 Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studios, another episode of Security Matters Hawaii. Thanks for joining us today. Today we're going to be talking a little bit about some of the work C is doing with the Women in Security Forum. We're going to talk a little bit about CIRAS, which is a program that C is, the Security Industry Association. And they're also promoting youth, a younger workforce for our industry. And we've got Christina Aprica with us today from Condor Tech. Christina, thanks so much for joining me in the studio. Hey. Hi. Thank you for having me. Right on. Good for good. Thanks for showing up. I know we talked before a little bit about CIRAS. And they had an event this year called Accelerize, which was dedicated to the CIRAS movement. I guess I'll call it our program. I guess it is from a CIA perspective. I remember when they were just starting with CIRAS. It seems like three or four years ago, maybe, and we would have some smaller events at some of the trade shows. But now it's a full-blown program run by CIA. So how's that going? It's going really well. Our first year was amazing. I think it was about 80 attendees. And that was about as many tickets as we sold. So it's even better when what you sold ticket-wise is who shows up, because sometimes there can be a disparity between those two numbers. So we were really excited about the turnout. And we're really excited about planning next year. But from the feedback that we got from everybody, it was definitely a unique event and something that filled a gap that a lot of people were feeling in the industry. Yeah. Was there much discussion for getting some mentorship going? Or are you guys tired of hearing from all the old bald guys like me, and you want to recreate this industry? I know you're going to make it better, but what value can we bring, I guess, to help out, maybe? I think bald guys have a lot of wisdom. But as far as what we did for the conference, we did put together a mentorship menu. And it was kind of like a diner feel style that Katie from CIA put together. And so we just reached out to some of the leaders and asked if they would be willing to be on the menu. And so attendees have all their contact information and know what exactly their experts in. So if they wanted to pursue that relationship, that they could. And then we kind of gave some general do's and don'ts. It's not necessarily a formalized program, but we definitely wanted to open the doors for people if they wanted to start a mentorship relationship. Yeah, and to open up to some industry expertise that someone may have that you can share from. Have you been able to take advantage of some of that yourself? What's been your, have you had some subsequent engagement since the event? I've had a lot of engagement with people just connecting with them over LinkedIn. Particularly like, I'm connected with like Eddie Reynolds, which I know that you're very familiar with her. Awesome. On LinkedIn, so you know, if I have a question, I could message her or I also have Cameron from Sound Secure on my LinkedIn. And so he's constantly messaging me, just kind of encouraging me, giving me tips about what to do next in my career. Awesome. So that's been a lot of fun. I don't necessarily have a formal relationship, but it's more friendships. And then if I ask them a question, then they're more than willing to share. That's awesome. And speaking of your career, I completely didn't let you introduce yourself. I'm so sorry. Let's back up and maybe just give our audience a, you know, as much as you want to share, I know in this day and age, everybody's, there's privacy concerns and many things, but as much as you want to share, maybe sort of, you know, how you sort of got engaged with the industry, how you kind of ended up where you are today with Condor Tech. Yeah. So that's a funny story that I like to share. So my husband and I, we wanted to move into the Nova area a few years ago. I grew up in Virginia Beach and it's a great place, but it was just kind of small town and we wanted more opportunity. So he transferred jobs and he was good to go. And I had to completely switch industries. I actually have a special education background. And so I was just literally on like Craigslist looking for, okay, if I can get into an office, you know, I can climb from there. Let me just get a job. And so I answered to Craigslist ad for Condor Tech. I think at the time it was a front desk position. I came up, interviewed, they hired me. And then after that, I started working for them for about a year and then they moved me from the front desk to take care of all of their marketing needs. Wow. So it's been there in total for about three years now. I think three years in August. So it's been a lot of fun. And the family, so we're private owned, minority owned, family owned company. And so the family are mostly the executives. And so it's been really fun just getting to know them on a personal level and professionally. But I had no background in the physical security industry at all. And so this has basically been a three year crash course and it's been a lot of fun. Wow, what a lot to learn. Did your past, your education and the experience that you have with Special Ed, did it help bring a messaging perspective to the industry that maybe wasn't there before? I think it helped me adjust quicker. I've always been a fast learner. And so especially in the special education realm where you have to usually take curriculum and then adapt it so your student understands. Okay. That really has helped my communication skills. So even when it comes to, sometimes it can be intimidating for young professionals to communicate with executives or with vendors or a contracting officer. These were all very new relationships to me. But because I was used to taking something complicated and communicating it in a simple way, I just kind of transferred those skills. That's awesome. So and is this the official, we're calling it young professionals, is that the actual moniker I'm supposed to use? I think that's the term, yeah. We're not, don't use millennials. We don't like that. Yeah, I understood, understood. And no one wants to be labeled young professionals. I love that anyway. So you started just like admin support, I guess for counter-tech. And then to move into marketing, did they have a full-blown marketing program that you sort of took over? Did you, were you able to sort of build it on your own? A lot of it actually has just been build my own. We are a small outfit. We run a tight shift with about somewhere between 20 and 25 employees. And so there was always the idea that they wanted to have a marketing strategy but when everybody's also selling and also project managing and also helping with accounting, sometimes things get lost in the sauce. It was good for me to be able to be a dedicated person. So I am the person responsible for all of the postings and all of the content creation. And so when they have ideas, a lot of those can now come to birth because there's somebody to carry the idea through. Yeah, to do the messaging for the industry. And Condor Tech's primarily, I've known them from the federal space. What do you, what's your take on trying to market to the Fed? I mean, I find it difficult for us. We do a lot of that type of business as well. What's your feeling on how that gets done, I guess, is let me ask you that question. You know, at least from an initial, you know, walking in the door and having to go market to maybe a contracting officer or maybe a command or just to spread the messaging about the kind of services that you offer. Yeah, actually that was a really big adjustment because I used to social media marketing you know, being able to call somebody up and be like, hey, let's do lunch. Let me show you what it got going on. And you can't really do that with contracting officers. There's a lot of rules and you're not supposed to bribe them and you know, I don't really want to be actually marketed to. Right, right. So it was a lot to learn. But what I have found mostly is that our work speaks for us. And so when we've been on proposals and you know, part of my strategy also is helping with that proposal process is making sure that our proposals are very easily written. They're very clear on what we're offering. You know, I do a lot of the ghost writing and editing from that perspective. Because the contracting officers are looking at that more closely. They want to see the start. They want to see the past performance. And so as long as our guys are doing a good job, I feel like that always blows the reputation so they just start to trust us. It doesn't help to, you know, it does help to attend certain events and workshops. You know, like PIA does a Gov Summit every year. And that's a pretty good event to go to. So we just try to keep ourselves in front of them and then make sure our proposals are tight and that our work is done in a clean manner. And I have found that actually that can be the most powerful marketing strategy because they don't want a lot of fluff. They just want to know that they can trust you to do the job. Yeah, I have, there's a lot of weight on past performance, right? When you've done something and done a good job and it grades high, they're confident that when they put that money out there that they're gonna get what they contracted for. Usually they're doing it for a customer of their own. The contracting officer is kind of the middle man for our audience who may not know how that Gov works. Hey, you brought up a Cia Gov Summit and getting around people. We, it was several years I wasn't there and then I was there this year and I thought it was amazing the folks that showed up and participated in a lot of, you know, directors and assistant director level type of personnel from the different departments is, was that representative of kind of what happens in DC? There's so many meetings that I see online that are happening in DC like all the time and it's all these names of people I wish would come to Hawaii more often. But do you get out to other events and is that a common sort of a way to kind of get to know people in the DC area? Yeah, more so than even, I mean, I attended educational events before and like leadership conferences and stuff like that. But in this area, it seems like, you know, the magic word is, you know, summit or workshop. I mean, there's always some sort of networking, informational gathering going on. And of course, you know, you do have to be selective about who's event you attend and it usually depends on how big that organization is but it seems to be a very common thing to do. You know, they'll just hold the summit at a local hotel or they'll do it, you know, like the government like we got to go on Capitol Hill, which was really cool. Yeah. And so people just want to get together, get face to face, be able to talk kind of in a more casual manner. And then from there, it's just all about the follow up. So I have found that since I've been up here that I wanted to meet anybody or sort of relationship or figure out what was coming down the pipeline, you had to go be there in the room to shake a hand. Ah, and have they been fairly open afterwards? I mean, I know with all the the CMMC going on, you know, we've got all this cybersecurity maturity model certification coming at us next year for contracting in the Fedgov space. Those folks have been very out there, you know, much more so than I recall in years past. Do you get that feeling that they are available for you to speak with and kind of ask what problems that they have that you could solve? I do get that feeling mostly because I mean, we are a minority owned company and we're also small business. So with those kind of spurts, we have the ability to, you know, talk to the small business officer and even like actually just last week, I was at a DC government event called District Connect and there were, you know, including officers, diversity officers and their whole job, the whole reason they get paid is to help, you know, the small disadvantaged company get in front of these people and offer their services. So I feel like more and more that's becoming a priority for government at all levels. And I think maybe that's a reflection of what's just going on in our culture as a whole, you know, really promoting the minorities, really promoting women owned, women run, anything that kind of shows all of America, not just one side of America. So I see that kind of coming down the pipeline from like a legislative perspective too. So it's been a lot of fun just to start to see which doors those are. But to be honest, like my CEO, Jorge, he has been politically involved for many years and he's been involved with FIA and other organizations like, you know, with ACES and with the ESA. He's been involved for many years. So a lot of that too, I kind of just started to shadow him and see the relationships that he had made, the relationships that he continues to keep and started copying that sort of model because he's never afraid to introduce himself to anyone. Awesome. And has that been a fairly productive way for you to just sort of, is DC, I'm just guessing like Hawaii is, it's kind of who you know, you got to get to know people if you wouldn't really want to work with them and you know, talk with them. You can't just like cold call them, you know, they just don't answer those calls. You got to kind of get to know them first. I feel like you can do not a cold call, but you can just, you know, introduce yourself at an event. I've never necessarily loved the cold call only because it's still a little impersonal. Like you don't know if I'm really in fair fact or if I'm in the Philippines. You know, you don't really know, you know, who I represent or what my company looks like. But when you get to see somebody face to face, I always thought that there's just something extra that you can tell from that person, like whether they're real or not. And I just had, you know, we were walking around booths. I mean, everybody had set up booths, the different agencies for DC and I was walking around and I stuck up a conversation with the lady and she was just telling me some of their, you know, some of their security struggles. And she asked, you know, if that was something we could help with. And I said, absolutely, you know, I can follow up with you and she's like, well, we need to make sure you have this, or this, or this, or like, okay, well, you know, let's have an email conversation afterwards. So it's not like, you know, she went ahead and handed me a contract, but at least it was an open door. So if you give me an open door, that's all I need. That's awesome. I love the enthusiasm. Tell you what, we're right about mid-episode. So let's take a break, we'll pay some few bills and we'll be back in about one minute. Aloha, my name is Victoria and I'm a host at the Adventures in Small Business. This is a collaboration between US Small Business Administration, Hawaii District Office and its partners where we showcase the stories of local entrepreneurs and small businesses, talk about how to start a business, talk about great tips for small business owners. Please join us every Thursday, 11 a.m. at Think Tech, Hawaii. See you soon. Mahalo. Hello, I'm Mufi Hanuman. I want to tell you about a great show that appears on Think Tech, Hawaii. It's all about tourism. In fact, we call it Tourism 101, where we talk about the issues and challenges that faces our number one industry throughout the state. We'll have some interesting guests, very informative dialogue and allow you an opportunity to maybe learn a little bit more by why this industry is so important for our state. It's been great for us in the past. We need it today and especially going forward. That's Tourism 101 on Think Tech, Hawaii. Mahalo. Hey, Aloha. We are talking with Christina Preika from Condor Tech today. We were kicking around CERIZE, AccelerIZE. This is their young professionals program at the Security Industry Association started a few years ago. And by all reports, it's going very, very well. I was gonna shift the conversation just a little bit and get into another box that you fit in for a lesser word. And that's the Women in Security. SIA has the Women in Security Forum going, Christina. And that's been, I think, also a breath of fresh air for our industry that we've needed for a long time. Have you gotten to get around any of those folks or been engaged with that forum at all? I haven't been too involved with the Women in Security Forum only because I really wanna make sure that I can dedicate my time. So I've been really plugging into the RISE committee. But a lot of times, they blend initiatives and we have the same kind of goals. I was with someone who's been today and I saw the chairman of the forum got an award from SIA, which was very cool. Marie. She actually gave her some crew moves. Yeah. Awesome. So that was cool to see her highlighted. And I encourage people here at my office. I have a VP here, Fabiola Francisco. And so I always encourage her to go to the happy hour events with the Women in Forum. And the committee, so you're only supposed to serve on a committee for like two years. I don't know if that's every committee, but like the RISE committee, it's a two year tenure. So I've already kind of established that once I'm done serving RISE, that I'll just transfer over into the Women's Security. That's awesome. Are there other, I mean, I've worked for a woman-owned, small business, my wife, Christina. I'm not sure if you've met her. So we're just heavily involved in sort of the same program you talked about, SBA, woman-owned business, all that kind of stuff. And that's been a well-received program from the DoD consumer perspective of security anyway. Do you see in DC other parts of government or other industries that are around DC, do they have similar initiatives? Is there a woman's movement globally going on? I saw a post of, someone had all the magazines in some store they were in, women were on front of all of them, like Forbes and all of them in one month or something. So I thought it was kind of interesting. Seems like, you know, that there's a penetration in a lot of different industries, not just security for the growth of women. Yeah, I think that in security in general and around the world really, I think it's becoming a big thing where women want to make sure that they're heard, that they can show that they are able to lead, and there's just been a big movement to kind of put them in the spotlight. Back in April, I was at the WISIS conference, which is Women in Cybersecurity. And it really blew me away because there were, I mean, there were ladies who have been in the computer IT world since the 80s. And then there were college students, freshmen who I just heard that cybersecurity might be an industry they want to get into and like the whole gamut was there. And it was really cool to see everybody kind of encouraging each other and started to learn from each other and then addressing like just women specific issues. So I think that that's a very big movement right now. I don't know if it necessarily started, but it's the last election. But regardless of your political affiliation, the fact that there was a woman representing one of those main parties, that was a big deal because it had never happened before. And so I think that had just kind of set fire to we can be president, we can be CEO, we can be whatever we want to be, which sort of already kind of a known factor, but it's more fun to promote it and just make sure that everybody's on the same page. And I don't really think it necessarily pushes guys aside, but I think it opens up more opportunity for everybody to be more creative and tap into each other. I don't really think anybody is self-made, right? Even if there are women grabbing more of a spotlight, I think that just opens up the possibility for new ideas for innovation and for more collaboration. That's my perspective. Yeah, 100% agree with you and good shout out for the women in cybersecurity. I know Cia's also sponsoring them and I think we have another event in Denver in March, maybe next February or March of next year. So is that something that you'll also be able to pursue? I'd love to be able to pull some of their cyber expertise into our industry and maybe we get some physical security into their industry. Now there's some reasons where those two industries, where they come together, obviously around access control in particular, but what's your thing? Is that an area or an industry that you'll continue to look at and engage with? I definitely think so. I mean, one of the reasons why Convertex sent me last year was that very reason we had been talking to Don and the president of Cia, they're just talking about how these worlds are colliding pretty quickly between physical and cyber. So I was sent for, I guess more or less recon just to see where they talk about, what are they into and where do we fit? And I think that there's a lot of opportunity there to learn from each other because it's still very much a siloed thing, right? Either you have an IT background or you have a physical security background and you may or may not know the other side of the coin. And like you said, in access control, that can be a big thing, but also I've been reading a lot lately about this video surveillance. How that also can be a huge thing because if those are IP cameras and they're on your network, then that is the CIO's job and he has to make sure that those are secured and that you can't get into them remotely and where is that data being stored? There's a lot of questions that come up. So the WESA conference has some topics that started talking about it. I know that Cia's been pushing for the convergence with the cybersecurity events that they started last year. I think this year was their second time posting it, but I mean, eventually it's just gonna be security industry. There's not gonna really be a distinction because everything's connected to the internet. Yeah, good point. And that is definitely a big talking point for our industry. I think, from my perspective, we really didn't get out in front of the cybersecurity discussion very well as an industry and now you brought up privacy, right? We've got facial recognition being outlawed. So our technology sort of not even being trusted because we're not out in front of that privacy discussion. That's a big concern. So I'm glad that they sent you out there to look at that. I am gonna try to make it up there to the next event myself. There's been a lot of, I see they seem to be holding a lot of events like the WIS CYS group, like monthly, it seems like all around the country. So maybe they have more funding than we do. I don't know. How many people were at the event that you attended? Do you know? Gosh, I should probably look at that, but there was like, I won't say thousands, but there was a good like, I think 1500 girls there. Wow. It was one of the larger conferences that I've been to. And then in Denver, I was talking to one of the coordinators and she said that they were already in April, when I was at that event, looking towards next year, they were already expecting to grow from where they were. Like they already knew that they would have a certain amount of returning. And that they would probably break, you know, the 2000 mark. So I think it's growing at a rapid rate. And that might just be because cybersecurity in general is a booming industry. And, you know, you say the word and everybody gets excited. It's definitely always a trending topic. But I think they, but they do well, which SIA is also starting to do. And with the rice committee, we've been talking about doing this as well is that WISIS has been able to create that pipeline from high school all the way into your professional career. And so girls are attending as freshmen, learning, getting to meet people, networking, and then coming back while they're in college and then getting an internship and then coming back after they've gotten hired and then sharing their knowledge. And it turns into a positive cycle. And I think that we have a lot of opportunity to do the same thing. Because like I didn't know about physical security necessarily when I was in college. And I was thinking, you know, what do I want to be when I grow up? But it's such a fruitful industry. And there's so many different jobs within the industry that and it's growing. You know, it's not something that's going away. It's actually something that's becoming very mandatory. But you know, which can be a little bit of a sad state of affairs just because of all the things that have happened recently. But I mean, a growing industry is a growing industry. So when you have a tight job market, I feel like we should be putting ourselves out there more often. We were just talking about, you know, how can we engage more with local campuses? And you know, how can we do that same engagement to where we create that same sort of positive cycle? Yeah, I agree. I love, I really love your enthusiasm. And I love the youthful perspective. You're not, you're not yet jaded about 20 years of problems you couldn't solve. So I appreciate it. Because I am looking for the young professionals to really bring solutions that as an industry we haven't evolved in the last 30 years. So I really appreciate that. We've got a minute or so left. You want to give some closing remarks to our audience? Things you'd like to share, maybe some challenges you want to throw out to the industry? I would say just, you know, if you are in the industry that you should be involved in your trade association and you should go across the aisle and get involved with your local, you know, cyber security associations as well. You know, attend Black Hat or whatever you can. Because the more that you focus on the convergence and the more people that you meet, I always believe that your network will determine your network. So just go out there and meet people. Oh, I love that your network will determine your net worth. I love that idea. We'll take that one forward. I might have to, you might see me sharing that. I'll credit you for it on LinkedIn though. All right. We've been talking with Christina Preika today and I hope you enjoyed the episode folks. This is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. So a lot of what she was telling you is really valid. So get next to the cyber groups. There should be a lot of stuff happening in your cities at your libraries and things like that this month. Christina, thanks again so much. I want all you guys to stay safe out there and we'll see you next week. Aloha.