms like 'business outcomes' and 'digital transformation', and how he translates that into meaningful conversations that have actual impact. We ended with his journey in public speaking and mentoring Bob in his latest opportunity...

When you think of industries embracing technology, construction just isn't one of them. Well, a long time construction worker and software developer (right?) thought that there has to be a better way. This week we talked with Justin Turk, CEO of Livegistics. We dove into the issues facing the construction industry, how Livegistics is helping automate it, and how legacy workers are embracing it.

This week, we got to speak to the legend himself, Mike Zapcic. With the recent release of Clerks III, his appearance on AMC's Comic Book Men, or his countless other podcasts, plus working at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, Mike is literally a comics encyclopedia. We got into discussions about the days of past (see: going to Blockbuster on a Friday night) and then talked about all of the new content being streamed as of late including Andor, House of the Dragon, She-Hulk, and The...

Yan Ness, CEO of Verge.io joins us to talk about managing the complexity of cloud infrastructure. Verge.io consolidates several tools into one platform that doesn't require a team of people to manage. Before Verge.io, Yan built OnlineTech, so he has plenty of entrepreneurship experience. He talks about starting and running companies, and what led him to start Verge.io. The conversation also covers the tech scene in Michigan and where it's going.

This week, we were joined by Rashone Bryant aka Afrikan Caesar from the Sneaker Box Podcast. Most recently, Rashone was featured on the History Channel's "Fast History Of, Swoosh Dreams" that you can watch here.  We've never gotten into sneaker culture on IT in the D and it was genuinely fascinating the way Nike and others have built a mega sub-culture around the trade of rare shoes.