In this episode, Trevor Lothian shares his inspiring journey in the IT field, starting from his early days at a computer repair shop to working at renowned companies like SolarCity and Tesla. He delves into the challenges and rewards of progressing from entry-level positions to management roles, offering a candid look at the impact of technological advancements on the IT landscape. Trevor provides valuable insights into managing office builds and relocations, integrating IT systems and teams during mergers, and balancing professional and personal life. He also gives advice to IT professionals beginning their careers and highlights emerging trends in the industry.

Takeaways:

• Trevor Lothian's IT Journey: Starting at a computer repair shop, Trevor's career evolved through roles at SolarCity and Tesla.
• Challenges in Career Progression: Transitioning from entry-level to management roles involves navigating relationships with former peers and learning negotiation skills.
• Impact of Technological Advancements: Innovations in graphics and computing power have revolutionized the IT landscape, enabling high-definition video, 3D modeling, and special effects.
• Office Builds and Relocations:** Successful management of office projects requires careful planning, timeline understanding, and contingency preparation.
• IT Systems Integration during Mergers:** Effective integration involves assessing existing technologies, collaborating with various teams, and planning for unforeseen challenges.
• Balancing Professional and Personal Life:** Setting boundaries and maintaining open communication are key to achieving work-life balance.
• Advice for IT Beginners:** New IT professionals should seek mentorship, join communities, and remain open to learning and networking opportunities.
• Emerging Technology Trends: The competitive graphics card market and the influence of AI are notable trends in the IT industry.
• Effective Team Management: Treating team members with respect, fostering open communication, and leveraging individual strengths are crucial for successful team management.
• Building Positive Work Relationships: Cultivating a positive work environment and building strong relationships are essential for a fulfilling IT career.

Sound Bites:

• "I started really acting as a jack of all trades in my IT capacity."
• "Not having been promoted before, I didn't know that my moment to negotiate was right then."
• "Leading from the front, showing your team members that it's not 'do as I say, not as I do,' but 'let's do this together.'"

Connect with Us:

• Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
• Subscribe to the Las Vegas IT Management Podcast** for weekly episodes and expert insights.
• Visit our website for more information and additional resources.

Welcome to the Las Vegas IT Management Podcast.

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My name is Shatoya Marie.

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And today we have Trevor Lothian here with us today.

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Super excited to get to know you a little bit today.

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Trevor, how are you doing?

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I'm doing well on yourself.

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Pretty good.

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I'm just living the life.

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Trevor, can you just give us a brief overview of your journey in the IT field?

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Yeah, so my journey in IT really started effectively when I was 18 or so.

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I got a computer job at a former company called Computer Renaissance in San Diego.

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It was a repair shop.

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So I started there and

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Worked there for a while.

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I built out computers.

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I sold computers, did a bunch of different things.

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A lot of hats, no jack of all trades kind of thing is where I think I started really

acting that way in my IT capacity is small mom and pop business.

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So I had to do a lot of different things.

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So from there ended up moving to Las Vegas and moved out here.

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Couldn't find a computer job close by.

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There was a, I think it was comp USA before they all went out of business in the Henderson

area.

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And I applied, didn't really go anywhere.

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So I ended up working at Smith's.

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I stepped away from IT for a while.

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Did that try doing door to door sales for solar.

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Didn't really like that.

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And I eventually found my way to a rep for graphics firm where I was doing photocopies and

that progressed into doing coding and the proprietary legal software they use and

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supervising and working with, you know, technical training for employees of the different

law firms you supported.

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And after a while, about six years or so being there, there was a layoff.

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So I left and a former colleague suggested I apply where he's at.

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had an opening for a 90 generalist kind of position.

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It was a rehab facility.

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So I went there and some of the stuff I'd played around with as a kid, making my own like

Pokemon websites.

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I ended up using those HTML and CSS skills to dig in and work in their Drupal environment,

you know, hanging security cameras, patching stuff in the network closet, rebuilding

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computers.

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After some time of being there, I found my way over to solar city in the interview.

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It was a contract position, but the interview was kind of funny.

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They pointed out a palette of monitors.

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Like, so how you feel about installing a bunch of monitors?

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Like, yeah, it doesn't sound like a big deal.

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So they hired me pretty much on the spot.

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knew later that afternoon, I was going to be a contractor there the next day.

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So it was a bit of a struggle.

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I ran through that.

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I was at solar city.

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and Tesla combined for almost eight years.

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Ultimately, Tesla acquired SolarCity.

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But while I was there, I went from contractor to IT engineer to supervisor to operations

manager.

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And then when Tesla acquired us, they call it leveling and then moved back down to an

individual contributor role.

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Yeah, I did a lot of things there.

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Managed printers, made cell phone accounts, did burger and acquisition projects, office

builds, office tear downs, office, you

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expansions, anything that didn't have a home typically found its place onto my plate.

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So I did a lot of different things and left from there to go to emotional for a couple of

years.

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Emotional is a self -driving car company and they are based out of Boston, but they had a

branch out here in Vegas and worked there for a while to go back into a managerial role as

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an IT ops manager was promoted there to senior ops manager.

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And my team there, we ran the imaging process and a lot of things like that.

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And after a while, I had received about three different phone calls over time from my

former manager at Tesla saying, when you're to come back, please come back home.

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So I did at the beginning of 2024.

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And during the most recent round of stuff that's been going on with Tesla, I left again in

May.

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So right now I'm currently between jobs, but that's that's been my journey so far.

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Awesome.

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That's crazy how life can take us in many different directions.

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So it's just amazing how

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kind of things like that work out.

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And could you share with us, because I know you did mention that you've got into different

things within the IT industry when you turned 18, but what sparked that interest in this

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technology world?

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So it's really a couple things.

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As a kid, very young, we had hand -me -down computers for my grandmother's business.

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So the first computer I remember having was in 8086.

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It was all a tech space, monochrome monitor, and we would play tech -based games.

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Eventually there was some like really basic blocky graphics and stuff that were there, but

it was all just like ASCII characters.

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So that was a joy of computers I had from a very young age.

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And that continued forward as we went through from 8086 to 286, 36, and we went through

the different technology as it came out and as it was handed down to us, of course, you

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know, but I always had that fascination and that joy there, right?

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My brother and I, we were the nerds and we wanted to go and play with computers.

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So when I saw that there was a posting for a position at this computer store,

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I applied and I was quite excited when I got the position because I got to play with

computers for a job and being my second job in the workforce, it was really nice to have

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something that was kind of, or not just kind of, but very familiar to me at home.

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So there was that.

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And in the few years down the road, my brother had passed away on his motorcycle.

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And when that happened, he was much

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the IT guy at the house than I was.

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So he was the one doing the coding.

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He was learning Linux and doing all this stuff.

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And I was playing video games.

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That's, what my job was to do was to play video games.

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So I ended up being asked to do quite a bit more with that and found myself in position

where I was using some of those skills that I didn't really hold near and dear.

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So I like to tell people, I kind of more or less fell into doing IT related stuff.

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And it's not really the thing that I would say I ever looked from the outset that I was

going to do as a

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or career.

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I'm very mechanical, very handy, know, whether it be woodworking, or wrenching on a car.

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Those are all things that are near and dear to my heart as well.

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But I fell into it doing that.

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So the spark really comes from a young age being around technology that I was lucky to

have around at a very young age.

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Got it.

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I feel like a lot of us kind of go into the direction just because of experiences.

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Yes, and I totally get that.

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And Trevor, you've held various roles from entry level positions to management.

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What are some of the things, the key challenges that you've, and rewards of this

progression?

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So one of the biggest challenges I found in actually moving on to leadership is if you're

moving into leadership from a role where you were not in a leadership role and those

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employees that were your peers are now your subordinates or are now, you

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looking to you for that leadership capacity, not all the time, but sometimes there has

been some animus there where some employees might think that they're more deserving, that

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they've got more of a tenure.

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So they should be more deserving instead of going off of the merit.

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you know, there's some challenges there that can present themselves.

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And those are things that are most, most carefully navigated.

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There's a lot of personalities and sometimes those, those can lead to some conflict.

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So I've experienced that myself in my career and it's just one day at a time and you know,

working with those individuals and eventually you get through it.

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So it's a bit of a struggle there, but you know, that that's probably the biggest

challenges that I had.

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One of the other challenges I had too is not having been promoted before until I was it.

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You can leave some things out.

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I mean, it's it's that inexperience where you don't know that your moment to do A, B or

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was right then, like Valerie negotiation or talking about what you'll be doing or some of

the expectations and making sure that if you have any opportunity to have a voice in

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what's going to happen, it's right there.

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And if you don't do that, then you can kind of shoot yourself in the foot unknowingly

unwittingly, just because you don't have that experience to tell me I should have

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negotiated this.

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And I've I personally have missed out on those opportunities that first time around.

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And then, you

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talking to some folks that who had been promoted before and had been in the workforce for

quite a bit longer after the fact found that, you know, that's something to do better with

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next time.

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And I had those opportunities.

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Thankfully, I was promoted again in the future and took those opportunities to negotiate.

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that's something that I kind of kicked myself about for a while.

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was like, how did I not know this?

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But you don't know what you don't know.

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Right?

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No, that is so true.

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And thank you for sharing Trevor.

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And I also know, as you mentioned, you know, you've worked for companies such as Tulsa and

solar city.

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Can you just share a note notable experience or lesson learned from these high -stake

projects?

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Yeah, so a lot of the product I engaged in were not just me by myself.

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There's a lot of people, a lot of different teams, team members you work with.

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And one thing to make sure that I think you always keep the front of your mind is that

everyone you're working with is human, just like you and

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They have their own motivations.

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have their own likes and dislikes.

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And if you can keep that stuff in mind, it's much easier to work through anything, any

challenge, any problem.

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It's much easier to come up with solutions when you have people wanting to work with you.

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So the idea that you're always right, this should not be something that you have percolate

to the surface.

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So for me, it's really just it's that takeaways, you know, keep that human element.

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first and foremost in front of you when you're working with everyone.

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There are going to be things that you can read into.

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And if you don't know for sure that that's what someone meant or that's the intention they

had, ask the question.

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Don't assume.

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Got it.

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Well, thank you for sharing that Trevor.

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And then with your combined technical and people management skills, how did this dual role

shape your approach to leadership and team management?

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It allowed me to do a lot more.

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Trevor for whatever reason, I can't hear you.

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I don't know what happened.

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And you hear me now?

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Yep, sorry.

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So for me it's it's leading from the front, you know, so being able to show your team

members and other teams that it's not a do as I say, not as I do, but it's a let's let's

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do this together.

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Let's work together.

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I'm happy to lead the charge and actually work there with you.

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Work in the trenches.

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I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty.

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So it's that kind of opportunity that presented itself that really allowed me to meet with

the team and meet them more than halfway in some cases.

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And I think it helped to garner respect in a faster rate than I would have otherwise.

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I was just like, hey, Bob, can you go take care of this?

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If it was, hey, Bob, let's go work on this together.

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It was was much more effective.

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Got it.

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And I've been there as well.

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So I totally understand just the importance of willing to do the things that you're asking

for.

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So that's just an

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so important.

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you you have having started with an 8086 PC, you've seen some significant technology

changes.

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What advancements are most exciting?

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And how do they impact IT landscape today?

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I think it's the graphics and the computing power that we have available today, hand in

hand.

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I mean, really, the computing power lends towards the graphics.

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So they're basically just another type of CPU.

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But those two things together.

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really have changed everything.

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Right.

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And we've got, high definition video stuff that we can play around with now, AutoCAD, all

kinds of 3d modeling programs, or the special effects that we have in movies that we

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really enjoy seeing like iron man with his, you know, his, his blasters on his hands and

stuff like that.

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And stuff wouldn't exist without the computers we have today.

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So I really feel that those things together have really just changed the way that we

perceive the world.

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and what we can do and speed things up, make things more interesting.

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Yeah, no, totally.

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A lot of things that we're doing nowadays we couldn't do without technology.

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So it is such a blessing.

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And then can you share your insights into the evolution of networking equipment over your

career and how modern advancements have influenced IT infrastructure?

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Yes.

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So I still recall what the dial -up modem sounded like as I was getting on to some of the

AOLs

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Prodigy and other types of, you know, first few steps on the internet, you know, for me in

the nineties were like, and businesses have changed dramatically in what they do with the

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consumption of data.

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And as those internet connections have gotten faster, you know, things have just, it's

opened up a lot of possibility.

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So I think that the internet connections have been a huge thing.

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The, the WAN technologies that exist out there for, you know,

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connecting our businesses together or different locations together to allow for resiliency

and redundancy has been a tremendous benefit.

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I remember early on in my IT career, having a single internet circuit, you know, was

eventually it was going to go down.

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And if you didn't have something as a backup, it was, was going to be a problem.

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And now it seems to be much more of the norm than to be a, the niche case to plan for

something like that.

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So I think that those, those things together, the networking design to allow for

resiliency and redundancy.

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And then the internet speeds have been huge.

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Got it.

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And I'm a 90 baby myself.

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So I remember that whole dial tone.

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If you were on the computer and someone was calling, it was a hot mess.

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So I remember those times.

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But I was a young child at that time.

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So I do remember.

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And so what are some of the critical considerations when managing office bills and

relocations?

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Any tips for ensuring a smooth transition?

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Yeah, I think I can keep this one.

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Fairly short so knowing the timeline is critical you need to know when you're starting and

when it's supposed to end.

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You also need to have the experience or be able to get the experience and how long things

are going to take so you think about like you go to mechanic and you say I want to get my

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spark plugs changed they have a book that quotes them out of time that it takes them to

get that done and they charge you for that mechanic may do it in a quarter that time but

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they're still paid.

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even though it for the full time, even though it's faster and for a office move, you need

to assume the worst.

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You're going to be working with a ton of different people and not everyone's going to be

operating at your speed.

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You're not dealing with one mechanic.

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You're dealing with a bunch of different people.

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So understanding how long things are going to take to happen, you have to plan worst case.

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So you keep that in mind, then it works a lot better.

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The timeline going back to the first point, if it's too short, you need to push

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You need to have reason to push back to here's why this is not going to work.

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Here are all the things that have to occur.

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Here's how much time those things are going to take.

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And we can try our best to squeeze it as fast as can.

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But you know, it's, one of those things you really have to be able to push back and going

back to knowing how long things are going to take.

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You can plan for contingencies that way.

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If you know that your staffing agency you're working with can give you four people, but

they've got another four people available.

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That helps you to know if those four people aren't

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pulling out all the stops for you, you can either get more bodies or possibly replace some

of the people who've been assigned your project.

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So there's things like that.

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There's no level of overthinking you can do on an office move.

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Think about it, work through it, plan for it.

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Got it.

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Understood.

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And I'm sure sometimes things don't go as planned.

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I'm sure that's important.

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I just like anything.

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And then how do you approach the integration of IT systems and teams during mergers and

acquisitions?

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and to minimize disruption and ensure a cohesive environment.

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So you need to take stock of what's there.

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What are they using?

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What applications are using?

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What hardware are they using?

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And then you need to work with those teams.

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got to talk with them.

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And there's a lot of conversations you're going to have, understanding what it is they're

doing.

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Shadow them.

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Talk to them.

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Figure out what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how that's going to integrate

into the landscape of the company that's acquiring

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So let's say this is SolarCity gobbling up another company.

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When SolarCity does that, SolarCity is likely, if they're the parent company buying this

other one, they're not going to say, I'm going to use their technology.

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They're going to look at what they already have in their stack and say, how do I take that

round peg and fit it into our square hole?

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So they're going to rely on someone like myself to say, hey, all right, so what are you

doing with that?

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And how am I going to take that and move that

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And if I know what I need the end part to look like, and I know the start and I go to the

end and I work backwards from there, I can figure out what those steps look like.

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Come up with a plan, present that plan once I've had those initial conversations and then

start, sanity checking it, talking to everybody, making sure that it's going to actually

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work the way I believe it's going to work.

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Because I'm not going to, you know, be completely correct in everything I do.

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I'm going to make mistakes.

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And that's where I, where this is a team

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So I talked to everybody, make sure we kick the tires and make sure that car is going to

roll down the hill successfully.

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So just planning, lots of planning.

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And then you need to be prepared for back out plans, roll back plans and things like that,

because even the best planned out thing, there could be some unforeseen circumstance and

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you cannot plan contingencies for everything.

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I mean, we could have everything nailed down to a T, but we didn't talk about NV energy,

not having an outage.

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or brown out at that point in time, because that's not a consideration that we're making.

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And, you know, even if we did take that into consideration, are we going to buy temporary

generators for this?

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Probably not.

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Because the tiny chance that something could happen.

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But things do sometimes line up and crazier things happen.

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Got it.

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And when you mentioned that, I just thought of, you know, I've done marketing in the past.

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And I know a lot of times when you're doing marketing, it's more of kind of, you you kind

of see what works.

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Would you say IT is something very similar?

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I would say that IT is one of those things where at times it can feel like whack -a -mole.

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So you could, like you said, see what works.

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It could be process elimination or whack -a -mole.

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I've referred to it multiple ways, but it's, hey, how does this sound?

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And sometimes it could be in the way that you're actually just selling it, right?

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So speaking of marketing, packaging something one way and selling it to a consumer versus

repackaging it, selling it another way.

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You could have the same exact product and sell it a separate way.

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Like Zima has become Smirnoff ice, right?

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mean, Zima, you don't sell it sold anywhere, but it's effectively, or a lot of people joke

about it being the same thing, but there's a lot of ways you could package something.

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And in it, a lot of it really comes down to this sounds like this will work.

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And sometimes it's not till you get to trying to do it in practice that you know that it

doesn't work on paper.

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Everything seems great.

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fielding the ideas with your colleagues and your management team like, yeah, that's great.

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And you go to do it.

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That was a terrible idea.

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Okay, lessons learned.

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Let's not do this again.

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So you don't always hit the nail on the head every single time, but we try and do it more

much more often than not.

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Got it.

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No, totally get that.

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So thank you for sharing that with us, Trevor.

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And within your bio, you did mention you enjoy tinkering with technology at home.

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Can you share a recent project you've worked on and what you learned from

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Yeah, so 3D printing, I've got a couple of 3D printers here at the house.

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It's been a little while since I poked at them, but they're very finicky.

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There's a lot there to learn and unpack.

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I feel like you could spend as much time learning how to do stuff with a 3D printer.

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And when they're all mostly, you know, the mechanical movements and all that stuff and get

everything aligned just perfectly and everything looks great.

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And then suddenly things still aren't working right.

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The medium is not adhering to the bed.

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you know, your prints not quite right.

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So there's a lot of nuance, and a lot of things there.

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It's, it's one of those things where patience goes a long way.

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And it's a reminder to me about the technologies that we have in the IT field, right?

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IT and technology do not stop.

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They're constantly evolving.

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There's new technology that's not released, that is going to be released in a couple

weeks, a couple months, a year from now.

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It's a constant

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release cycle.

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And because of this, there's new features, there's new things to be concerned about, new

bugs, new vulnerabilities, all kinds of stuff to work on.

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And the same thing applies to 3d printing.

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So to me, it was, it was kind of a reminder to me in playing with that and working with it

that you never know everything.

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And you've got to stay hungry and want to keep learning.

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So that's, that's been the kind of a takeaway for me with a 3d printing.

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It's, it's enjoyable, but it's also annoying.

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Got it.

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I get it.

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A lot of things that we do can be that way sometimes.

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Yes.

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And then how do you balance your professional life and IT with personal hobbies and family

activities, especially I know in your bio, you did mention that you do have young children

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at home.

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Yes.

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So my kids are very interested in technology as well.

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So they're constantly curious about what's going on.

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And to balance

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We, we've gotten a bit lucky.

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The kids had come into a house full of movers and shakers as we like to put it, you know,

our house, the normal is busy.

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there's not normally a day where there's nothing planned.

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There's almost always something going on, going to the library, going to a concert, going

to a show, going to the park, going to the gym, multiple things, you know, but when it

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comes to work, it's trying to figure

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how I can get everything scheduled in there and squeezed in there really to work with them

to do my stuff that I need to do at the house.

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know, the dishes aren't going to do themselves.

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So it's, it's really a bit of a challenge, but I have to apply some level of project

management to the stuff that goes on here as well to squeeze everything in.

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try and get the kids set up to be able to take care of themselves as best as possible with

certain

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especially now that they're getting a little bit older, they're seven and 10.

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So we're starting to lean on them having, you know, responsibilities and taking care of

stuff.

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But a lot of it really is just making sure that work is not impacting so much of our time

that we aren't there for them when they need us.

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And when it comes, when it comes to that work -life balance is critical.

342

And if you allow it to, I've found in the past that work can be very consuming of your

time

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I think that having boundaries and making sure that you set those and continue to reset

those over time because things tend to creep, you know, work or even hobbies, you just

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have to make sure that you continue to re update those.

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Got it.

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No, I totally get it.

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I have a two year old and a now five year old.

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wow.

349

Yeah.

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And, you know, running a business and a few other things.

351

I totally get it.

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It can be a balance that you have to learn.

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But yeah, I totally that's pretty awesome.

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Trevor.

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So thank you for sharing that with us.

356

You you're currently, you are currently exploring new opportunities.

357

Like what type of roles or projects are you looking for within the next adventure?

358

So I'm really open at this point, as I mentioned, work life balance is an important thing

for me.

359

And I think that employers and employees alike need to find the right set.

360

So I'm looking to find the right fit there.

361

I hold myself to be quite technical in different areas and I definitely enjoy technical

stuff.

362

I also really enjoy working with people and having that, that, that person to person

interaction.

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So as a project manager, I really enjoyed getting to meet with all these different teams.

364

had no direct reports, but I had all these folks that I need to ask them to do things for

me on these projects or for the company.

365

Right.

366

So I enjoy all that.

367

I get to meet everyone, get to have all these different personalities that I interact

with, go to lunch and stuff with them.

368

I really enjoy that.

369

I also enjoy mentoring and tutoring and training people

370

seeing that they can do more than they thought of in themselves.

371

So I'm really just looking for a next opportunity that allows me to have that work -life

balance and either an individual contributor or manager, I'm open for whatever the next

372

direction comes for me looks like.

373

I'm very flexible in that regard.

374

I've been blessed with the skillset that I have and a lot of the opportunities that have

come my way.

375

So I'm really just anxious to find a good fit.

376

Got it.

377

And so when it comes to a good fit, are you more looking to be like a contractor or

employee?

378

Are you kind of open?

379

I'm open.

380

It really depends.

381

mean, of course, it would be great to be full time so I could have benefits and stuff like

that.

382

But right now, pretty open.

383

Got it.

384

Awesome.

385

Well, thank you for sharing that with us.

386

And what trends are emerging technology in IT?

387

Do you think professionals should keep an eye on and why?

388

I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens with the video card market and

not just for discrete graphics cards, but also the ones that are built on the motherboards

389

because we've seen a huge battle back and forth for a long time between Nvidia and AMD.

390

And most recently Intel has been doing their own discrete graphics cards.

391

They've had their own inbuilt graphics into their processors for quite some time.

392

But I think that there's going to be a bit of a shakeup in the graphics market

393

as Intel, mean, and they've got a ton of money to do it to, really start to be more

competitive in that space.

394

We've seen AMD do a lot with AI, their stock has gone bonkers.

395

I mean, I made a mistake personally, where I sold off some stock thinking, it's not going

to go above $15 a share.

396

Of course, right after that, it ramped up quite a few times.

397

And I felt a bit silly for having vacated my positions.

398

But I truly

399

that there's going to be a bit of a shake up there where people are going to be vying for

more dominance in the AI field through the graphics processors and stuff they're making.

400

And I think Intel is taking their first entry steps into that with some of the graphics

that they're doing.

401

It's cheaper and it is competing with some of the lower tier cards from both AMD and

Nvidia.

402

So I think that there's going to be a bit of a shake up there in the future.

403

Got it.

404

And for some of our audience that may

405

understand exactly what you mean by that?

406

Could you just explain a little bit more?

407

Yeah, so competition is good.

408

And when there's not a lot of competition, I think that the different companies they can

rest on their laurels, hey, I don't have to pardon me, do much more to improve this or

409

make the next generation that much better.

410

But if Intel enters the ring, and there's now a three way race instead of just AMD and

Nvidia,

411

I think it'll get more interesting.

412

We'll have potentially prices stagnate or hopefully lower as opposed to discontinuing to

increase.

413

Like some of the high end graphics cards now can cost upwards of $2 ,000.

414

They're absurdly expensive.

415

So I think that it could be good for consumers.

416

And I think in the business market, we're going to start to see changes in the offerings

from Dell, Lenovo, and some of the other OEs in terms of what they're packaging and

417

devices you're able to purchase.

418

We know that, you know, for enterprise grade computers, there's a lot of asks from a lot

of different parts of the business, whether it be graphics power, RAM, processing power,

419

there's a fit for all different types of folks.

420

And it comes down to price point and the portability and package and that you're receiving

it in.

421

And I think that that's going to change too.

422

I think there's going to be more competition.

423

Got it.

424

Now that's awesome.

425

And then for those who are just starting in the IT and IT,

426

What advice would you give to help them navigate their career paths and achieve growth?

427

Let think of that one for a second.

428

I think it would be a good idea if you can, if your network allows for it with people you

already know, talk to someone who's been in it for a while.

429

If you don't know anyone, join a group and talk to someone there that you don't know.

430

Reach out blindly on LinkedIn.

431

LinkedIn's a great place for this.

432

Strike up a conversation.

433

You never know when someone's randomly going to respond to something you send.

434

What I would suggest is say more than just, Hey, I'd like to connect.

435

there's a lot of cool people on LinkedIn.

436

And it's, a good social media platform.

437

I think that there's a lot you could do there.

438

For example, my, my wife is part of culture.

439

First is a group that she works with out here.

440

She does different training from the HR side and going out to some of those events and

meeting different people.

441

There's stuff like that for it.

442

There's stuff like that for maker spaces, stuff like that for car stuff and car stuff is

very, very quickly becoming more of an it related thing to where everything is on the

443

canvas.

444

Everything needs to be done through the cars computer.

445

So getting to know these people who have been in the industry for a while and learning

from their experiences and hopefully maybe even avoiding some of their mistakes.

446

There's a lot of mistakes you can make like the one I mentioned earlier about negotiating

at that point in time, but there's others too, like training paths.

447

You could talk to one person, they say, certifications are terrible.

448

They don't prove that you know anything.

449

Whereas someone else might say,

450

get all the certifications you can, it's not going to hurt you.

451

But it all depends upon the perspective.

452

Get lots of perspectives.

453

Got it.

454

No, that's that's excellent advice.

455

And you did mention communities.

456

Is there any communities that you can recommend just thinking are offhand?

457

So one thing I think was really neat for me to do and I need to get back into it was the

first community for the robotics competitions.

458

I was doing that while I was working at Motional.

459

My next door neighbor, Matt, the office down the hall from me, he was very, very good

salesperson at getting people from the office to come and volunteer.

460

So I got to be a robotics judge there for the competitions for some of the high schoolers

out here in Vegas.

461

And that was really rewarding experience.

462

But beyond getting to do that, that hands on part and talking with the kids about the

robots, everything they

463

It's all the other people from all over the place that I got to talk to and find out about

their work experience, what they've done, their background.

464

And not everyone was, you know, an expert in their field.

465

had kids who were fresh out of college who were coming and helping out with some of these

things too, and getting to just talk with them.

466

So any number of different things exist, you know, but I haven't looked for any computer

related clubs in Vegas for a while.

467

I know there, as I mentioned, maker spaces, there are some maker groups.

468

I typically align in my personal time or car groups.

469

So, you know, going to cars and coffee on Saturday, every Saturday and Henderson on

Eastern.

470

That's a fantastic place to go to just meet tons of people.

471

So that's something I always recommend.

472

If you like cars, you never know who's doing what with computers, even if it's not car

related.

473

So anywhere you go.

474

Got it.

475

And that sounds pretty, pretty exciting.

476

Just, you know, being part of those communities, especially the one that you talked about

with the kids with the robots.

477

I'm sure that was a pretty amazing experience.

478

And as someone who has transitioned into leadership, what are your top tips for effective

team management and fostering a positive work environment?

479

So this one's going to sound a little funny, I think, but think of your working family as

a family, right?

480

And the reason I say that is you spend so much time at work, eight plus hours a day with

these people, oftentimes spending more time with them over the course of the day than you

481

do with your own family, at least Monday through Friday or Monday through Thursday, if

you're local government employee, and some respects.

482

So you spend a lot of time with them, but there is different things where they're not

family to these are your coworkers, we're not going to treat them and talk to them the

483

same way.

484

So I think respect goes a long way.

485

And if you treat people with respect, and you

486

Stay humble.

487

I think that things go a lot easier for you in the working environment.

488

Things, as I mentioned earlier, can be taken out of context.

489

And I think it's a good idea to just be open and have communications.

490

You don't know someone's motivations.

491

You don't know these people other than what they've allowed you to know or what you helped

promote them to be comfortable talking to you about.

492

You're that standoffish person who's giving one answer responses like how was your

weekend?

493

Good.

494

You know, like don't expect a whole lot to come from those relationships.

495

And I really think that cultivating good relationships is a huge part of who we are as a

species.

496

And in the workplace, it's incredibly important to connect.

497

And I think that that is a huge part is just making sure that you can have those

interpersonal relationships really build.

498

as much as you're willing to do.

499

I think the more you're able to do that, the better.

500

You don't need to share every last detail about your life, medical history, or anything

like that.

501

But you can definitely, you know, have a good time getting to know some of the people you

work with and it could make working a whole lot more fun.

502

Sorry, a call is coming in.

503

But no, that is, I agree with you.

504

I think building relationship is the key with anything that you do.

505

We mentioned LinkedIn, I mean,

506

we got this relationship from a LinkedIn message that I sent over to you.

507

right.

508

I just think that's a starting process of a relationship.

509

Who knows where this relationship goes to?

510

Of course.

511

Which is awesome.

512

Any final thoughts or advice you'd like to share with our listeners?

513

Yeah.

514

So I think when it comes to working on a project or a team, something that I've, I've had

some time coming to grips with too, is not everyone is going to work the way you do.

515

So you may think something is normal when it's not.

516

Someone else may think something is normal when it's not.

517

So a case in point being, you know, you may think that you're normal and then everyone

should operate the way that you do, how fast you do at, at these different things,

518

That's probably not normal.

519

You're probably working fast.

520

You're probably going faster than the curve.

521

You're probably taking on more than someone else is either willing to or is able to.

522

And that's not a bad thing.

523

Everyone's different in their own ways.

524

One of the things that has stuck out a lot to me in my career in the customer service side

of IT, which is a large facet of it, is that you'll get those employees who are in front

525

of you.

526

One second.

527

who will say things like, my gosh, I can't believe I'm so terrible at this.

528

I'm bad at IT.

529

I can't do these things.

530

And these self -deprecating remarks.

531

And I think it's critical to remember that we all have skills that we hold onto and that

we found that work for us.

532

And let's say that person who made that comment is a salesperson.

533

I'm in IT.

534

I don't do a whole lot of selling.

535

I don't really sell much of anything other than maybe a project or an idea I might have to

get it executed.

536

But these people are selling day in and day out.

537

And it becomes your responsibility in that, that in your job capacity to take care of them

and help them out and allowing yourself to remember that part of it can make your

538

interaction that much better because you're not pitting them or anything like that.

539

You're helping them using your skillset.

540

They're helping the business using theirs.

541

Everyone's slice of the pie comes together to make the full business picture.

542

And I think that that's something that is critical to remember.

543

I may not have done the best way of describing that, but that's kind of how I look at it

is we all have our unique thing that we bring.

544

And as long as you can remember that I'm doing what I need to do.

545

And it's part of the collective group and they're doing that too.

546

No, I, everything you said, I agree with you.

547

So that was awesome.

548

And thank you so much, Trevor, for joining us today.

549

Your inspiration that you shared with us was very valuable.

550

I'm excited for this podcast to come out live.

551

Is there any way that people should connect with you?

552

LinkedIn would be great.

553

So if you want to reach out on LinkedIn and say, Hey, I saw the podcast.

554

Love to connect.

555

Or if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

556

do my best to answer.

557

I can't answer all questions.

558

Like if you ask like what companies did you acquire?

559

I can't answer those questions, but you know, anything that's, you know, more vague to

like topics like we talked about today.

560

or specifics about things going on in the industry with IT stuff or my opinions on things.

561

I'm happy to give opinions, but just be aware.

562

I may not be able to answer everything, but I'm happy to talk.

563

Got it.

564

Awesome.

565

And I'll be sure to put that in the bio.

566

But Trevor, it was a pleasure and we'll talk soon.

567

Thank you so much.

568

Thanks, Shatoya.