I am your typical IT guy in a lot of ways. I received my Bachelor’s Degree from Boise State University in Computer Networking. Won a national SkillsUSA Competition for Internetworking, earned my CCNA and MCSA quickly thereafter, and then pursued my career in Networking. About 10 years into it, I focused on Wi-Fi as a niche. I have many industry certs to my name (CWNE #285, CCNP Wireless, CCNP R/S, CCNP Data Center, etc) and am successful in that career. I have worked on the customer side, in the consulting/VAR space, and on the vendor side. I enjoy playing video games, geeking out on home lab equipment, and many other common IT guy stereotypes.

Where I differ from that stereotype is that I have always loved talking to people and IT has never been my passion. I didn’t tear apart my family PC as a kid, and I can’t stand programming. I chose IT as a career because I heard computers were a cool and promising career, but didn’t really know much about them. I recall my first career goal was to be able to build my own PC. After 1 semester in school, and after building my first PC, I realized I needed to set my goal a little further out.

It was cool and interesting, but it never drove me. If I’m being honest, it took a long time for me to find my passion. My passion is connecting with people. I love teaching. I often spent hours in my consulting roles teaching customers how to use the products, and how the technology was built. I was an adjunct Wi-Fi instructor for a local community college for some time. Something about seeing people learn and grow really drove me. What I was missing to really feel that passionate motivation was the right topic. Which I have found in what I call emotional intelligence engineering.

Learning about emotional intelligence for me came the hard way. Meaning I had to go through some tough times and realize there was a healthy, and a not so healthy way, to deal with it. This included a faith crisis that ended my membership in a very conservative religion after 30 years. That resulted in marriage struggles and losing my built in community overnight. I’ve dealt with addiction. My father passed away 1 month into the COVID Pandemic and then of course came all of the other struggles with the Pandemic. All while working for a company that had just been acquired so my job outlook was not certain. In short, I became depressed and didn’t realize it. Looking back I can see this lasted for at least a couple years, if not longer. I thought I was handling everything just fine, but in reality I was constantly looking for an escape. Movies, video games, alcohol, etc. Anything to feel better.

Once I had the diagnosis from my therapist of depression, I was offered medication to assist. I opted to make some other changes in my life first to see if, and how much, that would help before going down the medication route. This included exercise, eating better, supplements, getting in nature, and really diving into my own self-awareness. One way I did that was in the form of mindfulness practices including meditation, breathwork, cold showers, journaling, and more. Within 60 days of being diagnosed with depression, my therapist cleared me!

I approached my emotions with an engineering mindset. I learned about them through books, podcasts, research papers, courses, and in-person. Learning what they were, how they worked, and why I felt them when I did. Basically running experiments with them to figure out why I responded to them in different ways and how to change that response. I then troubleshot them, and configured my internal and external environments to allow them to flow differently. I built a better network for my emotions! Which resulted in a more predictable, peaceful, and happier outcome. One in which both my family and boss both noticed and appreciated.

Through this experience I have found my passion. My desire to connect with people, my love of teaching, and a new passion of emotional intelligence. Let me share this with you!