394. The People First Approach in Building a Strong Cyber Defense
Cybersecurity expert Greg Tomchik knows firsthand the importance of fostering trust within organizations. He believes that building a trust-centric culture is key to strengthening security measures. In this episode, Greg shares his transition from professional baseball to business, highlighting the impact of self-discovery and compassion on career growth and community engagement. Get ready for valuable cybersecurity leadership strategies and insights in this impactful episode hosted by Lesley Logan.
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In this episode you will learn about:
- Greg’s challenges transitioning from professional sports to business.
- How trust gaps can be a company's biggest vulnerability and blind spot.
- The 3 C’s of Trust: Compassion, Consistency, and Connection.
- How trusting your inner voice leads to wise decision-making.
- Why robust cybersecurity balances technology and people-focused processes.
- The power of compassionate questions in building better communities.
Episode References/Links:
Guest Bio:
Greg Tomchick is a 2015 ODU Graduate, former professional baseball player turned award-winning cybersecurity coach. He has worked with more than 250 world-renowned companies including American Airlines, Caterpillar, and Trinity Rail. He is regularly featured live on ABC, Fox News, and is an expert contributor to Inc. Magazine. After building multiple seven-figure companies for America’s most prestigious families, he is now the CEO of Valor Cybersecurity and host of The Connected Mindset Live Show. Greg helps industry leading executives and his community connect to the mindsets that enable them to protect what they value most, in life and in business.
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Episode Transcript:
Greg Tomchick 0:00
I say life's an inside job because we create things inside before we bring them out to the world. I mean, I did it with my business, I'm sure you've done it with all your companies is, it starts internally, sometimes it can be fueled by the outside. But if you don't believe or have trust in your vision, you know, nobody else will. And I think every entrepreneur, every business owner, everybody that's achieving anything great, that's where it all starts, whether we know it's happening or not.
Lesley Logan 0:27
Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.
Lesley Logan 1:09
Hi, Be It babe. Okay, I'm so excited for this. I was on the road and I got to do this interview, you're about to hear, in person. And in-person interviews are just interestingly, they're not better or worse, like they're, but they're different and it's really nice. And I found myself really intrigued by this whole entire interview because we all know that life is not linear. And it can be interesting when you meet someone, I have Greg Tomchick on, and he was MLB, like professional baseball player. And now he's in cybersecurity. And I'm like, I got it. How are the dots? How did we get here? And something that I think is really cool to hear is how much he asked questions during his time as a baseball player that allowed him to really lead him to what he's doing today. And so I'm really excited for you to hear from him and his story and what and don't let cybersecurity make you go, "What?" It's gonna be it till you see it in cybersecurity. There's so much here for you to learn. And he's such a cool person. And he also has an amazing podcast which he interviewed me on, The Connected Mindset. So if you are enjoying him on mine, I hope you go listen to the conversation we have over there because he asked me some incredible questions that no one has ever asked me before. So here is Greg Tomchick.
Lesley Logan 2:23
All right, Be It babe, I'm so excited. I have a really cool dude here for you guys. I got to meet him via Zoom and an amazing group of people. And I've found him very fascinating. I'm just gonna say I feel like I've learned a lot about you that I didn't know. But Greg Tomchick, you're here today with us. Can you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at?
Greg Tomchick 2:42
Yes, it's such a pleasure to be here with you, Lesley. I rock at helping people build trust. Through the years of my career, I've been able to help executives and companies build trust with the outside of their company. But oftentimes, they have a hard time building trust with themselves. And that's really what I've come to specialize in is helping them build trust from the inside out whether they're running a company, running a sports team, or running their their own personal lives.
Lesley Logan 3:08
Okay. That's, that's a very big thing to help people do. I feel like, I feel like a lot of our listeners could, they actually do struggle with trusting others. And they're not even necessarily big companies like you've worked with some incredible companies. Can we go back a little bit? Like, did you start out wanting to work in companies and helping them build trust? And when they asked what did you want to be when you grow up? I don't know that that was probably what you said. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Greg Tomchick 3:37
Yeah, I feel like I've lived multiple lifetimes. So I went from a kid who has military family and military has a lot of trust in the community, people looking to you as the warrior who's defending their community or country, ended up being a professional baseball player. And I wasn't able to excel in baseball until I was able to trust myself, which allowed other people to trust and put me into those difficult situations. So when I got out of baseball, I was trying to find my identity. And I looked back to my baseball career and said, "What made me unique in that specific environment?" And it was a lot of intentional trust-building. I would ask executives of the teams the right questions. I would try to go out of my way to build that connection with them in ways that other players didn't. Most of the time, players would just like in a lot of companies, we exclude ourselves from the executives and just kind of you know, they're overseeing us. I always tried to engage, show my compassion for what they were doing for the overall team, and be consistent with that. And that's what helped me build trust with them. And then eventually, they gave me the opportunity to play professionally and be able to put on top stages to perform and if I didn't have that trust with them, they never would have given me that opportunity. So when I was running my second company, which was a software development company, we had, some called a cyber attack, and at that time, I didn't know what a cyber attack or cybersecurity really was and I wanted to help other people who may go through that in the future, kind of solve that from or prevent that from taking place in their lives. And what I realized when I would go in as a cybersecurity expert to brief these, you know, boards of people who have done business for 50 years at the end of their career now running these Fortune companies, was they brought us in to build trust with their vendors, with their customers, with regulators. And I started to ask some questions that was important to me as an athlete, was, you know, what do you do in your daily life? What does your family look like? How do you want to intentionally map what I call the rhythm of existence to make sure that this company is successful from the inside out. And what I realized is a lot of these executives were such a cluster in their personal lives, that it brought it into their business. And a lot of that came from a void, and I consider that the void of them being able to trust themselves enough to be stern on the standards and values that they knew they needed to have, but didn't know how to carry that out. So I started to help a lot of these executives on a personal level develop the trust internally which, a lot of times, they, you know, a therapist or some type of talk therapy would get them there. But I matched it with the goal that they wanted as a rhythm for their business life and tried to find a way to integrate those two. And what I heard from executives was wow and I trust myself to be able to carry out and do what I need to do. And my company has really revamped and reshaped our ability to, you know, be successful, be fulfilled, and also be secure at the same time.
Lesley Logan 6:40
Okay. This is so fascinating because I'm sure, anyone heard like cyber attack, cybersecurity, they're like, okay, hold on, that's not, that's not anything that, I think we're all very clear we don't want any, anyone have access to any of our information online. And that's constantly something we, companies, are thinking about. I don't think that anyone probably thinks of it and also thinks like, who's making sure the people at the companies are taking care of themselves in a way that makes sure that down the line, we're all being protected? So how did you put those things together? Or is that the secret sauce?
Greg Tomchick 7:19
Yeah. No, no, no, it's something we share for free. It's out there on our blog, and different things that we post, but a lot of it was your security risk from either a digital or physical standpoint is based off of the vulnerabilities that you have. So vulnerability, we consider it as a gap. If you have all of these gaps, but you think you're secure, you're insecure by default. And those are the people that typically have these cyber attacks. And that's what I had in my company is I was so focused on technology development, that I had all of these gaps in my understanding of what it meant to be holistically secured. And so when I would go into these companies, I would just go into to ask them the right questions to find those vulnerabilities. And I found this, this void of trust was their biggest vulnerability because they didn't trust anybody, which gave them a lot of blind spots, that, you can't walk around and just not trust anybody when you're running a multi-million dollar, you know, even bigger company. It drives you crazy. It makes you miss a lot of things because you're so focused on so many different things. And it created a lot of clarity for executives, and I really saw a lot of them, like, let their guard down because they were now able to trust themselves enough to, you know, go tell a team or tell one person, hey, I'd love for you to fulfill this for the company and just trust that they're going to do it in the best way for that individual. And it's the same end result, but they were trying to micromanage so much. And you can only micromanage so many things. And it just creates a lot of catastrophe, a lot of lost money, a lot of lost people. And really, it threatened the whole culture. And when, as we know, the culture of a company, a culture of a community, a culture of a family, is really where everything either lives or dies.
Lesley Logan 7:19
Yeah, I know. And I've never thrived well in an environment where a boss micromanaged me. I can think back to the last actual job I had where I was an employee. And where I succeed the most is when I was given like, kind of free rein, they're like, here's what we're expecting of you, here's what your goals are, here's what to do. And I could do it in my way where there was a lot of trust from the people who are above me. And then there was a shift and there was changes, and then the President changed and the company and then all these, like, you got to fill out this document, gotta do this, you have to check this box, every day and I was like, you get to the point where you you don't feel like there's any trust in you. And that makes you, as the employee, not feel good or like you can thrive or you have ideas. And I think in our own lives, I think a lot of listeners can even look back into like, the times they've micromanage people in their lives or family, their partners or spouses, and it doesn't build trust. In fact, it does the opposite and it doesn't make you trust them anymore.
Greg Tomchick 10:04
Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's something I continue to learn about. But when I, when I initially had somebody give it back to me of, this process you took us through helped us build trust from the inside out, I really attached to that idea and concept and wanted to bring that out to the world and have been able to speak on international stages about it. And the end result, what I've found after like a small business meeting or at a conference is, everybody approaches people differently after they hear the topic. And they hear and can connect to it and hear the internal voice and what the internal voice is saying. One of the things I'm big on is, there's like this self-help personal development craze that's been going on for years. And I'm big on the self-discovery. So when I'm saying something to somebody, I want them to hear the internal voice of how that's resonating with them, to speak the voice into themselves. And they have to hear that as opposed to me giving them a step by step process to say, this is what you need to do to achieve your goal. And some people need that. But the best things happen when you have that self-discovery. And I've been able to find ways to get executives and get people in an audience to start to hear that voice and start to kind of trust the voice that they're hearing. And then they go out and connect with people in amazing ways.
Lesley Logan 11:24
Yeah, I think I love that you're like, because there is a lot of self-help and self-discoveries. It can happen through self-help, but mostly it is within. And we often look outward for other people to help us and that's when we can be more vulnerable if we're not sure of who we are. Let's go on to trust. Let's talk about that a little bit. How is trust built? And I have a similar sense, I feel like I have a hard time trusting people. And I feel for that I have to inherently trust, a lot of people I have to trust when I'm crossing the street that someone's going to stop because they're supposed to like I feel for people who have distrust or mistrust or no trust and people are like, how do we work on that?
Greg Tomchick 12:04
Yeah, it's a great question. And the journey to get there is a little bit different for everybody. I think at the core of trust with anybody is consistency. So you want to have that consistent engagement with someone that you're building trust with, you want to have compassion, so you want to have a, an approach to understand where they're coming from. And I think a lot of that comes down to your personal morals and values and standards, a lot of people say standards. But knowing what you want in the world is important to have the compassion for somebody else. And that compassion to me is, you know, asking questions that allow people to share what they believe about the world, what they want to see carried out, whether that's business or personal life. So you have, you know, you have the consistency that people need, if you see people that are inconsistent, you're not going to trust them. And if you if you have the compassion and you feel that they have the compassion, that builds a mutual trust with each other, that you're speaking your truth, or truths align. And that, you know, that's a multiplier for that trust-building process. One of the big things I talked about is connection. Connections, you know, it's considered in a number of ways, you know, technology connection, people connecting and having conversation. But I think connecting with people, how you enjoy connecting, some people like to have deep conversations, some people like to say, surface level. So when you're going out to build trust with people that you want to be around, to be able to have the clarity of how you like to connect to people. For me, I like to ask deep questions. So when I'm going out and public, and I'm not asking what do you do for a living? I'm like, what makes you feel alive? These questions that's, for some people, are big but I know when I am connecting with someone that really enjoys those questions that we're building trust from the start to be able to have future conversations like that. So I think, you know, it all goes back to those three C's for me. But I really think it takes all three to really build trust from an external standpoint, but also, I say, from the inside out, so you have to be consistent with yourself. You have to connect with yourself in ways like Pilates, you know, for me, I do a lot of yoga, I exercise. If I skip out on something that I told myself I was gonna do, then it starts to build a distrust in myself. So it's that consistency, connecting to myself in the ways that I enjoy, and being compassionate with myself like asking my internal voice, you know, what's important for me today, this week, what I want to accomplish, and sticking to that. And if I'm able to do that on a daily, weekly, quarterly, annual basis, then I trust that I'm going to carry out what I say I'm going to do. And if I can't trust myself, I can't build trust with other people. So I say from the inside out because it takes me doing those three things each day to be able to go out in my business and personal life and build trust with other people. And if I'm doing that from an authentic place, people are going to sense that. And I think that's what a lot of us are doing. And what I found myself, before I did this hard work, I was trying so hard to build trust with other people, and was distracting the trust that I didn't have in myself. And that's something I found through baseball, because if I didn't build that trust, I wouldn't have been able to get to that professional level on the field.
Lesley Logan 15:31
I was gonna ask a question about like, rebuilding trust after some, we've lost trust somewhere. And I do want to touch on that. But I want to highlight it sounds very clear to me and correct me if I'm wrong, you have to have trust within yourself. For my overachievers and my perfectionists listening, it's not about doing the three journal pages plus the run plus this and putting yourself in a position where you cannot achieve consistency in your daily life with the commitment you want to have with yourself, but picking things you can be consistent with so you can build trust within yourself. So then it's gonna be easier to trust others, but also for them, like to trust you, because people can sense a dissonance that's there, you know, we can fake it till we make it all the time, which is what not what this podcast is about. But to be it till you see it as actually to like, stand in the power. What does a person who trusts himself act like? What does a person who trusts himself and trust others do? How do they engage in conversation? It's going to require that inside work?
Greg Tomchick 16:25
Yeah, it's inside out. I say life's an inside job because we create things inside before we bring them out to the world. I mean, I did it with my business. I'm sure you've done it with all your companies is, it starts internally, sometimes it can be fueled by the outside, but if you don't believe or have trust in your vision, you know, nobody else will. And I think every entrepreneur, every business owner, everybody that's achieving anything great. That's where it all starts, whether we know it's happening or not.
Lesley Logan 16:53
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay. (Inaudible) a baseball because my family, if they're listening, would be really upset if we didn't. My grandfather's professional baseball player as well. He quit it to go be in World War Two. So like, it was like your country and baseball, right? It takes a lot to become a professional athlete, like there's just so few percentage of people. And then also, what I know about baseball is so few of them get into playing for the majors, you know, a lot of people end up being around the minors. I want to hear about that. And also like, the switching out of it, I imagine that's a big transition from who you were and what you say you do, you know? So can we talk a little about your story there?
Greg Tomchick 17:34
Yeah, like to say when I was getting out of baseball, I was going through three divorces at one time, and I'll kind of, I'll get to that story. But it was, it was a tough, it was a very tough transition. So I had an older brother that also played professional baseball. So it was kind of someone to look up to. I always say you need someone to look up to and someone to chase which, you know, chasing myself in 10 years, or something I'll never kind of get to, but I always had my older brother to pave a path and make the mistakes before I got there. That's like the middle child syndrome. And he was able to get into professional baseball three years before me. So I was able to see what enabled him to do that. He was a free agent. So we didn't get drafted. But I realized what the scouts were looking for to get in and from middle school to high school to college, he helped kind of paved that path and make some of the mistakes so that I could come in and make them more clear path. But it was, it was really about clarity on what I was good at. So I was a pitcher. So I was on the mound, throwing different pitches and, and trying to make sure that people didn't hit it too hard or hit it out of the ballpark. And I knew what I was really good at, you know, I threw the ball really hard. I sometimes didn't know where it was going. And what I would go to scouts and ask is what do I need to do this year to improve on your scoreboard or, you know, what are you measuring me on and a lot of them said composure and leadership. So it wasn't even a skill set thing. And we always focus on skill sets, as opposed to some of the intangibles, especially in athletics, because it's like, you need to throw hard, you need to be really fast, you need to hit the ball really hard. And when I actually got through the minor leagues, I would go to leadership and to, as I was building trust with them, you know, would ask, hey, where do you see me as a player? What do you like about what I bring to the team? And they always said your composure and your leadership and I was like well what about my skills like I'm throwing the ball 95 miles an hour, had a lot of movement on it like, it was, you know, I was in the upper tier of the pitchers that I was competing with. Some of them were younger than me but they always said you give the team an energy and an example to follow what it looks like to be a good player from the outside and you know, they were like, appearance is very important to us. You know the fans really attached to leaders and want to bring them into the community. So I really started to double down in those areas, I started to talk to the team, give speeches to the team talk about the different trials and tribulations that we've gone through in the season, how we persevered. And I, obviously, was still improving my skill set. But when you hear from the outside world, like, this is the role we need you to play, we need you to be the leader, we need you to be composed and show the other players that are younger than you what they should look like, even though their skill set is either just the same or a little bit better than yours. So I really doubled down in that area, which was important for my career to continue to move up. But eventually, you know, the skills needed to be there. It's like everybody's at the same level. And some of those intangibles, bring you to the next level. And I reached a level where, you know, they were basically like, hey, you're you're kind of aging out, which I was only, you know, 24, 25 at that time, but you're competing against 17 and 18 year olds.
Lesley Logan 17:34
Yeah. That's, I mean, every time I'm watching any sports, I'm like, oh, they're getting old for the next (inaudible), you know, like you think about those things. And so, people, I was a runner and people like, oh, would you let your kids play sports, if you're gonna have them? And I said, they'd be runners, you have a much longer career, less money, longer career. So that sucks. Because it's like, it's not like an injury took you out. It's not like we're playing worse. It's just kind of like you hit this wall that they no longer could work with. So you, you had to make a different decision. You had to change careers. What was that like to wake up and not train to pitch the next day? Because that's, you still go workout, but like, you're not actually training for that skill set anymore?
Greg Tomchick 21:39
Yeah, it's, it's a huge shock. I mean, that was my whole identity. Because the community, the team, my parents, at some point in time, looked at me as Greg, the baseball player. I had different things going on outside, which I consider like my plan B because I knew it wasn't gonna last forever. But the outside world and how they view you and how they talk to you is important for that internal voice. And if they weren't giving me that and saying, you know, what, when's your next game? You know, we love seeing you pitch last night. That was the way that I, my cup was filled up. So when I wasn't getting that, you know, had that drought period of, you know, what, who is Greg, what's his identity, you know, he's, he was considered the dumb jock in high school. So it's like, I'm not smart enough to get a job, to run a company to do anything important in the world of baseball is not there. And, you know, there was a lot of what I considered vulnerabilities at the time that I was trying to push away and try to find high-paying jobs and just do these activities that were just spinning the wheel. And until I got clear on what Greg could be based off of those things that people used to tell me—the composure, the leadership, how I could cultivate those in a way to bring those to the world of business, of technology, of personal discovery—that is really where that identity started to shift away from, you know, I was the baseball player, and I lived that life but I'm no longer that. And I had to come to grips with that, which was, you know, five to seven year process to get there. So.
Lesley Logan 23:12
I was gonna say, like, how long does take? Is it three months, six months? Seven years. That's, that's a long time. But it's like, thank you for sharing that because I think sometimes we go, especially on Thursday, when people hear the recap and Brad read your amazing bio, that's gonna be like, you were a baseball player and now you're doing this. And it's like, it's such a, it is a journey. And it's okay for it to be.
Greg Tomchick 23:33
Yeah, you have to, they used to always say in baseball, embrace the process, but we all want things immediate. But what I always went back to is, I didn't get to that point, based off of like, one performance, it took them seeing me six or seven times, and they were like, wow, this guy's composed. He's a leader amongst his team, leads by example. And, you know, by chance, he throws the ball pretty hard to get people out. But that was the secondary. And I see that a lot in businesses, we focus so much on skill sets and certifications. But you can be the most skilled individual, if you don't trust yourself, if you don't treat people the right way those skills are not as valuable.
Lesley Logan 24:14
Yeah, it's, thanks for bringing that back up because I always tell a lot of people who are listening, we coach them on their business, and I'm like, you can hire, like, skill is easy to teach, to be honest, like some skills are gonna be harder than others, and some take longer to develop. But like, if the personality of the person isn't something you want to work with, doesn't align with your values, doesn't see the vision that you have, it really doesn't matter how good they are at it. I work with a lot of studios who like but they're my best teacher, and I'm like, they're stealing from you. They're not following the policies or not doing the things like I don't care how good they are, you know, and I recently hired an amazing woman and she's never been an executive assistant before but she, I looked at her resume and I was like, look, I've got all these jobs like you if you've been if you've worked in retail, and you've been assistant manager and a manager you can handle a budget and a schedule and customer service like, you're gonna figure out the skills you need to be my assistant. But the fact that you can hold on to multiple ideas at one time is what I need, like, I need that. And I said to her, I'm hiring you because I like who you are. And I trust you. And I think that you're the person I want to talk to, in my business, every single day. So you'll go learn these things and this is what I'm hiring for. And I think that is something people misunderstand. And they get so focused on learning the skill, and they don't know why they're not being chosen over someone else. And it's, a lot of it is trust, but a lot of it is that those qualities that are unique that someone's looking for.
Greg Tomchick 24:18
People don't put them on the resume. It's amazing. You have to get to know people in order to tease those out and I think companies don't do that, typically. They hire people on a resume and hope that they have these character traits that are needed to excel. And I think that's why there's so much turnover in today's world, because people are doing things very, they're trying to do things too quick.
Lesley Logan 25:57
Yeah, I agree with you. And I also think, like, I want to highlight something else you did I don't want anyone to miss. You asked people, what can I be doing better? What do you like about me? What are these things? I think a lot of us are waiting for that review every year to be told all these things. And it's like, you know, it can't, it's the same thing in your business, I have to ask our customers, why do you like us? What are we doing the best? What aren't we doing really well? What can we improve on? And, you know, it's asking the right people as well, because some people, they'll say what I'm like, well, I, I'm not trying to do that well, so that's okay. But, we, if we don't know what those things are, one, we can't put them on a resume, can't put them as a marketing tool, can't put it as a thing that can actually build the more, more trust and better relationships, then some of the vanity metrics that people put out there, we have the most classes, we have these things, and that's great. But a lot of people are picking stuff based off how it makes them feel.
Greg Tomchick 26:59
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we're like, on from one feeling to the next I call them feeling islands like you're going lily pad to lily pad have different feelings and that creates inconsistency with ourselves, as well as with others. So I think what you know what you're doing by asking those questions, it's showing compassion, you do it consistently. And then you know, also you're, you're finding ways to connect with people, people like to be asked how they feel about something. And if you can ask them, hey, how are you feeling about the service or the product we're delivering? Oftentimes, people are more than willing to share, once they feel, you know, you want to connect with them, you're compassionate by asking them a specific question and you're consistent with those, those are all those trust-building pillars that we, you know, help companies do from a security perspective, but it spans across the whole culture and the whole company.
Lesley Logan 27:48
Yeah. That's so cool. Okay. So, today, you're in cybersecurity. What is it? What is that?
Greg Tomchick 27:54
It's a good, it's a good question. So cyber is basically connected security. So that trust pillar is a part of a connected company, I think of, of connection as our ability to connect with the environment around us. And that's a lot of what my show The Connected Mindset Live is all about. You know, that includes technology, a lot of people think cybersecurity, they think technology. And most of cybersecurity is about the technologies. We use our phones, the applications, the computers. But a big part of cybersecurity that was not taken into account before we got into this industry and wanted to do something a little bit different was the people aspect and the processes that we all go through, I call it and I mentioned this earlier, kind of the rhythm of existence, but how the people in a company wake up, like what does their personal lives look like and not getting too deep into exactly what they're doing but how does that carry over into what they do for the company? A lot of times if our life's hectic, we bring hecticness to the company, it, you know, it'll make someone a little bit angry, and then it's a trickle effect. So how do you intentionally support your people to make sure the company has the right awareness and training of these different connected ways of securing the company? And it's not just technology, it's also making sure you have what I call kind of cross-culture trust and digital trust is a piece of that. But it's not the whole puzzle when it comes to cybersecurity. And that's what I saw by working with these large companies. They wanted something more people-focused and less technology-focused. I like to say, we're so connected today through technology that we're less connected than ever before because, you know, a text message, a DM, you know, going through social media, that is a false it's kind of a quick dopamine hit but there's nothing like going up to somebody in an office and like having that connection conversation and doing it consistently asking them questions about hey, how was your morning, you know, how did you, how are your kids doing, all of that stuff is what builds trust. And today, we think that we can do that through the phone and sometimes we can, sometimes it does work. But there's a very big shift going on in the cybersecurity field specifically, where people are starting to think about security less from the technology side, and all the cool, you know, password managers, configurations, all these different rules you can put on it, and thinking more about the person. And if that person has a bunch of vulnerabilities, somebody can walk right in the front door and take advantage of either a company or a person.
Lesley Logan 30:36
Oh, 100%, you can hire the wrong contractor. You know, my inbox is full of people trying to sell me on whatever they can do with my Facebook ads, or my Amazon this. And I'm like, I'm the worst. I usually just hit block, spam. Or sometimes I'm like, you don't even know what I do. It's clear from these ads. So you can just stop right now. But like, if you are in a vulnerable state, you are feeling like what you don't have enough things, you could hire the wrong person that could really come in, and you pay them to do it. That is so it's such an interesting way, definitely not what I thought cybersecurity was. So I think this is the most interesting cybersecurity conversation we'll ever have. What are you most excited about right now?
Greg Tomchick 31:21
Yeah, I think getting on more stages, like I love going to talk to people, it's something that fills my cup up. And it goes back to that, that leadership and that composure that is at the core of everything I do, whether it was athletics, leaving my family, or going out in the community and talking about things that I'm passionate about. I think just seeing each person that I interact with build better trust with themselves. Because I've went through that hard process of fighting that internal battle myself. So every person that gives me that point of feedback, and it's not why I do it for the feedback, but saying, I now feel more clear and more consistent in my personal and business life. That is what I'm extremely excited about just creating that multiple times over again, as I interact with different types of people, and go to more events where people walk away from the talk that I'm giving, and they better connect with the world around them with the people around them by doing simple things that are intentional, you know, connecting with people, you know, asking compassionate questions, and then being able to be consistent about how you're carrying yourself into the world. And I think that builds better trust, which builds better communities builds better companies. And I think, in my mind, it builds a better world, a world around us, that's a little bit more certain. Because as business owners, there's a lot of uncertainty. And if we have people around us that we trust, it's going to be a better business, a better world for us all to live in.
Lesley Logan 32:46
Yeah, I agree. I think like, one of the things that's most certain is how uncertain it's all gonna be. But you're right, if you're surrounded, I know for myself, like I just spent a couple days with my best friends in person we live, you know, three and a half thousand miles away from each other, we don't even always have time to get on the phone and, and things like that. But during your one-on-one, you do feel more connected. And then you do interact with other people, strangers differently, because you don't feel like you're alone, and you're in your own head with your own story of, that's not always great. So I also feel like I'm definitely going, I'm pretty solid on my morning routines, but sometimes let things slide and I can feel like oh, shouldn't do that, because it's not gonna help me stay trusting myself. So thank you for that. All right, we'll take a brief break, we're gonna find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you.
Lesley Logan 33:32
All right, where can people find you, follow you, work with you?
Greg Tomchick 33:35
Yeah, I'm very active on LinkedIn. Greg Tomchick. Instagram is one of our top platforms for video and things of that nature that we're putting out. Website is valor-cybersecurity.com. I have my own personal website, GregTomchick.com. We'd love to hear from people, you know, on the journey they're going through, maybe something that they're battling with, love to answer questions and engage with the community. A lot of the things we put out on Instagram videos is answering questions that we get commonly. So you know, one of my core pillars is connection, as I mentioned, multiple times. So definitely reach out, connect and ask me any questions you may have.
Lesley Logan 34:14
Yeah, it's one of our core pillars at our company, too. So it's probably why we ended up in several groups together. All right, you've given us a lot, but just in case people need more or a summed up or an action step that they can take after hearing this. What do you have for us—bold, executable, intrinsic, or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it?
Greg Tomchick 34:33
Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. I think for me, the hardest thing that I did that was bold was to set my own standards. And I basically, you know, took a piece of paper, wrote one to five and said, you know, what is the standard that I need to have to attract the right person? And you know, that was transparency. It was that compassion. So people that were inquisitive about, you know, what I was going through, and I basically just listed out all my standards and every time I meet somebody, I just go through those five of like, hey, here's your 'Greg is.' Is that someone you're interested in getting to know? So that was bold for me because I was a, you know, kind of a shy young kid. My parents were both military. So they never talked about emotions. So the fact that I'm able to help other people do this, but I do it myself, really just have five things that are really important to me, from a standard standpoint of what I know will build a good relationship with somebody like Greg, you know, I just basically state those out there. And I think when you're clear on that, you start to either weed people out that aren't good for you, or you attract the right people who are going to help improve you. I always say, I'm going out into the world with a ship that I built, I want people to enhance that ship, not tear down half of it and have to rebuild it later. So it's a good way to both connect with yourself to understand what you think's important. And that builds trust internally. And then to bring that to other people, and really be bold and state that as a prerequisite to having a relationship with you. It allows you to really, you know, in my opinion, live your best life and have the rhythm you need of fulfillment and some of the other words people say with success and things of that nature. But I'm really focused these days on, you know, building more joy, building what I think of as more fulfillment, and having those bold actions of just knowing my standards and really speaking them extremely clearly. I've been able to attract the people that I want around me and it's done really wonders for my life as a person.
Lesley Logan 36:39
I love that we've never had that. That's amazing. That's so great. Greg, you're awesome. This is wonderful. Thanks for being on the show. Guys, how are you going to use the tips in your life? We want you to tag the Be It Pod, tag Greg, let us know and share this with a friend who needs to hear it especially one who has been maybe not as trusting of others or feeling like a little bit lost, anyone you think could benefit from what Greg has shared with you today. Thank you so much. And until next time, Be It Till You See It.
Lesley Logan 37:07
That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day.
Lesley Logan 37:35
Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.
Brad Crowell 37:50
It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.
Lesley Logan 37:55
It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.
Brad Crowell 37:59
Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.
Lesley Logan 38:06
Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.
Brad Crowell 38:09
Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.
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