Episode 52 | Cybersecurity Roadmaps: The Life Support for Companies with Tracy Gregorio

Tracy Gregorio  00:00

I never created any barriers. I was never told there was going to be any. I never put any roadblocks in so I didn’t have any of the kick down. But it still is very male dominated. You know, a lot of our most of our customers are male. I personally have never worked for a female. But anyway, but we have to continue to encourage each other because this country needs male and females in STEM, you have a shortage.

Voiceover  00:29

Welcome to the “Lead at the Top of Your Game” podcast, where we equip you to more effectively lead your seat at any employer, business, or industry in which you choose to play. Each week, we help you sharpen your leadership acumen by cracking open the playbooks of dynamic leaders who are doing big things in their professional endeavors. And now, your host, leadership tactics, and organizational development expert, Karan Ferrell-Rhodes.

Karan Rhodes  01:05

Hey, they’re superstars. This is Karan, and welcome to the Lead at the Top of Your Game podcast. And thanks for joining another episode designed to help you better to lead up to the top of your game. You know, I had the pleasure of attending the women and technology awards here in Atlanta this weekend in support of a very dear friend who was up for an executive award. And while I am happy to say that my friend one I must admit that I was captivated by all the stories of the nominees and their challenges that they had to overcome in their various professions. You know, it’s no secret that being a female executive in STEM has its share of challenges. And if you add to it the complexity that occurs when your company’s key client decision makers are in male dominated positions and like the military and commercial enterprises Wow, that is such a challenge for executives, especially women executives to overcome. However, my guest on today’s show did not let these obstacles stop her from running a certified woman -owned cybersecurity firm recognized five years straight by Inc 5000 as one of our country’s fastest growing small businesses. Tracy Gregorio is the CEO of G2 Ops, which is an IT Engineering and cybersecurity company serving the US Navy, government entities and commercial enterprises. Previously, she was a software engineer for the Navy and also the analysts for a cable broadcast network. But she used her intellectual horsepower to see the important role that cybersecurity was going to play in the world just as cybersecurity was becoming a budding industry within itself. And so on today’s show, Tracy shares with us some of the leadership challenges that she and other technology executives face as they try to keep their companies and your data safe from hackers who possess ill intent. And you know, one thing that struck me was how common it is for companies to use a variety of technology platforms that may integrate with each other well performance wise, but may not be at an A-plus level, security wise. And this is very, very scary indeed. And we see a lot of these stories in today’s media when things go wrong. So hope you enjoy the episode and be sure to stay tuned for just two minutes after the episode to listen to my closing segment called Karan’s take, where I share a tip on how to use insights from today’s episode to further sharpen your leadership acumen. And now enjoy the show. Hey there superstars This is Karan and welcome to another episode of the leader the top of your game podcast. We have a special guest today I’m so pleased to have on today’s show. Tracy Gregorio who is the CEO of G2 Ops, which is an IT Engineering and cybersecurity company serving the US Navy government and commercial enterprises. Welcome to the podcast Tracy.

Tracy Gregorio  04:22

Hi everyone. Glad to be here today.

Karan Rhodes  04:24

Oh, we’re so happy to have you been a leader of a cybersecurity company. I’m sure it’s very eventful, and we’re gonna really want to delve into that in a moment. But before we do so, if you don’t mind for as much as you feel comfortable, can you give us a sneak peek into your personal life and passions?

Tracy Gregorio  04:43

All right, sure. So hello everyone again, and I was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. And you know that impacted my world view and you know, supporting the Navy is very near and dear to my heart. So that kind of spoke into everything that I did, but I mean majored in computer science? You know, it was tough then. And it’s tough now. Yeah. But it’s been a really great career. And I just progressed, you know, as a computer programmer than a database administrator, project manager worked for the government, a public company just had a great opportunity to learn continuously. And then 10 years ago, with my husband and another partner, we decided we wanted to break out on our own and try to bring some innovative technology to the way they manage complex systems for the Navy, you know, that was our target and the reason that we are reaching to ups today. So that’s it in a nutshell. So everything prepared me for where I am today.

Karan Rhodes  05:45

Oh, what a wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing. And I’m sure your it makes total sense for you to be focusing, especially in your location and the needs on the Navy. But when did you realize that your work was expanding into some of the commercial areas and other industries? Has that been just recently over the last like five years? Or did you see an evolution over time?

Tracy Gregorio  06:15

Yeah, it actually has been about five years because of cybersecurity, the government and the Navy and Air Force or whatever they’re all trying to solve? So stay ahead of cybersecurity. Yeah, it was the private sector. Yeah, the same challenges. So we, we do a lot of consulting with small and medium sized businesses, to help them improve their cyber posture. We help them develop roadmaps.

Karan Rhodes  06:41

Can you share a little bit more about that, as some of that core work? Like, what does that Consulting at a high level entail? Because I know this has a lot of detailed technical work, but at a high level, kind of what do you all do?

Tracy Gregorio  06:55

Well, really, any business owner, you know, has to protect customer data, employee data, at a minimum, at a very minimum. And then a lot of businesses have requirements with their customers, you know, if you’re in healthcare, or you even, you know, protect tax records, whatever, right? And there’s some really good basic things every company needs to do. So we’ll sit down with the CEO, a lot of them don’t have IT departments, yeah, a lot of money to spend more, and we look at where’s the best investment? And how can you build on it over time. So let’s say we want to make some improvements over two or three, four years, because that’s what their budget allows. So we’ll work with them to put together a roadmap of the best things that they need to do. And it always starts with training your employees. Number one,

Karan Rhodes  07:44

I can imagine that because even with me, you know, moving from corporate America to you know, owning my own firm, be launched in 2013. And most of our clients are, like mid size to larger enterprise level firms. You know, they’re requiring even people that do HR and leadership to have a certain degree of data protection, you know, things that we probably wouldn’t have thought about. I’m telling my age, but you know, 15 to 20 years ago, now, we’re being required to go through, you know, checks and not like and be authenticate that we’re, you know, doing things the right way, based on and your contract depends upon that. So, I’m sure that’s why also, you all are getting a ton of business from companies and the government doubling down on that. And I’m just curious, how has or has the whole acceleration with AI impacted your business or industry?

Tracy Gregorio  08:45

Well, for us, we’re really looking at how can we bring it in to be more efficient, more competitive, you know, drive down our costs? Sure. Because we have to be familiar with it. But, you know, AI can be broached by a cybersecurity criminal also. So you have to verify the data you’re getting back from the AI, but it’s really looking at how can it improve our business and what we’re delivering to our clients. That’s where we’re at right now with AI,

Karan Rhodes  09:12

And who’s your core target audience that your company focuses on?

Tracy Gregorio  09:19

For the majority of our work, it’s the Navy, and it’s groups that are managing large complex systems, say for communication, or even weapon systems on a ship. You know, they’re built by many different contractors. And when those systems come together, there’s a lot of complexity, information shared in between, and we help them manage that complexity. And understand, Oh, if I upgrade over here has affected this other piece of the system from a cyber, you know, perspective, that’s an easy example. We build the digital twin of their systems.

Karan Rhodes  09:54

Gotcha. That makes a ton of sense. But I would imagine I mean, you know, we You haven’t come from the tech world, technology changes at a nanosecond. So even small businesses, I know you create a strategic plan for them. But I can imagine where their CEOs or CTOs are needing to excel, they might start out with strategy, but find that they meet need to make quicker investments in their cybersecurity plans, because by that they can’t wait three years right to have a good implementation. But things change so quickly, they need to kind of take baby steps as quick as they can afford it, or am I wrong?

Tracy Gregorio  10:36

No, no, that’s true. Training for the employees, you know, doing upgrades, you know, you know, from where you’ve worked before. Yeah. The Microsoft spent millions and millions of dollars to fix any holes or that are in the software. So use these upgrades. Let those big companies do the heavy work for you. Yeah, do plan for all that.

Karan Rhodes  10:59

Well, I’m really would love also Tracy for you to share a bit about your, your and your husband’s and your partner’s founder journey, if you will? How did you all start the business? And I think I read in your profile that you have a bit of help with, I don’t know, as a small business administration, or you got or you got to learn about how to do business with the federal government. But can you share a bit about your founders journey with us?

Tracy Gregorio  11:28

So thank you. So, you know, I was in, I had a great job that I loved and my husband’s like, let’s, you know, I’d see the change coming with (unintelligable) system engineering system methodology. Let’s get on the front end of it. And so we said, okay, let’s, you know, we want to help make large companies deliver things faster to the government, or even the government things that are developing internally. So he’s a retired Submariner and really said, let’s come do this. You know, you’ve got the corporate experience, you know, to be the CEO. And then our other partner, Kevin Esser is a cybersecurity savant. I mean, he’s just dedicated many years of his career in Information Assurance, and cyber, so that was our, you know, team. And it’s hard at first you you’re, you do whatever, you can just small jobs, you know, medium jobs, and you start getting, you know, okayed by the government to do business with them. That takes a long time. When I Yeah, and we didn’t win our first contract until three years after we started.

Karan Rhodes  12:38

Oh, wow. Yeah. Did you serve under others?

Tracy Gregorio  12:42

Yeah, yeah, to some large companies and like, consulting, you know, anything anybody needed, because, you know, you have to generate revenue, yes. To grow and invest in yourself. So that was it. And then once you win, one, just, you know, gives you confidence. And then you just try to make improvements. But our key is just is hiring really, really good people. So that’s, you know, we go after those people that want to do good work. Great work ethic, smart. And then they attract others.

Karan Rhodes  13:15

Yeah. Like attracts like, Right. Great people attract great people. Are you, do you always have your eye out for great new talent that’s out there?

Tracy Gregorio  13:26

Always. Always. So yeah, we’ve got some good stories. A few people that have been with us quite a few years. One girl was finishing up her degree and was a, you know, waitress at a restaurant. And we met her and just, you know, her work ethic another. They joke about it. She just finished grad school had worked at Lululemon through grad school, and was just, and I happen to be in a Lululemon one day, and I was like, you know, and she just was such a great employee. Oh, wow. Well, I just said, Tell me about yourself. So oh, just got my MPA from the George Washington University and us. We need someone else over six years, so I’m always looking. And then of course, great. We work closely with a lot of universities to I can imagine some of their talent coming out

Karan Rhodes  14:18

That is tremendous. And then I understand you, you all have grown to over 150 employees now. Right?

Tracy Gregorio  14:25

Right. Right.

Karan Rhodes  14:27

Okh, congratulations on that,

Tracy Gregorio  14:29

Thank you,

Karan Rhodes  14:30

I’m sure that growth over these years brings interesting leadership dynamics, you know, managing, you know, teams of individuals. So I’m curious of, what are some of your top challenges right now as being an executive of G2 Ops?

Tracy Gregorio  14:50

Yeah, I mean, we always have to focus on growth, you know, especially adding all these people Yes, things happen, things change, you know, and they’re gonna want to You’ll be challenged differently get promoted. So we constantly have to be looking at our pipeline. That’s always a big investment. And then hiring, it’s so funny. Our team loves coming in the office, we’re in Arlington, Virginia Beach and San Diego, and our offices are bustling. And we were looking at Space Challenges. You know, other offices are still empty, but like working together and collaborating. So that and then, of course, it’s always the the cash flow on the business side. Yeah. In the banking. So it’s a mix, and then keeping up with technology, you know, all the time?

Karan Rhodes  15:45

And howdo you all kind of keep your knowledge sharp about some of the new trends that I’m, I mean, how do you? Do you gather from multiple places? Do you keep your ear to the street? Do you follow various research reports? How do you all stay on top of your area and tat?

Tracy Gregorio  16:06

We we reinvest a lot into the staff and your certifications, credentials, we give education credit. And I think that’s what a lot of people like coming here because it’s competitive. But it helps us to when we’re bidding on new work, know, if someone’s got, oh, now they have all these certifications and cloud, you know, Microsoft Azure, or AWS, whatever. And then, of course, all the cybersecurity certifications and staying on top. So that’s been our best investment is just plowed back into the employees. And we have over 95% retention.

Karan Rhodes  16:44

Oh my gosh,Tracy! What is the answer to the secret sauce for that? That’s what I need to know.

Tracy Gregorio  16:50

I think it’s because they can grow and learn here, and you know, be empowered. So but we celebrate every month, we go over what sort of certifications people that, you know, do on their own, but we publish it every month,

Karan Rhodes  17:05

And recognize them for it.

Tracy Gregorio  17:06

Yeah

Karan Rhodes  17:06

That’s amazing. And, you know, recognition goes a long way. Because most employees just want to be appreciated for their knowledge or contributions and things that they’ve done. So, gosh, if you all do that every month. No wonder Y’all have a great environment there. Well, you know, one thing that especially if you’ve been in tech, we as women hate to ask that question, what’s it like to be a woman in tech either, because we just want to be appreciated for our work. But, um, since you are an executive and the leader in your own business, I’m just curious from the contracting side, or the business side, what is it like to be, you know, at the top and be in those intense client negotiations in a male dominated fields such as cybersecurity.

Tracy Gregorio  17:59

So it’s just something you have to get used to, I mean, you run out of school, I went to work in defense work. So it was always male dominated, and I never served in the military. So that’s in that light, you know, necessarily, but I think it’s just, you know, if you’re good at your job, they don’t care.

Karan Rhodes  18:21

They shouldn’t. Not at all, they should not even think about gender. It’s done, right.

Tracy Gregorio  18:28

I never created any barriers. I was never told there was going to be any, and never any roadblocks. And so I didn’t have any kick down. Yeah, but it still is very male dominated. You know, a lot of our most of our customers are male, I personally have never worked for a female. And but anyway, but we have to continue to encourage each other because this country needs male and females in Stem because we have a shortage,

Karan Rhodes  18:58

Dire shortage. And I had spoken at a conference Gala, but their headquarters in DC late last year. And I was talking to them about trends that I was seeing in the future of work. And I was, you know, speaking, and that was the one of the things that we talked about war where the people were moving away from the kids, we’re moving away from degrees. And we’re really focusing on skills now. And so companies are having to take a different approach than, say 15 years ago, and looking for individuals that have the right skill sets for the jobs that are within their companies, versus having, you know, a master’s degree in x, y and z. That may be a bit different in tech and cybersecurity, because there’s a lot that goes into knowledge that goes into those specific areas. But but one of my point was it one of the things that came up in the conference was the severe shortage. have just individuals and tech much less, you know, much more females in tech. So, and all STEM disciplines and it sounds like you’re saying the same?

Tracy Gregorio  20:11

Oh yea. Exactly. So we’re gonna encourage people to school, middle school, high school, right? This turned around, you know, and really quickly.

Karan Rhodes  20:23

So, you know, I know a lot of us is leaders we kind of learn from, I hate to say mistakes, but missteps. We take those missteps and then we, you know, learn a ton of great lessons from them. I’m just curious if there were any areas of opportunity along your founding journey of GE, to ops that you faced, and what did you learn from them to help make you a better leader?

Tracy Gregorio  20:55

I think, yeah, all of us face that we make mistakes all the time. So I do. I think, you know, sometimes you’re in a meeting, and you’re like, I wish I had said that. Or I could have said that better. So it’s like, okay, now I’m not gonna, how could I have prepared better? You know, so that doesn’t happen again, or I’m not in that situation. So, especially with customers, I like to, I don’t want to be caught off guard on anything, you know, so I do a lot of prep work, you know, even for this, you know, podcast, so I wanted to, you know, understand, looked at your other thing, and, and all…

Karan Rhodes  21:33

It’s crazy, Tracy,

Tracy Gregorio  21:36

What I’ve learned is, you know, be prepared. Yeah. I mean, you only have so much time, though. That’s true to prepare. But, but we all make mistakes. I think my biggest is always, you know, communication. Could I have said that better? Could I have written that better? That’s something I continue to work on. Yeah. And now we have AI to help us.

Karan Rhodes  22:01

We sure do. You know, one of my challenges is, I love to have my fingers in so many pots, if you will, I go to where the energy goes for me personally. And I have to course correct myself to make sure that I am focused on the task at hand and helping either my staff or the clients at hand, and make sure they’re getting all that they need before I jump to the next one. But I’ve put good I know that about myself, I put that into how I manage myself so that I’m not the being the detriment to, you know, everyone around me. So, you know, I think we all do things to make sure that we stay perform at a high level. And it sounds like you do as well. Right?

Tracy Gregorio  22:52

Yeah, especially coming from a technology background.

Karan Rhodes  22:54

Yeah,

Tracy Gregorio  22:55

I want to get in, I want to solve problems, you know, yeah, I couldn’t code now. But you know, and sometimes I have to say, Stop, let them, you know, handle it. Keep pushing on the strategic side.

Karan Rhodes  23:09

On the strategic side as well.

Tracy Gregorio  23:10

It’s fun, you know, it

Karan Rhodes  23:12

is fine. Right? Now, it makes a ton of sense. So, you know, one of the things we love to ask on this show is your impressions on, you know, the research that we’ve done for our book, and you’re so kind enough to share that. One of the tactics that we write about that, and we teach about that really jumped out and resonates with you is when leaders lead with strategic decision making. And if you remember, leading with strategic decision making is just what it sounds like. It’s about making really strong, great decisions yourself, or leading a great decision making process with your team or those you’re collaborating with. So I’m just curious, Tracy, why does strategic decision making really stand out for you?

Tracy Gregorio  24:03

You know, we can do pros and cons and analyze things to death, right? I’ve always been impressed with leaders that can make a decision. And you’re like, Okay, we gotta move faster, especially in this economy. And anyway, we’ve learned just make a decision. And it turns out, not so well, we’re learn from it. But how I found to trust my gut, you know, through all these years, and I really want the audience know that, you know, we were given this brain from God, which is a very sophisticated neural network, okay. More than eight no AI can replicate it, they try. And it’s sending a signal to your gut, you know, and saying, you know, and get that signal from experiences or pain you’ve gone through, but I think learning to make the right strategic decisions for our company has been very rewarding too, especially when you’re It works out, you know, we took the right path. It’s funny, something I was trying to rush on recently. And I was like, No, I gotta wait on that decision. And then all of a sudden, it became clear, you know, what the right decision was my gut was saying, you know, wait on something, strategic decisions, you know, are going to point you in the right direction. So, taking time and, and learning, and I call a lot of people I get input, you know, great. We have great attorneys accounts depends on what it is. Right. Right. Other, you know, spent time meeting other CEOs, other leaders, you know, how would you handle this situation, that sort of thing, getting input. So, and coming up with that, that little group to talk to? So, because your company’s like, just make a decision, you know, and you have to.

Karan Rhodes  25:50

You have to. you’re absolutely right. But if you’re kind of pointed in the right way, based on the knowledge you gain from your colleagues, and mentors, or trends in the market, or whatever, it really helps those first baby steps you make, or it helps you build your confidence anyway, for those first steps. Do you agree?

Tracy Gregorio  26:11

Yes, yeah. Yeah, cuz we do a lot of contracting, you know, we have our own that we bid on, it’s very competitive, but we also subcontract a lot. And it’s like, team do we want to be on you know, we, of course, we want to be on the winning team absolutely. plays a big part, you know, getting to know these people and understanding their strategy. You know, is it a winning strategy, and that sort of thing. So.

Karan Rhodes  26:37

So I’m curious Tracy, because I bet there’s not enough hours in the day probably to get everything you want done, what is leading at the top of your game mean to you?

Tracy Gregorio  26:48

For me, it’s coming in and being present. For everyone. I like to get to know, everyone here. And know, here, they’ve all heard me say this before, our goal is for them to flourish. Right and be the best they can be whether they stay with us. If they go to another company, we want that other company to say, hey, I want some more people from GE to write, you know, because the high performers are they’re prepared. So my goal is to make sure that the company is running well, the right leadership’s in place. Everyone’s communicated to like a symphony economist conducting conducting a symphony.

Karan Rhodes  27:28

Right. I love that analogy. Yes.

Tracy Gregorio  27:31

But you have to inspect, you have to check on people, you have to attend meetings, you have to I have a lot of regular meetings. That takes up a lot of time. But that’s what I’m supposed to do. Yeah. time checking in with clients and customers. So I enjoy that. And that’s where you, they they’ll tell you if anything’s off. That’s true. Or the best part is they tell you great things. And then you get to tell everyone this is a quote, you know, right from the customer. That brings a lot of joy to the team.

Karan Rhodes  28:06

I bet it does. I bet it does. So how does Tracy take care of Tracy? What do you do to decompress or get refocus? Or take some me time? What do you do?

Tracy Gregorio  28:20

Well, I love going to the gym, I go every Monday, Wednesday, go at 6am used to go Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but I mean, 25 years straight, I mean, going to the same place.

Karan Rhodes  28:31

Wow, they’re loving you, I’m sure.

Tracy Gregorio  28:38

Love it, I like to run and do that my husband, I like to travel, I like to always have something to look forward to

Karan Rhodes  28:45

Me to! Yes!

Tracy Gregorio  28:47

Okay, whether it’s you know, visiting my daughter, you know, or a trip that we’re planning. So always got to have that. And that that motivates me, you know, to really to really do that, but a lot of family. So just enjoy being around family and friends.

Karan Rhodes  29:07

Love that. Thank you for sharing them. Well, before we let you out of here, Tracy, I’m just curious, do you have any other thoughts or any advice that you would love to share with other aspiring leaders? Any kind of tips that you’ve learned along the way?

Tracy Gregorio  29:27

Okay, yeah, I think you know, your own house has to be in order to help other people and to lead them and that’s something I’ve learned. So it’s kind of like the US, you know, our, you know, economy and budget and we’re in debt, you know, but we want to be a leader and help other countries. So we need to get our heads self straight. So I’ve learned that and you have to read, read read. Yeah, especially in technology, but I like reading about leadership, keeping up with tech. And, you know, continuing to Push yourself, I think would be the best, the best advice.

Karan Rhodes  30:03

Love that. I love that. And can you give just a quick word of encouragement for anyone who’s thinking about going into STEM fields or even cybersecurity? That might be one click down too much for some, but just in the STEM fields, can you give just a quick note of encouragement for those who are considering that, but it is, there’s some great opportunities in the STEM areas.

Tracy Gregorio  30:30

Right. I think the biggest thing is it’s so many verticals. And that’s, you know, you can be in healthcare, you can be in television, entertainment, you can work for, you know, Department of Defense, you know, all those STEM fields are needed math, science, technology, engineering, you know, that’s what runs this country and made us great. Yes. So all that know how, and I think people would be surprised how enjoyable of this. And if you get an industry and you don’t, you know, maybe it’s not for you, there’s something else, you can switch to another one, you can go work for a global company, you know, traveling, so I think it opens up a lot of opportunities, you know, for people, and then every company has to deal with cyber. Yeah. So I guess the biggest thing is just the variety is there, you know, if you want to move to a different city, or like I said, switch industries, you know, wide open for you

Karan Rhodes  31:31

Wide open. Thank you for that. And to in my experience, pretty well paying too, so, you can pay the light bill very well with being in the STEM areas as well. All right, well, we’ll have more information about where to find you in our show notes. But would you mind sharing with everyone how to find d two apps?

Tracy Gregorio  31:56

Okay, so our website is G2-Ops.com. And then we’re also very active on LinkedIn. So as well as myself just Tracy Gregorio, so you can find us. LinkedIn is the preferred place.

Karan Rhodes  32:12

Alright, listeners, well, no matter if you are in corporate America, you can send a quick note to your IT group and connect them to G, Tracy, and G to us. Or if you own your business, you can still reach out to them as well. And they can help you think through cybersecurity and create a strategic plan and give you steps on how you can get to where you really want to be in order to protect you your business and your data. Because it’s really going to help you increase, probably your clients will load as well, because there’ll be very impressed with you having those in place. So thank you so much, Tracy for the gift of your time today.

Tracy Gregorio  32:53

You’re welcome. Glad to be here.

Karan Rhodes  32:56

Thank you. And thank you listeners. Once again for tuning in into another episode, you know that I only asked one thing of you all, that’s to like and subscribe to the podcast, and to share with just one friend because once you do that helps us to expand our reach, and to help others to lead at the top of their game. Thanks so much and see you next week. I hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Tracy Gregorio, CEO of G2 Ops. Links to her bio, her entry into our leadership playbook, and additional resources can be found in the show notes both on your favorite podcast platform of choice and on the web at https://leadyourgamepodcast.com. And now for Karan’s take on today’s topic is cybersecurity. Now while I’m no cybersecurity expert, I am an expert in strategic consulting and do and know a ton about the questions that you should ask when considering any type of vendor or consulting platform. So the following questions that I’m going to give to you are ones that every employee, professional or business leader should ask to ensure the technology platforms that they use every day, have top levels cybersecurity protection. Now this first question is want to ask your leadership team or your divisional team. So you should ask yourselves have we had our IT department or a cybersecurity consultant audit our systems to ensure that our platforms are as secure as possible, both as an independent technology platform themselves and as integrated platforms with the other systems that we use as they communicate with each other? I know that’s a mouthful, but that’s where you should start and because that will guide you on the next steps to mitigate any risk and these next questions that I’m going to share with you are going to be helpful When screening a cybersecurity or technology consult, now you should ask them. One. What is your method for conducting a comprehensive cybersecurity risk assessment? And how do you tailor your approach to the specific needs and risks of our organization? Also ask them, How does your firm handle cybersecurity incidents? And what is your incident response plan? Also asked, Can you provide examples of past incidents that you have helped clients mitigate? Another question could be, how do you ensure that your team stays up to date with the latest cybersecurity threats and technologies because they change a nanosecond? Another question? How familiar are you all with relevant industry regulations and compliance standards? Like for instance, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO to 7001? And then also ask them? How do you assist clients in maintaining compliance with these standards? The next question, what kind of reporting can we expect? And how often will we receive updates on our cybersecurity posture? And who will help us mitigate those updates? And then lastly, do you provide cybersecurity awareness training for employees and staff? And if so, what does that entail? Now, these questions will just jumpstart your thinking. And I’m sure you can come up with many, many others, which are specific to your work environment. But think of how you will be able to differentiate yourself as a leader by just getting the conversation started. So thank you so much for tuning into this podcast episode and being a member of our podcast family. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share the podcast with just one brand. Because performing this one selfless act will empower you to help others to also lead at the top of their game. Thanks so much for listening and see you next week. And that’s our show for today. Thank you for listening to the lead at the top of your game podcast, where we help you lead your seat at any employer, business, or industry in which you choose to play. You can check out the show notes, additional episodes, and bonus resources, and also submit guest recommendations on our website at leadyourgamepodcast.com. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn by searching for the name Karan Rhodes with Karan being spelled K a r a n. And if you like the show, the greatest gift you can give would be to subscribe and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice. This podcast has been a production of Shockingly Different Leadership, a global consultancy which helps organizations execute their people, talent development, and organizational effectiveness initiatives on an on-demand, project, or contract basis. Huge thanks to our production and editing team for a job well done. Goodbye for now.