Overview
In this episode, I had a great opportunity to chat with an experienced corporate security leader who has worked in diverse organizations. Carlos Francisco has worked in Big Tech, law enforcement, spent 20 years with the Walt Disney Company, and he leads some very cool projects as a podcaster and author, supporting those transitioning from LE / government / etc to corporate security via his platform — The Corporate Security Translator.
Big Ideas from This Episode
- Make sure you’re LinkedIn is tidy’d up!
Because you will have recruiters reaching out to you about interesting opportunities. And check out the resources below for some resume and interview cheat sheets that can help you here. Side note: Over the course of Carlos’ career, he’s got several job opportunities just by LinkedIn recruiters reaching out to him. - Business skills are a necessity!
(i) You need to understand the business operations of your organization so that you can better “sell” security to the organizational leaders
(ii) There are many other skills such as working with profit & loss statements or other aspects of finance. - Be open to change!
The security industry is constantly changing: technology, processes, threats, business trends, and more. - Many police department nationwide will allow you to work as a reserve officer, which can be awesome experience for a corporate security practitioners, but also look great on their resume.
- When you work for large organizations such as the Walt Disney Company, you get a rare opportunity to get exposure to different aspects of security across the business.
- If you show up to your interview and you’re overly prepared (e.g. you have notes) — interviewers love this because it demonstrates how prepared and invested and serious you are.
- If you want to be a good leader in corporate security, you should never think of yourself — you should think about how you can help others.
- If you don’t ask, you don’t get!
Don’t be afraid to reach out to experienced practitioners around you and ask for mentorship or ask for advice on specific topics. Many experienced practitioners get excited by the opportunity to help young people.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
– So, You Want to Get into Corporate Security? by Carlos Francisco
– The Greatest Interview Cheat Sheet
– Resume Guide Sheet
Use CONTROL + F to search the transcript below if you want to learn more!
Transcript from this episode (#9)
*Note: this transcript was generated using automated software, and my not be a perfect transcription. But I hope you find it useful.
Travis 0:00 Carlos, I'm excited you're able to share your time with me today, you came up on my radar when I saw some of the work you were doing with the corporate security translator on LinkedIn. And I just really admire your passion for helping aspiring practitioners in our industry. So welcome to the show. Carlos 1:20 Thanks, Travis. Appreciate it. Man. This is an honor. It's an honor for me. So I'm really excited to be here. Hopefully, we'll be able to share a couple of nuggets here and there that's gonna allow some of the students or some of the listeners are so anybody that wants to, to listen to your awesome podcast and to get a little something out of it so they can grow and be amazing practitioners of our industry. So excited. Thanks, Travis. Thank you, I really appreciate it. And to get things kicked off today, could you share a little bit about your role today and some of the projects that you're working on just so people can understand where you're coming from? Carlos 1:20... Oh, well, do you mind if I start with where I'm where I come from? Is that okay? Yeah. All right. So I'll get there. So here's the interesting thing about me, I was born in this little country called Brazil. Who, moved here when I was 11 years of age, and my family moved to Jersey. And but I spent most of my time in the wonderful city, the magical city of Orlando, Florida, the land of Mickey Mouse. And, you know, we grew up extremely poor, and we had to work extremely hard to get to where we were. And the great thing is that my mom was like, dude, one, the man is not after you too, you have to work hard for everything you want in life, nobody's gonna give it to you for free, go get a champ. So that was always great. I was always our attitude. So from a very young age, I started my little career at the Walt Disney Company, and where I stayed at for 21 years. And my last role was a security manager for Disney's Hollywood Studios, which was really cool. Travis, because we had a park, we had studios recording stuff, audio recording stuff at the Disney Channel, radio channels. So there's a lot of fun stuff going on, at my park. From there, I got an invite, I'm gonna call it an invite. So here we go. Everybody listening, make sure your LinkedIn is tainted and tidied up, make sure your LinkedIn is ready to go, your resume is looking good, you have an awesome picture on there. Because you will get recruiters that will reach out to you. And this perfect instance, I got reached out by a recruiter for the Great America complex in California. And it was also the home of Super Bowl 50. So I was one of the security directors for Super Bowl 50, which was a blast. From there, I learned about the tech industry living in Silicon Valley. And I said, Hey, I gotta get into the state. You know, this is a lot of Mises stuff happened in tech. So I got in with the Amazon Web Services, which part of Amazon holding all the data of the world. And today, I have a regional leader with a little company called meta, also known as Facebook back in the past, same thing with data centers in North America. So I'm really, really excited again, Travis to be here. And that's kind of a little bit of my background. But there's obviously a lot of stuff in between Matt, and we can break down and talk about all all, you know, when it comes to projects and everything. So, exactly. Travis And I was curious to learn. So were there any early? Are there any early influences that kind of guided you toward looking at a security career? Carlos I'll tell you, man, I wasn't I wasn't the coolest, nicest young kid. You know. I think I shared this with you one time a word jersey was like seven of us in a two bedroom apartment, living in a community that was like 78% Spanish speaking. So it was it was a tough it was a tough hooded man. And but what have you know, that created a lot of character there and I had to learn English and I had to learn Spanish in order to grow up in there. So yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of great folks. There's a couple of police officers that really noticed that I was probably a decent boy, I just was hanging out with the wrong crowd. And they helped me kind of move away from that. And then I realized that I really liked doing the right things. So I started connecting myself with the folks that were doing the right things. And that's how it started. And then obviously, my mom was a huge influence single lady, you know, four kids, one adopted. And again, never allowing me to blame anyone else other than myself for everything that I've ever done. So that that was always something important to me. Well, my family as a whole, you know, we grew up very close together, my older brother, my sister. And he really pushed me along and supported me along the way. So I had great family members, and ultimately, some awesome mentors throughout my career that again, saw something in me. And and they kept on pushing me to do better now, I'll tell you, Travis, I think they saw something in me because I was probably the hardest working dude in a room or dudette in a room. I mean, I was willing to be the first one in last one out, like, just like any other job. When when the boss said, Hey, can you be here at five in the morning? Yes, sir. Can you be here at seven o'clock at night? Yes, sir. I'm there. Can you can you do this? Yeah. Can you do budgets? I'm like, oh, but budget. Really? Yes, sir. I will do my darndest, you know, that I came with by just what it's about, you know, the old Johnny on the spot. And I think a lot of people were able to see that. You know, and I always maintain a positive attitude. And I was always open to change, which is difficult for a lot of folks. So a lot of folks are not open to change, especially humans, which was something again, that my mom taught me, those are open to change in the future leaders of tomorrow, and my mom was right. And usually leaders will back those that back them on changes and processes in again. So maybe I've been blessed and very lucky my entire career, to be surrounded by folks that saw something in me. Travis 6:51 Yeah, it's always great to have people that are good influences, like you mentioned, being around people that are in law enforcement, or people just saying, hey, there's something special about this kid, he's worked. He's working extremely hard among everyone else. I think that's, that's a great observation. Carlos 7:07 But in the old day Travis, you have to create your own, I'm going to call a specialist, borrow your big time educators, I don't even know if that's a word or not. But look, you have to create something where people look at you and they go, that human being is different. And that could be a positive attitude all the time. You know, don't ever be the nagging person in an office or somehow, you know, because you bring down the culture, you bring it down to, you know, the what your leader is trying to do, or the company that you're working for trying to do. I think I was just again, very, very lucky to grew up in a family that was extremely positive through a lot of tough times. You know, and I just carried that everywhere I went, so I created my own my own office. And I own everything that I did, I knew that when I went to work, especially working for the Walt Disney Company for 21 years, like I did, I knew that if I was going to win, I had to be positive, because it's a positive company, I had to take care of my boss, I take care of my team, I take care of my guests, I had to take care of the company I had to, and I knew all those things growing up, but you have to make, you have to create a niche for yourself in a way you're going to be a little bit different. And I am quite different for the people today that are in the security kind of criminal justice industry. So I'm a little a little a little wacky, but that works for me. Right? You got to be yourself. Travis 8:30 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, outlook is such an important part. And especially being in security, where there's always an emergency, there's always some urgent need, there's always, you're always going to be you're going to be pushed outside of your comfort zone. So yeah, that's a great point about having the right philosophy. And Carlos 8:46 yeah, I think that's it too. It's funny that you say that Travis because like, you don't want your security leader or your emergency management leader or crisis management leader, whatever the case may be, you don't want them to be the one that are freaking out. Right. So I think that that's why it's worked for me because you come through different crises, different incidents, different issues, whatever the case may be, and different events and I always approached it with a positive attitude. Hey, we got this. Got this everyone. Hey, you over here. You over there you over there. Alright, let's move this. All right. Everybody's doing great. High fives, you know, and at the end, you know, I'm giving Huggies Travis, I'm not afraid of giving hugs, man is a good job, everybody in high five. You know, I think you want to follow those kinds of people in an emergency than the one that's freaking out and just screaming at people. So yeah, like I said, it's worked well for me. So Travis 9:39 of course, and you've had a really interesting career in that. You kind of started out on the law enforcement side and then moved into like working on the resort side and then corporate security. Could you share a little bit about what it was like transitioning from I think you were coming from the sheriff's and then on to Disney. Carlos 9:59 Yeah, it's it's is a weird it's a weird thing for me. And I started at a very young age with the Walt Disney Company, which I fell in love with, by the way. But I always had this dream of being a cop. I wanted to be a police officer. I always thought that was that was something that I should do. And it probably goes back to Officer one of them particularly Delvecchio and very New Jersey, actually leading me in getting me to think that way, you know, that I should look into law enforcement. So I always wanted to follow that dream. So yeah, I was already working for the Walt Disney Company as a security lead supervisor, and I said, you know, I'm gonna follow this dream. And I did, I went out and I did law enforcement for a couple of years, full time, which I enjoyed it. But something always pulled me back to the corporate world. I don't know if it's my style, or the way that I am. Which is interesting enough, while going to the police academy, I won like two very specific awards that are quite different from one another. I literally wanted to Community Service Award, which is great, I love the community and giving back all day, every day. And then I received the defensive tactics Award, which means that I have no problem going hands on and doing what I need to do to protect my my life and the life of others. So it was quite quite interesting. But when I realized that I really pulled to the community piece of things, and I really enjoyed that. So this he kind of pulled me back in. And, and ultimately, I stayed as a reservist, because you could still be a reservists police officer and still have a you know, your full time job. It's kind of like the military in a way. So a lot of cities will do that, which gives you an opportunity to learn and to grow. And by the way, people that are hiring today love to seek that kind of background in your in your resume. So that's, that's always good stuff. And again, has always worked for me, but within the Walt Disney Company, and one of the reasons why I love them so much, because I, the education I received there is unparalleled throughout the world, because when you're a security leader at the Walt Disney Company, every about 818 months or so 1618 months, they move you they move it from one line of business to the other, all within security. So Travis, I had an opportunity to work in resorts and hotels, which you have to learn different policies, different procedures, different laws that oversees hotel where people actually live. And then I got moved to water parks and the sports complex at the Walt Disney Sports Complex, 100,000 people a day, the water parks, two water parks are extremely busy. They have their own policies and procedures. And they're dealing with their own issues when it comes to law, which were quite interesting. You know, but I learned a tremendous amount there. And then slowly, you go into the communication center, where all of a sudden, now you're dealing with all of the dispatching all of the emergency management, all of the radios, radio controls, and everything else he can imagine. So you'll learn a little bit about that, right. And then if you're really cool, they'll throw you out to a park and they're like, Hey, this is your park now. Congratulations. So I had that awesome career that oversaw a lot of people don't know, this oversaw power plants, which is Department of Energy stuff, you know, oversaw everything from water plants, to a huge garbage disposal plant, which is probably the largest in the state of Florida, because of the amount of garbage that's produced. Travis, that education has really stuck with me till today, it has given me an opportunity, such an immense opportunity. And by the way, I always took those because I was always happy for change, right? It changes good. And I always want to learn, learn was good. And I knew that everything that I learned, it will do well for me in the future. So you got to be open minded. Travis 13:45 And one thing that really stands out to me, as you're talking about this, like you mentioned, having an award for defensive tactics on one hand, and community service on the other, but I think really, that's kind of the ideal person that you want in corporate security, you need someone who's going to be like the public face, who's going to be helpful to people who's going to be someone that is approachable for anyone in the organization. And I think a lot of those skills are easy to develop in, in places like Disneyland Resort, like, yeah, that it's getting that customer service type experience, super helpful. And I've seen it in roles where, like an executive protection manager is vetting resumes, and they're looking for things like, Oh, does this person have experience working on like, the retail side or hospitality? Because they know okay, this person is not going to, they're not going to think that they're going to be running and gunning around all day, they're actually going to be there helping people but also being that person who's, you know, looking for hostile surveillance or looking for fraudulent activity. So yeah, that was one thing that really stood out to me. Carlos 14:52 Wow, you kind of you kind of hit it. You hit it on a nail man, which is which is really cool. So I think in today's world Old people really want that customer service base, especially like in his corporate security industry, if you don't have that kind of white glove service, the soft skills that are necessary to make everyone happy, because everyone in the corporate world wants wants a little piece of you. And you have to make everybody happy. And communication and partnerships is a tremendous amount of work that you do in the corporate security world. Trust me, it's a lot less about bonds and bad guys than it is about every day cohesiveness right. And being able to work with partners that may not understand what you do at all, you know, some of them don't, you may have leaders, Travis that never been in the security world, and they're your boss. How do you translate that right? Coming back to the corporate security translator, you have to be able to always translate what we do. But you're right, that's the biggest education that I take from the Walt Disney Company, is the ability to be able to do everything that that company does, by the way, 43 square miles, it's almost the size of the city of San Francisco, you're able to do everything you do but with the the ultimate respect for people, right, the customer service part of it. So I think if you have that open mind is even executive protection, folks are looking for those soft skills, because ultimately, even the field of executive protection is very little about guns, guns, guns, guns, guns, it's actually a heck of a lot about customer service. So a lot of people are in the up world, you're gonna find the closest coffee shop for whoever you're doing up for. And you're going to find the fastest route to get there. And you're going to find the fastest route to I don't, you know, my wife hates, but I love Burger King and Taco Bell, right? A all of a sudden, if I'm you, I want to have some Taco Bell, your job is to I'm not going to tell you where to go. Your job is to learn about customer service, almost like preparing them in the morning, you know, to tell them exactly what the whole day is going to be like, executive assistant in a way. That's how a lot of these roles have changed. And it's no longer just guns, guns, guns, kicking down doors, it's a lot about the soft skills that are needed to have that human to human communication. I think that's the key. Yeah, Travis 17:10 yeah, definitely much more about customer service and just being able to solve problems on Carlos 17:16 the go. Yeah, absolutely. You gotta have a little bit of each man. Travis 17:19 Yeah. And we touched on this a little bit already. But I was curious. Are there any, like skill areas or competencies that you think make someone a better security professional for like someone in your role? Are there any skill areas that stand out to you, for people that are more successful than others? Carlos 17:39 Yeah, I think two things. And I mentioned it a couple of times, again, being open to change, because the corporate security world, it changes often. And whatever's going on in the world, is you have to change, deviate, move with it, and do whatever you need. Like you mentioned earlier, something happens, you know, you've got to be my mom used to say, I've gotta love my mom. Anyways, my mom used to say, Hey, you got to dance with the music is being played, you know, so if they're playing salsa, man, you better you better get in there, you fake it, at least, you know, to play rock and roll, man put your rock and roll fingers up. And you know, your little head, bang and man, but you got to play the piano so that the soft skills part that I told you is key. But most importantly, what I'm seeing today is is how educated you are when it comes to business. So I was also lucky, because I didn't know at the time, what I wanted to do in my AAA from the great Valencia College in Orlando, Florida happened to be in business. So I took a bunch of classes that I probably didn't need later on for my criminal justice degree. But it was great to learn about business micro macro, you know, all the stuff that you do. which bodes me well. Because now I can do budgets, and I understand what you know, the pro formas are and, and what's coming in and what's coming out and how important that is for what's the difference between a cap x and an OP x because I'm dealing with both of those, right? So understanding your business is key, but not just the business that you're leading Travis, the business of the company you're going to look to work for that is key, because if you understand their mission and their vision, you can translate that into your department, at the same time be able to speak to the finance folks when it comes to budgeting and everything else. You know, we're a cost to many companies, we make zero money for a lot of companies that we're in so we always have to fight for our budget and show that you know that we are a need to have not a you know, I wish kind of factor so, but business white glove service and being open to change if you have those three and you can showcase those three, I think you could do well in life, honestly, you know, so just something just happened in the state of Florida. Governor state of Florida. I know he's a little weird at times and he's now advertize depends on which way you go. But interestingly enough, he said, high school kids will no longer be able to get out of high school without an education in finance. So you will have to take a finance class. So let's be to see how important understanding business and budget, even in the corporate world is going to lead the way in the future. Yeah. Travis 20:20 Yeah. And that's, that's consistent with a lot of things that I've heard from others too. For example, asis held this course, successful security consulting, and I chatted with a few of the people who were there given the presentation. And I was like, hey, you know, if I pursue like, any kind of advanced degree or like, get, like, just better my education in general, like, what do you think I should be doing? They were like, hands down, get an MBA or get more like technical knowledge when it comes to how businesses operate. So I Carlos 20:53 definitely see that. Yeah, they work heavily, you know, p&l Profit and Loss sheets, right. So if you don't understand how to do that, you can be the best security operator in the world. And that's all you will be, you will never move up in leadership, because ultimately, it's all about, you know, the return on investment, right, the ROI on a lot of these companies. And so you have to understand business, there's no, there's no way around it. No way around it. Yeah, man. Travis 21:21 Yeah. And you mentioned a little bit about your job hunt. Last time, we chatted, could you share a little bit about what your job hunt was like, over the years, or maybe some some lessons learned? Carlos 21:34 Well, so there's a lot of things. And I talked about it, I'm just going to plug in one time, this little book here on my rights show, you want to get into corporate security. And I made a lot of mistakes on that focusing in the past of exactly what I loved. And you have to focus on what you love, in order to be able to put all your energy and your positive energy into it. So the world hears it and feels it and everybody around you can can understand your energy and where you're coming from. And then what happens is that a lot of times, you don't even have to put a resume anymore, when people start understanding who you are and your passion towards something to kind of just reach out to you one of them. That has worked for me perfectly. And I mentioned before it was LinkedIn, you know, I got a couple of jobs out of LinkedIn that I was never looking for, you know, they looked at it, they saw some of the stuff that I do on LinkedIn, you know, they knew a little bit about my background, and they're like, Hey, would you like to have a conversation about this. So I always say, the best resume is the one that you never have to send in the one that people just know. So if you can do that, but that takes a lot of work. And that's creating a lot of you know, relationships, which I've noticed that a lot of young people are shy of doing that. A lot of folks that come from the military of law enforcement, they're very shy at doing that at, you know, creating meaningful relationships, by the way, not just anything where we actually know people's families, and, you know, you create a good conversations every time you're with him. So those things. Now, my biggest problem was that I wasn't focused, I was applying for things that I shouldn't be applying for, because I thought I'd be I'd be able to do it. I also realized that I wasn't the answer for the company. You know, I was looking at a job description, Travis, and I would look at and I'm like, I can do that not, oh, I am the answer to that job description. Like, that is me, it's not, I think I can do that, or whatever it is. Now, I'm just wasting my time, right. And in the beginning, I didn't make specific resumes for specific jobs, I didn't know that I had like this one size fits all resume, I just thrown it out there. You know, but it wasn't specific. And now with all the analytics, they're attached to the the resume and the recruiting process, you might want to marry more of the words in your resume to the company's need, which is their job description. So there's a couple of them there. You know, and then I created sheets, if anybody wants to go on my LinkedIn, they're totally free. Their resume sheets. And they're also interview sheets that you can actually take notes as you're preparing to do an interview, you can take notes about the company tag lines, what you want to do what you want to talk about, and then you could put all the products that you ever worked with anything that you have in leadership, you can put it in, you can have it in front of you. And the beauty about interviews now, Travis, is that I don't have to be in front of somebody. They don't know what I have my little papers here on the side, right? Like, they don't know it's not It's the beauty about it. A lot of things, and I'll finish with this. Here's the opposite. I got a job one time with the huge company in San Francisco. Just the timing wasn't right. But actually I'm a little folder with a lot of notes, the same notes that I always take for interviews. And I asked the interviewer error, said look, I I took a heck of a lot of notes on on your company. Do you mind if I just have this open? So I can refer back to it? As we're having a conversation? They were like, what? Wow. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because people don't usually do that. Right? Well, I got the gig. And by the way, the gig was six figures, mid six figure. So even the mid six figure gigs, they understand that you're going to take notes that you're going to prepare, and you should prepare for an interview. I had a lot of stuff. Travis, you got to tell me to be quiet every once in a while I Travis 25:32 And I'll definitely be sure to link to some of the resources that you mentioned, as far as interview prep and some of those resources. So I'll definitely link to those. And yeah, and it's Carlos 25:44 my personal resume, too. And I and I literally, I've sent it out on Word to people, I usually, if anybody wants it, they can have it. I just say, Well, be careful, because you don't want to use my stuff, because you have to speak to it. You know, but I'll send people in a Word file, so they could change it and use a format for their own. You know, I don't care. Travis 26:03 Yeah, that's something I'll definitely share. And I like what you said about finding what you love, because it does kind of take some time over the course of your career to figure out, okay, what is it that's like, actually, the niche that I'm kind of passionate about. And, like, in my career to like, the thing that I've learned is that I just have like, a love of learning. So I need to constantly go find the next role, whether it's within the organization, whether it's outside the organization, a role where I know, I'm going to be pushed to continue learning and learning and learning. So it really is all about, you know, finding what you love. I like that. Carlos 26:38 Yeah, absolutely, man. And I mean, we talked about a bunch of other things, too, that are all connected to that. But being able to learn I mean, that is such a very specific data corporate kind of, especially corporate security world is you come in and really open minded, humble vulnerable in being able to learn and learn from people who have been there learn from their lower rank than you and above you into the sides and partners that don't even understand your business. My favorite thing is to interview partners, they don't know that he'd been interviewed, like, I literally just show up, and he's you know, they had this they have this problem. And I know exactly what the problem is. And I know I think how to fix it my way. But I'll ask a partner that's in in facilities. But yeah, I'm trying to figure out how I could do this better. What do you think? And I'll get somebody that has nothing to do with my business. And what happens, what happens there is that I get some good information. And we create a meaningful relationship. That's more than anything else. Right. Travis 27:38 So I like that. That's a great way of looking at it. Yeah, Carlos 27:41 they don't, I'm interviewing them. But I'm definitely gonna run. What else can I do better? You know? So, yeah, it works. It has definitely worked out for me in the long run, for sure, man. And, you know, you just have to be Adam, and you have to love what you do. You know, I was 31 Travis. Yeah, I'll share something real quick is 3130 31 right in the middle there. And I call that the year of enlightenment. For me. Honestly, it wasn't it. So if you got young students listening right now, you're gonna find your path, you're gonna find what you're passionate about, you're gonna, you know, some people take a little bit longer than others. But for me, it wasn't until I was about 31 that I finally started to click, you know, for my wife was a lot easier. She said, I was going to be a teacher. And I knew I was going to be a teacher. And you know, and she's been like a kindergarten through second grade teacher for 1112 years. For me it in, it didn't click man, you know, I was trying to hustle the world and trying to do this. And I finally realized, wow, this is what I love. corporate security. People is what I love. And how do I give back, you know, and I think about those things every day, I'm writing my second book right now. So you want to start a corporate security program. And the my why, which is the first chapter The why is really, I was just trying to figure out what else I can give to people. Because if you want to be a good leader in the corporate security world, you shall never think of yourself, you should always think about how you can help other folks. And if you honestly have that in your heart, and you can do it, you will find your why you're going to find your reasons. Your your of enlightenment is going to come a lot faster than mine at a younger age. And you'll be able to help a heck of a lot of people, you know that that are just all they want us to be heard. All they want is a little they don't even need the entire hand up. They just get the flow finger up, man. Come on, just, you know. And that's, that's what it's about. So stop thinking about yourself. Think about others and the people around you, and usually falls in place, but you have to love what you do. Yeah, that's Travis 29:47 excellent advice. And it doesn't matter whether you're someone who's just an individual contributor, or you're the manager for an entire team. putting other people first will help in every single context. Carlos 29:59 Perhaps To throw another one out there, find a mentor. And what I mean, find a mentor, it's like to not be afraid if you actually have a leader that you'd like. And if you could spend another 10 minutes just hanging out with him, just to shoot, shoot or whatever, you know, with that your mentor, see, you know, but you got to ask him, you got to say, hey, look, I love hanging out with you. I love all the lessons that I'm learning from you all the time. Do you mind if you are my mentor, because you're important to me and in my life and in my career and what I want to do, and you're gonna find very little people that will ever say no good thing about mentors, is that trust me, they will open a lot of doors for you, including guys like you, Travis, uh, you know, look, you know, Carlos, right? So, if you got a student or somebody or somebody to listen to podcast and says, Hey, do you know somebody over there, you know, that big social media company and this guy, I gotta go, because you're connected to everybody, right? So let your teachers be your mentors. Let the people you work with be your mentors. Don't be afraid to ask, don't be afraid to do those things. If you don't ask you don't get, you know, like, you gotta get out of your shell. You know? Travis 31:07 Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I think a lot of young people like maybe it seems counterintuitive, but so many people who are out there who have 1020 years of experience, they all want to help other people. Like when you reach out to them, they, they get excited to help younger people. And like I was talking to someone recently, and she, she's a she's a security professional with a ton of experience. And she works as like an adjunct professor, Professor on the side. And she said, having the ability to work with more younger students kind of inspire inspires her and kind of like rekindles, like her interest in security. So I think definitely reach out to all those people. Carlos 31:48 I agree, I think it's in our hearts. You know, if you work in this industry, the reason why you probably became a cop or, or a fireman or a military or whatever is because you wanted to help others. It wasn't really about yourself or beginning. So you're gonna find a lot of folks in this industry that are more of that way more about given to others than about themselves. So it's key, you know, the future is bright and the future in the security industry has grown and it's going to be tremendous. My My goal is to really force people to think about the relationship between cybersecurity info security, and physical security, and combined, you've seen a lot of CISOs out there chief information security officers that are taking on the roles of everything, physical security security systems and the InfoSec side and cyber side. Right. So there are some great certifications. I am a CPP, like you mentioned from asis. Right. There's also a CISSP certification, which is the cybersecurity so it'd be really awesome if the education world colleges, universities, everything else, as they're creating this criminal justice degrees with a certificate. You know, my was in security management. That was that was my certificate at the University of Central Florida. Criminal Justice agree with, with management, security manager, but it'd be really awesome if you can create a certificate out of your criminal justice degree that focuses on physical and cyber security, because I think they're really converging at a speed that is a lot faster to us. And that is to include things like the metaverse, right, where you're gonna have to think about a lot of different things all at once. The physicality of it, the cyber mental side of it, what's running through the wires. So I'd love to see your education going in that way. And if you are a student today that's thinking about the future. Cybersecurity is really a lot of fun. I'm not intelligent enough for that. But I would think about those things. So Travis 33:42 yeah, that's definitely something that all of us need to be more competent in. And there's one really good podcast that people could check out. It's called the format. It's about the future physical security. And one of the big topics they talk about a lot is the metaverse and relating that back to physical security. So I highly recommend people check that out as well. Carlos 34:03 We're gonna need a lot of super educated super intelligent folks, Travis, to tell us how do we do criminal justice in the metaverse if people think about that? And you're like, okay, okay, I can see that. We always said, you know, engineers make a heck of a lot of money here in Silicon Valley, because connecting you know, the ones and zeros and making a lot of things happen. But in I believe in the security industry, connected to Criminal Justice, the future of policies, the future of procedures, the future of standards of security in the metaverse. If people can get into that in their minds right now, man, they're gonna be winning probably 10 years down the road. Travis 34:49 Yeah, that's gonna be a fascinating topic. And another thing I want to ask you about, could you share a little bit about your projects with the corporate security translator and some of the books that you've worked on? Carlos 35:00 Absolutely. That is my favorite. You know, I was I was bored. And my wife was like, Dude, you're never bored. But I was worth so yeah, so I wrote I wrote. So you want to get into corporate security. And it was a two fold thing. One of them. Travis was to help the folks that were transitioning into corporate security from the military, law enforcement, emergency services, the federal career folks, give them a easier, easier way to understand corporate security, because though, people believe they're apples to apples there. Now, they're quite dead around, but it's quite different. So I wrote that book. But the cool thing about chapters about you live in a 1010, on to the book is all an intro to corporate security, that talks about intrusion detection systems, camera systems, access control systems, policies, procedures, standards, everything that goes into building a corporate security program. So my publisher said, Okay, that's a good, that's a good entry now for you to write an entire book on building the corporate security program. So that's the second project that I'm working on. Now. In unassign, I have this thing called corporate security magic, and I take my 21 years with the Walt Disney Company. And I and I, by the way, I should take out the word security because I've done the Speak, speak well, I've been able to speak at different places that have nothing to do with security because of it. But it talks about leadership in the model of the Walt Disney Company, it talks about relationships, and Amal, The Walt Disney Company, it talks about how to lead folks in a way that, you know, makes sense to everyone. It talks about the relationships in between every line of business that surrounds you, and how you work together to create something magical. So I do a lot of that as well. And last but not least, I just started corporate security University, which we're recording a lot of classes, and the corporate security university really is to educate everyone that is interested in corporate security, to just get a sense either intro sense of corporate security, a in depth sense of what it is to do access control within a corporate security system. There are many other topics investigations, intelligence, loss prevention, or asset protection and some of the companies we're going to take encompass the entire industry, create a university with certificates and CPE points for ad fraud asis, and it's where everybody will come to get educated about. So everybody that's just starting out of college all the way to somebody that's transitioning out of the military, all the way to those folks that are first second third level managers, or even, you know, your chief security officers that are looking for a different idea or a different approach. That's going to be the home of everything corporate security, corporate security University. Travis 37:46 I love that idea. Because I've done so much research online, just kind of like surveying what courses are available online when it comes to security topics. And about 99 Out of every 100 Security courses or lessons that you'll find it's all cybersecurity related, where you will not find anything about intrusion detection systems about access control that visitor management about perimeter security. So I, I love that that's something that you're working on. Carlos 38:12 I agree because you know, people have to learn about fence line security. And people have to learn about lighting, right and do septet and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. Still use till today, you have to learn about those things. You know, do I need one lumens in the parking lot? Or do I need five? You know, or do I need 50 lumens in a back delivery area? Compare it why? Why is it that we need different WHAT THE HELL ARE lumens. I mean, there's a lot of things in the security industry that people have to learn, you know, and they're all quite different. So I'm excited about this ventures with a good friend of mine, Scott Walker, you guys could check them out. Also on LinkedIn, it's just one T Scott Walker, he does a lot of great stuff too for the community. So we're just trying to bring that back and continue to educate and teach and be involved and we you know, we speak at universities and we were just trying to create, I don't know a buzz or an excitement for corporate security because I'll tell you all those classes Travis that are like intro to criminal justice or actually careers in criminal justice usually one that I speak at the great University of Central Florida Go Knights which by the way, I'm on the advisory board down for for the criminal justice department so the biggest thing that I remember I tried to remind people was that corporate security is a viable option. The problem and by the way, it pays man it pays if anybody wants to know a little bit how much it pays is call me we'll have a private conversation I don't mind sharing I do it often but you know there's there's a there's we have a lot of lawyers write a criminal justice degree or, or Travis 39:49 it's like a political science degree poli. Carlos 39:51 Thank you, Poli Sci and then they'll get a lawyer degree and guess what? They come and work for puffer companies on policies. Coming to work for public companies as you know, working out of Washington DC are working. There's a lot of great opportunities in the corporate world. A lot of great opportunities people just people don't know about it. You know, Travis so yeah, man. Travis 40:14 Yeah. I love that you're working on those projects with the universities. I'm, I think that'd be great for the next generation who will be able to see like immediately all the opportunities, insecurity, because it's not just maybe like what they stereotypically consider security. Carlos 40:32 You know, I've been a while I've been called a bunch of things, you know, which, which has always been interesting to me because I always laugh at them, you know? So, I've been called a Mall Cop. forgot the name of the character on the window, Paul Blart Paul. Like, dude, you actually look like Paul Blart. Oh, thanks. I appreciate it. That Oh, somebody told me that yeah, today Travis probably. I don't know. You tell me but somebody's like you like Paul Blart like a beard. Like, okay, well, thanks. Anyways, man. I don't know, it's, I have so much passion to give back. It's hard to try to cover everything, Travis, but I would, you know, urge all your students listeners, anybody come and find me pretty open, I reply pretty, pretty well, myself, you know, sometimes it's my wife depends what kind of reply my wife does a good job. We read a coordinator every once in a while. I know a lot of people don't know, but but we're on it. We're on LinkedIn, often we're trying to be busy their reply and help as many people as possible to reach their year, you know, of enlightenment, and try to figure out what they're passionate about and how to approach. Travis 41:46 Thanks. Yeah, and I know we're up against time here. So this might have to be part one of like, a two part conversation, because I wrote down a number of notes that I'd like to dive into in the future. Carlos 41:57 Well, I have, I don't know, six more minutes, seven more minutes. You tell me? Is there something that is just a Kenya that you like? Can you get it down to next fine? Travis 42:06 Okay, here's one that I want to ask. So like, over the course of your career, were there any times where you encountered like, a failure or an apparent failure that later set you up for success? Like maybe it was something that happened early in your career, maybe it's something that happened later in your career that set you up for success. Carlos 42:27 One, I love failing to I love leaders that allow you to fail. And three, if you are a leader, you should always allow people to fail. Failing is great. Failing is good in life. Families good in your in your business world. Family world, it's okay to fail. Because, as you know, Travis, you get your best education, from when you fail, like when everything is you know, everything is hunky dory are happy. We use these hunky dory, back in the days everybody. You know, didn't didn't I don't think you'll learn so much. So is there plenty of failures there? Plenty of failures in my life, there's projects that I've tried to start, didn't work out for that culture, and I thought it would, and I failed miserably at it. There are opportunities that I've taken, believing that I could do it, you know, and I just I wasn't ready for I failed at that. But I learned so much about it. So if I would have gotten that job a year later, from what I just learned to pass share, I would have been awesome. So that, you know, most importantly, I have failed. Even even in relationships with mentors that I should have kept up with, I failed in relationships with prior professors that were amazing, that I should have kept up with. Obviously, you know, I failed even within my family, I mean, I'm involved so many different things, and how do you provide, you know, for your family, and at the same time, have this urge to continue to educate and be out there in the world. This is what makes me happy. So I found the relationship but what I what I have realized, like I said, is that failing is so perfect. ballin is perfect. If people could just understand that fountain is perfect. And we change our society to believe in that. You know, even us now I'm a father, I have almost a three year old and a seven month old. You know, my goal is to make sure that they understand that failing is perfect. It's okay. You know, in that's, that's my legacy. That's what I want to leave. So if you're out there and you're listening to this and you're a student, you know, learn from those failures become better at whatever it is that you fail that you know and just just bring that energy that never ending energy of positive positive nourishment and just keep keep on moving forward and marching on. You know, life's not easy. Travis 44:57 Yeah, I love that because yeah, I can think of failures of had an every single part of my career, including University, I'm sure I'll mess up things with this podcast. But yeah, it's really just all those things really stick in your mind and help you prepare for next time and just aspire to be better. So I really, I really love your outlook. Carlos 45:16 I can't tell you how many stories I've gotten out of failures, you know, that I share with people today. And you know, it's going back to being humble and vulnerable, if you can, if you can be that in life, humble and vulnerable. You know, and people see the human side of you that the robot within you, you know, you're not only going to be an awesome asset to any company, but there's a good chance you're going to be an outstanding leader. Travis 45:41 Yeah. And humility is something really important security. That's, that's a whole top Oh, Carlos 45:47 never lie. By the way. Integrity is key to Travis, you don't want to do that. It's a very small industry still. And we all know, everybody. So just have integrity. Be honest. Be honest, that your faults once again, you know, if you don't know something, just say I don't know. You know, and that's the way there's plenty of people are going to help you. Travis 46:10 Yeah, those are all excellent points. And let's see. Well, I just want to thank you for your time today, Carlos, we covered a ton of really interesting topics you shared about your own projects, your own failures, kind of your really unique career path, working in Le than working for Disney now working for some of the big tech firms. So I've learned a ton of stuff just from this conversation, and I hope we could continue it in a part two in the future. So thanks a lot. Carlos 46:39 I will love it man. Throw me in coach put me in.
